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[ox-en] Don Cameron: Free as in Access (WiFi) and a comment on Open Source Software



From: "Don Cameron" <donhome mudgeeab.com.au>
To: <communityinformatics vancouvercommunity.net>;
<Information_Systems_Forum yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2003 4:44 PM
Subject: RE: [CI] Free as in Access (WiFi) and a comment on Open Source
Software

Following from recent discussions promoting the merits of open source, I
have formed a small team tasked with developing a project to assist
individuals and groups seeking to evaluate proposed computing solutions
against identified needs and circumstances.

The trigger for this project was the dominance of discourse promoting open
source, yet the lack of discussion/promotions on all the other philosophical
and practical aspects of software use and selection - aspects including
suitability of purpose, TCO, system interactions, other preferred
philosophical approaches (whilst acknowledging the philosophies of open
source, personally I prefer to purchase software from local developers who
are trying to build community development initiatives - invariably this
means running programs under Windows because this is what they use as a
development base, however the choice of underlying OS certainly does not
discount the value of their work; the value of my supporting local
initiatives; nor the value of their excellent end-products - there are lots
of reasons and personal beliefs that impact on the choice of software, but
how best to measure and rate all the variables?

Our project involves developing an easy-to-use analytical tool designed to
rate the features of computer software, hardware, IT consultancies and
vendors against client-specific measurement criteria. To further apply a
weighting to selection criteria providing a measurement benchmark for
products or services within a given category - i.e. if I have a preference
for Open Source I might rate this highly, however perhaps not more highly
than 'suitability of purpose' or 'current platform compliant'. The choice
should be mine to rate factors in accord with real requirements; not to be
coerced into adopting a particular developmental methodology... unless the
methodology fully supports my core criteria (the 'win win' scenario). The
project also includes providing an easy means of creating a "Product
Specification and Vendor Declaration" - this is something increasingly
required to provide requirements information and ensure our
vendors/developers do accept responsibility for the products they promote
(and sign a document citing compliance).

The project is only several days old and our software is in the very early
stages of development (full of bugs), however I would like to invite the
comment and feedback of list members on the value of this concept - please
visit: http://www.users.on.net/mra/itempower/ITEmpower.htm for further info.

Kind regards, Don Cameron




_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/



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