gmane.org.fsf.uk

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Glyn Wintle — 2012-05-17T12:08:20

More meetings on gov consultation on Open Standards

http://consultation.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openstandards/events/

Upcoming Events

Roundtable 5: Levelling the Playing Field in the North West

29 May 3.30pm-5.30pm – Manchester

An event focussed on SMEs to discuss:

    How would mandating open standards in government IT affect your organisation?
    If the government adopts open standards, will it make it easier or harder for you to do business with us – does it help level the playing field?
    Do you have any examples of times when the lack of open standards has acted as a barrier to you doing business with us?
    What might adopting open standards prevent?

http://bitly.com/roundtable5

 

Roundtable 6: Competition and European Interaction

31 May 1.45pm-4.30pm – London (and via phone)

This event will be a face-to-face meeting but will also have teleconference facilities available for those unable to join us in person. Topics for discussion include:

    Are there any legal or procurement barriers to mandating specific open standards in the UK Government’s IT?
    Is the proposed UK policy compatible with European policies, directives and regulations (existing or planned) such as the European Interoperability Framework version 2.0 and the reform proposal for European Standardisation?
    Will the open standards policy be beneficial or detrimental for innovation and competition in the UK and Europe?

http://bitly.com/roundtable6

 

Roundtable 7: Open Opportunities with Community and Voluntary Services

1 June 4pm-5.30pm – via telephone conference

This will be a teleconference only event. Topics for discussion include:

    How would mandating open standards for government IT affect you?
    If the government adopts open standards, will it make it easier or harder for you to work with us?
    Do you have any examples of times when government IT systems have acted as a barrier to you working with us?
    What might adopting the proposed open standards policy prevent?

http://bitly.com/roundtable7
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Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Sam Tuke — 2012-05-14T11:47:15

Indeed - I'm curious to know more about that conflict of interest, like who 
knew about it before it was made public, and who forced that disclosure.

Best,

Sam.

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Ross Gardler — 2012-04-26T23:56:19

UK Government open standards consultation deadline extended 1 month
due to conflict of interest row http://t.co/tNuLKNvs

Original Tweet
April 26, 2012 at 10:56PM

On 27 April 2012 00:18, Sam Tuke <samtuke< at >fsfe.org> wrote:

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Sam Tuke — 2012-04-26T23:18:36

Indeed - the deadline may actually be the 1st; earlier this week the
official website stated both dates.

Plenty of information about the consultation, the key issues, and how to
respond here:

http://fsfe.org/uk/

Also a guide to the most important questions to answer here:

http://fsfe.org/projects/os/uk-standards-consultation.en.html

Thanks,

Sam.

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Glyn Wintle — 2012-04-26T14:09:07


Just a reminder consultationcloses on 3 May 2012, the response must be sent in by then.

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Sam Tuke — 2012-04-16T18:11:24

Ordinary Free Software supporters can join the Fellowship, which I recommend. 
All UK Fellows are on the Fellowship-UK mailing list by default.

They can also join the public discussion list (discussion< at >fsfeurope.org).

This mailing list (fsfe-uk< at >gnu.org) has low traffic, and is not hosted by FSFE.

FSFE loves all Free Software supporters, and tried to provide forums for 
communication for both Fellows and non-Fellows alike.

Best,

Sam.

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

MJ Ray — 2012-04-15T11:15:20

Sam Tuke <samtuke< at >fsfe.org>

Out of interest, why is that?  Ordinary free software supporters
cannot join either of those lists.  Don't you love us any more?

Regards,

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Sam Tuke — 2012-04-13T16:19:51

Sorry about the silence over this issue so far, wheels have been turning.

I will be sending an email to all UK Fellows next week asking them to get 
active, submit a response to the consultation, and contact their professional 
bodies.

I'm also doing some planning with other UK NGOs to try and ensure we present a 
strong and consistent message / policy in our respective submissions.

