Re: [OS:N:] References for Overviews of Open Source

[Damiano Verzulli <verzulli nextra it>]

Charles Muller wrote:
> [...] At a major international conference to be held in Bangkok in
> December, [...] I will also be trying to make my largely unitiatied
> colleagues aware of the ethical and political implications of
> continued unconscious usage of Microsoft software.

From a "political" point of view, the best document I've read ever is
the one from the Peruvian Senator Villanueva who is promoting an
open-source law in Peru.

After receiving a letter from Microsoft, Villanueva answered with a very
detailed paper getting very deeply in _all_ the political issues of the 
open-source vs. proprietary software.

You can get the original letter from Microsoft here:
- http://www.pimientolinux.com/peru2ms/document1.jpg
- http://www.pimientolinux.com/peru2ms/document2.jpg
- http://www.pimientolinux.com/peru2ms/document3.jpg
English translation are here:
- http://www.pimientolinux.com/peru2ms/alt_ms_to_villanueva.html


The _wonderful_ reply from Villanueva is here:
- Spanish transcript:
	=> http://www.pimientolinux.com/peru2ms/villanueva_a_ms.html
- English translation:
	=> http://www.pimientolinux.com/peru2ms/villanueva_to_ms.html

It is a very long document (several A4 pages) but, believe me, it worth 
the effort of a reading.


Another good document I found several months ago about 
political/economical issues of OpenSource adoption is the following:
"Open Software & Open Standards in South Africa: A Critical Issue for 
Addressing the Digital Divide" (http://www.naci.org.za/docs/opensource.html)
Although directly issued for the South-Africa context, it contains a lot 
of useful informations on the political and economics benefit of the 
OSS, expecially in terms of digital-divide.


Finally, some other useful links are reported here:
http://dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html


There are also plently of docs about OpenSource TCO (Total Cost of 
Ownership) but... I'm not sure you're interested in them.

Hope this help.

Cheers,
Damiano

--
Damiano Verzulli - NEXTRA S.p.A.
40033 Casalecchio di Reno (BO) -I-
e-mail: verzulli nextra it
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