Inivation and budgets

The current plan for implementation of open document standard in the public sector has, as I see it, some very serious problems. In this case I don't care if we do a dual standard implementation or not.

The political decision makers (Members of the Parliament) is asking for an overview of the economical impact from such a decision. I say: You can't have it. Noone on the Earth it able to make a bullet proof calculation. And we just have to learn to live with that.

Inovation doesn't com from one year budgets. And thats actually what the Parmiament is asking for here. We don't know what will happen. But what we can do, is to use our minds and brains and decide if this is a good idea or not. And then belive in it. If we don't belive in it, it won't be a success.

How do you think the bio-medical industry is doing inovation ? Do you think that the scientifc research is being done on one year budgets ? I say no. Inovation is about taking a chance or maybe taking several chances. If we are lucky, we will get revenue from one out of ten inovative research projects.

The implementation must be cost neutral. Ok. And how as that suposed to be possible ?
No matter if we implement one or two open standards, it will surtainly initially cost a hell lot of money. But these money will pay back over five or seven years. We agree on that. But how is society supposed to finance this unbalance in cash flow ?
The IT departments has some very limited resources and budgets. They need some kind of instrument to eliminate the unbalance. I don't know if we are talking about 41 mio, 180 mio or even 500 mio kroner. And I don't know if pay-back is five or seven years. And it doesn't actually matter at this moment. What matters is that local governments, institutes etc. can't afford to do the investment.

Another mini conference next monday :-)

On monday, June 4th. there is another mini conference at Symbion. This arrangement is about plug-ins and converters. Arranged by DKUUG, SSLUG and KLID together with Microsoft and SUN Microsystems.

Time: Manday June 4th. 2007 14:00-18:00
Place: Symbion, Fruebjergvej 3, 2100 Kbh Ø. (see Map here)

Agenda:
14:00-14:30 Intro about ODF standard
Keld Simonsen, DKUUG, member of ISO SC34

14:30-15:15 Converter filter from SUN for Microsoft office incl. demo
Malte Timmermann, Technical Architect for StarOffice/OpenOffice.org, Sun Hamburg

15:30-15:45 Mirosofts intentions with the ODF standard
Jasper Hedegaard Bojsen, Government Strategy Manager, Microsoft Danmark

15:45-16:00 Pause, coffee and cake

16:00-16:45 ODF converter - implementation and demo
Wolfgang Keber, Senior consultant, Dialogika, Tyskland

16:45-17:15 Testresults ODF converter
Axel Bojer, leader of the Norwegian OpenOffice.org translation group

17:15-17:30 Questions, summary and closing words
Keld Simonsen

Mini conference in Copenhagen

Tomorrow evening I will participate in a small conference about open source software in the public sector. The conference is arranged by DKUUG and it takes place at Symbion. The conference will be a discussion and it will be introduced by Peter Timm, who is project manager at Nationalt Videnscenter for Software (National Knowledge Center for Software) http://www.oio.dk/software/videnscenter.

I am looking forward to this discussion because I hope to get some further information about the strategies in the public sector.

The discussion will begin at 19:00. Free access.

Alternative Freedom

I just watched the film Alternative Freedom http://alternativefreedom.org by TWILA and SHAUN on DR2. Quite an interesting film right now, in the middle of the discussion on open standards.

Maybe the film actually won't help us. I think that the film is a little bit too much 'America'. A similar film produced by Europeans, would probably show things a little different. The good thing is that most Europeans are used to see this kind of American crap. Not that I disagree with the ideas behind GNU General Public License and Creative Commons, but I don't think that the arguments in the film reached the European audience.

Anyway, I hope that as many people as possible has seen this film tonight.

Analyzing the situation

Well, you never know with politics...

I'm a little bit worried about the result of the debate in the Parliament. Not because we didn't do a good job. And not that I don't think Kim Østrup will do a good job on June 6th.

But because its politics !

The MP's don't always vote as we expect them to. The reason is, that the votings are not individually decided. Bargains are made in the corridors between the meetings.

I'll vote for you if you'll vote for me.

Thats the way it works in the Danish Parliament.

This case is not a case that can put the government under pressure, because the public will never understand the case. It would be much easier if we were talking about pension age or tax rates. People can understand that. So if the Minister of Science and Technology stands, he will be able to hold his position and do the dual standard implementation. Well, it will cost him later on, because he will be in debt to the supporting parties, but anyway - it can happen.

Its summer. Official summer holidays in the Parliament begins on June 1th. The hearing is on June 6th. So the members are in a hurry, they are already late. Experience says, that the case will not be decided with great wisdom but with one foot already on the beach.

The good thing is, that the original resolution was submitted by Morten Messerschmidt from Dansk Folkeparti (DF). DF could be one of the parties that would sell the case for something else. But because the resolution was proposed by DF in the first place, they might want to call it 'important'.

I expect a decision on June 6th. or just a few days later.