Out of interest the UK team doesn't use this list any more. The main channels 
of communication are:

fellowship-uk< at >lists.fsfe.org - discussion & announcement list for UK Fellows
uk< at >fsfeurope.org - private UK team list - important news etc. can be sent here

Best,

Sam.

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

MJ Ray — 2012-02-11T07:01:00

Glyn Wintle <glynwintle< at >yahoo.com>

Thanks for the alert!  It closes on 3 May 2012.  Could people try to
remind the list and let everyone know how it's going about once a
month, please?  Maybe if several of us aim to, we'll manage it!

Thanks,

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Sam Liddicott — 2012-02-10T14:38:42

My comments on: Would this policy support innovation, competition and
choice in delivery of government services?

The policy might be gamed through production of artificial open standards-
that meet the requirements of the policy but which do not have broad vendor
support in that sector.

An infamous example is the Office Open XML specification which enjoyed
little support apart from by Microsoft and required much political
wrangling to receive standards status, in which it has been alleged that
ISO committee members installed with pressure from Microsoft ceased to
function after the standard was ratified, causing real problems for ISO
committees which then had problems reaching a full quorum for further
decisions.

To be simple, the open standards allow wide vendor participation are in
fact a potential benefit which is actually obtained when other vendors
actively and creatively participate.

Office Open XML is arguably a single vendor open standard present not to
deliver benefit to it's users but for it's controllers by expanding their
marking to include customers requiring open standards.

The policy will support innovation and competition if proper consideration
is given to the use and wide support of the standard rather than just the
apparent openness.



Does a promise of non-assertion of a patent when used in open source
software alleviate concerns relating to patents and royalty charging?

Promise of non-assertion is weaker than a patent license, and may not be
honoured by others who might purchase patent rights at a future time.

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 11:47 AM, Glyn Wintle <glynwintle< at >yahoo.com> wrote:

Re: final gov consultation on Open Standards

Jon Grant — 2012-02-10T12:20:56

Great to see they prepared their "Open Standards Open Opportunities
Consultation_FINAL.pdf" In LibreOffice

Would have been even better if they had uploaded the Annex A template
in OpenDocument format.

Regards, Jon

final gov consultation on Open Standards

Glyn Wintle — 2012-02-10T11:47:00

Goverment Open Standards consultation has just gone live. This is important stuff http://consultation.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openstandards/ Please respond

Freedom of Association in the Networked Workplace

Rob Myers — 2012-01-15T12:59:24

*** START ***

Freedom of Association in the Networked Workplace: discussion workshop

Thursday 26th January 2012
1pm – 7pm
Rue Gallait – Gallaitstraat 80
1030 Brussels
Belgium

Participation is free, but places may be limited. Please contact us to
reserve a place.

Contact for more information or enquiries:
    http://foa.strickdistro.org/contact/

Website: http://foa.strickdistro.org

Ongoing developments in IT and social media are changing the boundaries
and structure of the workplace, causing a blurring of distinctions
between private and work-related activities. This is raising new issues
in regard to the extent of surveillance applied by businesses towards
their employees. Attempts to control workplace communications are
however conflicting with a number of basic employment rights. This
workshop seeks to address these issues with a specific focus on the
potential impacts of emerging surveillance cultures on the rights of
Freedom of Association in the networked workplace. It aims to bring
together a range of researchers and union activists with a view to
building a more substantial network for investigation, analysis and
intervention.

The workshop follows from a panel presented at the CPDP (Computers,
Privacy and Data Protection) conference 2012 and will expand upon and
explore issues raised at that panel in greater depth. A summary of the
panel discussion will be presented as part of the workshop and
attendance at CPDP is not essential to participation.

