[PLUG] Coordination and Planning

[david may]

I think what is necessary right now is a framework. A commons.
Build it and they will come.
Leadership will emerge from that. And it very likely will 
not be from the ranks of Geekdom.  

The eductional community needs to be part of the process, not 
simply "targets" or a linux vs MS battlefield. 

I see the linux community as the engineers that "make it go". 
But we are often too easily caught up in the mechanics to be 
very good leaders. 

But "we can make it go" a lot better than the rest :-)

davud

>>>>> "Dylan" == Dylan Reinhardt <dylan at dylanreinhardt.com> writes:

    Dylan> Normally, a "do what you want" approach seems to produce
    Dylan> good results in Open Source / Free Software projects.

    Dylan> But we aren't tweaking a kernel here.  Responding to
    Dylan> Microsoft's threat will require coordination, a plan, and
    Dylan> most of all *leadership*.

    Dylan> That's because we're talking about existing organizations
    Dylan> with existing plans and resources already deployed.  Having
    Dylan> a bunch of volunteers descend on schools and upgrade
    Dylan> computers willy-nilly probably won't be very helpful unless
    Dylan> it's part of a robust plan.  Managing 25K installations at
    Dylan> dozens of locations doesn't just happen.

    Dylan> I'm willing to give significant time and what skills I
    Dylan> have.  So are many people here... but I don't hear anyone
    Dylan> from the schools asking for our help just yet.

    Dylan> Absent that request, I would suggest that we turn our
    Dylan> energy toward things like drawing attention to the issue.
    Dylan> MS stands to gain a few million dollars by shaking down
    Dylan> schools?  I bet we could cost them at least that much in
    Dylan> bad publicity if we put our heads together.

    Dylan> In many ways, it's not really about Portland Public Schools
    Dylan> at all.  They are in a really tight spot here, but it's not
    Dylan> as though they aren't already well aware of how to deploy
    Dylan> Linux.  The larger audience for our message are schools,
    Dylan> organizations and businesses who think that they can afford
    Dylan> Windoze b/c they are just too small or unprofitable for MS
    Dylan> to bother with license enforcement.  Some of these
    Dylan> organizations might hear this story and realize that they
    Dylan> want to start working on a migration plan ASAP.

    Dylan> As I said, I would pitch in and help PPS at the drop of a
    Dylan> hat... but only if they want my help.  In the mean time, I
    Dylan> wonder if we shouldn't be focusing our energy and outrage
    Dylan> at the larger issues this incident represents.

    Dylan> My $0.02...

    Dylan> Dylan



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