ubuntu-advertising team mailing list archive

[Barry Drake <b.drake@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This may be of interest if you have not seen it.  I will be there on
22nd Feb along with Paula.  It would be good if someone could get to the
March meeting - I can't make it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Elkins <markelkinsmsc@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 2011/2/3
Subject: [Ossg-announcements] Adoption of Open Source across HM
Government – London 22/02/11 and 01/03/11
To: ossg-announcements@xxxxxxxxxxxx


Two events are being hosted by the Open Source Specialist Group (OSSG)
http://ossg.bcs.org that considers adoption of Open Source across HM
Government. These will be held at the BCS Central London Offices, First
Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA
(http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/london-office-guide.pdf)) on Tuesday 22nd
February 2011, and Tuesday 1st March 2011 both from 1800 to 2100.


These bookable events are free and open to all with buffet and
refreshments. To book a place to attend please contact Mark Elkins via
mark_elkins@xxxxxxx


A member of the Home Office IT Team is undertaking research in
conjunction with the Cabinet Office to:

(1) try and understand why Open Source is not represented better across
HMG and the wider public sector, and

(2) identify and address barriers to adoption of Open Source across HMG
and the wider public sector.


Context

1. The Coalition Government believes Open Source Software can deliver
significant short and long term cost savings across Government IT.

2. Typical benefits of Open Source include lower procurement prices, no
license costs, interoperability, easier integration and customisation,
compliance with open technology and data standards giving autonomy over
your own information and freedom from vendor lock in.

3. OSS is not currently widely used in Government IT, and the leading
systems integrators for Government Departments do not routinely consider
open source software for IT solution options, as required by existing
HMG ICT policy.

4. There are significant and wide ranging obstacles to Open Source in
Government. Some of these are lack of procurement guidance, resistance
from suppliers, concerns about license obligations and patent issues,
and a lack of understanding of open source maturity and its development
ecosystem.


Debates

The debates will focus on (1) understanding the barriers to wider
adoption of Open Source across HMG, and (2) potential solutions to these
barriers.

We will aim to have representatives from major IT suppliers to HMG to
help us understand the barriers from their perspective, and to help us
understand how well any proposed solutions might work. The debates
should be more a dialogue with the IT suppliers than amongst OSS
supporters.


Evening Debate 1 – Tuesday 22nd January

1. Supplier Challenge – how can we incentivize the traditional IT
suppliers to consider OSS when evaluation software options?

      * Suitable OSS is not currently being considered equally – why?
      * What are the disincentives for IT suppliers? In-house skills.
        New support relationships with OSS vendors and support
        companies. Any others?
      * If they do work with OSS, how can we be sure the cost benefits
        are passed onto customers?

2. Procurement – how can it be better?

      * What are the current obstacles? Do the existing contracts and
        frameworks discourage OSS – if so, how?

3. OSS Assessment Model – working with IT suppliers

      * IT suppliers aren’t very open with how they select software as
        candidates for evaluation – not sustainable when spending
        taxpayers money.
      * We can help make this more transparent by working with them to
        build an assessment model they can sign up to. What would
        suppliers like to include in this assessment ? I have started a
        model to de developed.
      * List of top software per category (virtualisation, monitoring,
        email, collaboration, etc) – needs to be maintained to be
        useful, but will get the ball rolling in current lack of
        knowledge.

4. Case Studies – evidence of short and long term value for money. Where
are these? Also proven examples of OSS use in high demand, volume or
availability applications.

5. Other Ideas – especially for the next debate.


Evening Debate 2 – Tuesday 1st March

1. Security. OSS is insecure compared to commercial software?

      * By what criteria can we select software to minimise security
        risks?
      * Does OSS need a different approach to patching?
      * Can we simply use empirical evidence when comparing OSS with
        closed software? Statistics for internet browsers are common –
        published vulnerabilities, known exploits, time to fix
      * Key question for HMG is – all things being equal, open code
        means vulnerabilities can be discovered and exploited before
        there is time to fix

2. Buy-not-Build. Can OSS actually benefit HMG because HMG doesn’t want
custom or re-engineered software?

      * HMG generally asks IT suppliers to build systems from COTS
        components and minimise customisation and re-engineering – it
        wasn’t want to maintain special code because of cost and risk.
        So does a significant benefit of OSS not apply to HMG?

3. Legal advice for OSS

      * OSS has some unique legal aspects compared with commercial
        software – where to get advice? Myths around legal obstacles and
        obligations are going unchallenged.
      * Patents and liability issues are often raised – resolved by
        major OSS suppliers who will shield customers?

4. Long Term Strategy

      * OSS won’t happen overnight.
      * Should we work backwards from insisting on open information
        formats for HMG interactions with the public and other sectors?
        This way the use of open standards compliant software filters
        back into HMG organisations.

5. Other Ideas

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-- 
Barry Drake is a member of the the Ubuntu Advertising team.
http://ubuntuadverts.org/