Participants include: Gabriella Alberti, Queen Mary University of
London, researching migrant workers organising and social movement
unionism; Kirstie Ball, Open University and Surveillance Studies
Network; Leigh French, Variant magazine and Strickland Distribution;
Christian Fuchs, Uppsala University, researching the political economy
of social media and its development as a new workplace; Seda Guerses, K.
U. Leuven, researching on workplace surveillance and online social
networks; Dave Hollis, NetzwerkIT, developing online systems for
workplace activists; Owen J. Logan, University of Aberdeen and Flammable
Societies network; Tonia Novitz, University of Bristol, research on
Freedom of Association and workers’ rights; Simon Yuill, Strickland
Distribution, researching software culture and politics.

The workshop will take the format of short presentations and facilitated
discussion. Open slots are available for proposed presentations or
outlines of existing projects and organisations. Please contact us if
you are interested in speaking.



The workshop is organized by The Strickland Distribution and hosted by
Constant VZW.

*** END ***

Re: peer to patent uk

Sam Tuke — 2011-09-21T14:16:45

Thanks Glyn, I've forwarded this to the UK Team and I'll dent it from the 
fsfeuk account.

Best,

Sam.

peer to patent uk

Glyn Wintle — 2011-09-20T15:13:07

Want to help fight UK software patents? Please take a few moments to comment on these patents.

https://ktn.innovateuk.org/web/peertopatentuk
If there is some thing that prevents you from commenting, please point it out here.

Re: BBC "Can Whitehall open up to open source?"

Tom Chance — 2011-09-07T11:50:26

You might find this article I wrote a little over a year ago about attempts
to introduce free software into London's regional government:

http://lwn.net/Articles/384863/

Regards,
Tom


On 7 September 2011 12:35, Jon Grant <jg< at >jguk.org> wrote:

BBC "Can Whitehall open up to open source?"

Jon Grant — 2011-09-07T11:35:05

Lucky the figures were provided in CSV format!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14765545


Can Whitehall open up to open source?


What's Whitehall's attitude to software procurement? A cynic might sum
it up as "nobody ever got sacked for buying Microsoft".

The current government has vowed to change the civil service mindset
that has always preferred to spend money with the biggest firms and
has been conservative about open source software.

The Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has vowed to create a level
playing field for open source as part of a drive to cut costs.

Now a BBC Freedom of Information (FOI) request has given us a glimpse
of how big the challenge will be.

We asked government departments for details of how much they had spent
on proprietary software over the past year, and how much open source
software they had acquired.

The responses have been dribbling in for months now (available as a
Google doc, an Excel spreadsheet or as separate .csv files below), and
they've varied from detailed accounts of software and expenditure, to
refusals to provide any information on the grounds that it would cost
too much.

Our excellent FOI researcher Julia Ross has compiled a spreadsheet of
each department's responses.
Mixed response

This is not the kind of FOI request that unveils some shocking secret,
but it does provide insights into the kind of software civil servants
are buying, and why open-source providers may struggle to get a
hearing.

So, for instance, the Home Office provided a detailed list of about
£26m worth of proprietary software acquired over 18 months.

Of that, £21m went to just one business, Raytheon Systems for "IT,
Broadcasting and Telecoms software".

It seems extraordinary to push something like 80% of your software
budget to one provider - but who knows whether an open-source supplier
could have provided a product that would have done the job?

The Ministry of Defence was unable to provide a breakdown but says its
biggest IT organisation DE&S ISS spent £40.7m on procuring software
between February 2009 and March 2011.

Perhaps not a huge budget for such a big organisation but where did
the money go?

They do mention a few products - much of it security software like
McAfee Anti Virus - but do not say what individual items cost.

In its response the department says that, while it is progressively
taking a more centralised approach, "there is no centrally held record
of software (proprietary or open source) held across the MOD".

There is also a partial list of some open-source products used,
including the Firefox browser - though last time I inquired it seemed
you were more likely to find an ancient version of Internet Explorer
on a soldier's desktop PC.

By contrast, the Department for Schools did supply quite a lot of detail.

One item that caught my eye was £164,063 on something called Colligo Solution.

This is described as something which will "enhance the
interoperability of Microsoft Office 2003 specifically Microsoft
Outlook/Exchange 2003, with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007"
for all of the department's 3,500 staff.

I asked Stuart Mackintosh of the open-source firm OpusVL for his view
on what the documents revealed.

He is on a Cabinet Office committee advising on how open source might
best be promoted in Whitehall, and is not unsympathetic to the efforts
of some civil servants to make this happen.

But he points to that Colligo Solution software - needed to upgrade an
existing Microsoft program - as an example of the challenges.

"I don't know the exact story with that product but often they've
already wasted a lot of money in the wrong place," he says. "They're
locked in, and then they need to pay more money to stay where they
are."
Uphill struggle

He thinks there is a big cultural problem because, while civil
servants know how to deal with big firms like Microsoft and have
existing relationships with them, they simply don't know how to start
with open source.

"How do you buy something that's free?" he asks. "It's the job of
people like me to help them work it out."

Mr Mackintosh also believes that by outsourcing so much of its IT
operations, Whitehall has lost the ability to understand what might
work.

He says: "They need to be able to take a few more risks, but they
don't have the skills internally to assess the software."

I also showed the documents to Bryan Glick who, as editor of Computer
Weekly, spends much of his time reporting on government IT policy.

Pointing at the numerous small amounts spent here and there he says:
"It shows how little centralised spending control there is and how
much duplication."

This, he thought, reinforced what Sir Philip Green said in his
purchasing review last year about government missing out on economies
of scale.

Bryan was not surprised that many of the government departments could
not give us much detail on their software spending.

"Where a large private sector firm would almost certainly have some
form of software asset register for audit purposes, there's nothing
like that in Whitehall," he explained, "although they're working on
just that at the Cabinet Office."

Right now, the idea of trying to work with Whitehall is pretty
daunting to small, open-source providers.

The good news is that there is plenty of political weight behind
opening the doors to new software ideas - especially if they can save
money.

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EU consultation on cloud computing until 31 Aug

MJ Ray — 2011-08-25T18:07:26

The EU is consulting on cloud computing until 31 August at
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=cloudcomputing&lang=en

Cloud computing could be a great opportunity for free software, with
potential for more users to take control of their computing
infrastructure; but it could also be a great threat, which may make
users even more vulnerable to proprietary lock-in at either server or
service level.

Have you answered this consultation?  If so, anything you'd like to
point out to other free software supporters before we undermine you? ;)

Thanks,

PyCon UK

John Pinner — 2011-08-21T13:15:01

Hi,

I noticed that you had a stand at Oggcamp last week.

On 24th-25th September we have PyCon UK 2011, in Coventry.

website : http://pyconuk.org
wiki:        http://pyconuk.net

Maybe fsfe-uk would like to come and have a stand, even better give a Talk.

PyCon UK is being run on an Unconference basis this year, so please
add a talk to the Talks page if you wish, you just need to create a
login first - follow the 'Create an Account' link on the wiki home
page.

Best wishes,

John
--

Re: Quest for a Windows7 refund in the UK - laptop upgraded to GNU+Linux

Jon Grant — 2011-05-08T22:50:03

ebuyer is another option I will keep a note of, thanks.

The main problem I have is that the only machines available are generic, 
bulky laptops. The Acer 3820T I bought with Windows7 is high-spec, and 
low weight.  Maybe I'll check lenovo next time, although I don't 
normally like their keyboards and that pointer thingy..  So what I mean 
is.. it would be great if I had the choice of all laptop manufacturers, 
rather than generic un-branded ones from ebuyer

Cheers, Jon

Re: Quest for a Windows7 refund in the UK - laptopupgraded to GNU+Linux

Ralph Corderoy — 2011-05-07T10:49:12

Hi Jon,


There's http://nakedcomputers.org/ which has a Europe/UK category on the
right-hand side.  Perhaps effort is best spent improving that?

Cheers,
Ralph.