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Selling Open Source on the Campaign Trail
Waldo Jaquith writes: "I'm a long-time advocate and user of open source and free software and, as of this morning, I am a candidate for the Charlottesville, VA (USA) City Council. Naturally, I see lots of areas in Charlottesville's IT infrastructure (as well as potential areas of expansion) where Linux and various free software projects would be ideal. But can I make that a talking point while campaigning? How do I make that concept accessible and interesting to 40,000 citizens?"
They're not going to be interested in what the software can do for them. They will be interested in fact that a significant amount of money will be freed in the budget. Don't go promising tax refunds or anything, but I think the financial benefit will be the most tangible to non-technical folk.
What do voters care about? Taxes. It's that simple. So, you want to get elected, voters want lower taxes. How do you react to this situation? Find a way to lower, or at least not increase, taxes. Open source solutions are free. Maintenance of such systems, contrary to what M$ heads would have you believe, is about the same cost, maybe even less (because once it's running, it JUST WORKS.) Now, let's follow along to make a logical conclusion:
You want to be on the council.
The voters don't want to pay as much tax.
You want to use something that's free for IT purposes.
Tell the voters that using free software would reduce costs!
The voters will automatically imply that your action of reducing costs will lead to lowered taxes and BAM!! you're elected.
Good luck!
~ now you know
As a citizen, do you think I want to know what brand asphalt you're going to use to fill the potholes? No, I just want to get it done. Details like that are for you and your staff to work out.
Be reasonable and willing to compromise. Other people will sometimes need to have their way, even if it is wrong. Remember, while often times most palatable, open source is not always the best solution (no flames please!).
Try not to be an open source zealot....most people won't understand, and, if and when something goes to hell, your "free" software will be blamed. CYA!!!
I suspect that talking about "open source" won't
mean a lot to your constituency. However, you can
say that you have ideas about how to streamline
governmental IT budgets without cutting services.
A more subtle point is that open source improves
openness. Using open file formats and protocols
protects the government and the public from vendor
lock-in. It also improves the chance that government archives will still be accessible in
the middling and distant future. I don't know
how you can make these points sound-bite-friendly,
but it's worth thinking about.
Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."
The trick that you would need to do is to make sure you wrap a lot of the OS rheteroric in a way that doesn't sound communist or anti-capitalist.
As soon as your opponent would say: " wants to give away all software, and that will cost jobs, especially in this industry where people are being laid off now" then you are sunk with the 40,000 people who don't know the industry.
Another thing you will realize, is that, on the whole, people don't care about the same things that get discussed on here. They just don't. Perhaps they should, but that doesn't make it happen. So again, I wish you luck.
Fundamentally, you need to be pushing a solution to a problem people care about. Or you need to provide a better way of doing things, that is worth the hassle of accepting. Change for change's sake is scary to voters. And if you're trying to push Linux just because it's l33t and r00lz, then quit now; you're just wasting people's time.
If you can demonstrate that using Linux will...
- Reduce computer costs and free up more money for education...
- Make it easier for kids to get computers, to play and learn with (and so develop future job skills)...
- Have a proven track record of being more secure against attackers...
- Will enable computers and related services to more available, more quickly to e.g. rural areas than otherwise...
...then you've got something you can sell to non computer-geek voters.
You need to simply identify how using OSS well improve your would-be constituents' lives.
ShoutingMan.com
- reduced cost of licencing
- reduced cost of licence compliance
- reduced cost of dealing with security
- reduced waste in government offices (open software tends to have less feature-creep, which means less time doing stuff that shouldn't be done at all (like writing your memos in three columns).
Issues of freedom come second. The problem is they are more abstract, difficult to grasp, and non-local. And you are not running for President so your voters might not care about your opinions about copyright and copyleft.Of course if you were running in Berkeley, things might be different ;-) but you aren't.
-- look, cheese ahoy!
Would you vote for a landscaper whose campaign speeches were treatises on the merits of hardwood mulch over pine bark mulch? Or an auto mechanic who promised to improve the performance of the city's vehicle fleet by switching to synthetic motor oil?
I know I wouldn't.
If you're running for city council, stick to the top issues in municipal government: schools, taxes, crime, etc.
At most you might say something like "as information technology becomes increasingly important to the successful managment of any business or government, our city council would benefit by having a member who understands how to apply IT tools to improve the function of city government." But leave it at that.
Furthermore, you can explain briefly how with the source code available, special changes to the software for specific needs can be done by any programmer and the city won't have to buy $100K of custom software -- $100K will easily get you a couple full-time programmers in Charlottesville for a year.
Just remember, voters don't want things complex, and TV and papers will almost never let you discuss anything in detail, so it's got to be something simple and quick. "If we change to Linux, our base costs will be less and our long term costs will save the city X dollars over Y years." "Remember Virginia Beach and the Microsoft audit! One hundred twenty-nine THOUSAND dollars for software the city already bought!!!" You get the idea, otherwise, give up politics. (:
woof.
How do I make that concept accessible and interesting to 40,000 citizens?
Use puppets. MAke one of them act mean, make the other one act kind, and make sure that the kind one explains the moral at the end.
Barring that, most voters won't pay attention.
If someone asks you about your views on Open Source, then answer it truthfully, sure, but don't make it a campaign point to stand on.
I'd be suprised if anyone asked about it. Why not include it in the "saving the city money" part of the platform. When asked about how you propose to save the city money, rattle off a few ways (I assume you have some!), and include the Open Source stuff in there. But I agree with the poster above, don't make it a major talking point.
Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?
As for the cost savings, yes, Linux can cost more money than it saves when the transition is not carefully planned and executed. Part of the reason for that is the large number of people who "make Linux harder than it is", as Roblimo, IIRC, pointed out. There is a variety of extremely simple graphical e-mail clients. Konqueror or Mozilla are both web browsers that can be used by almost anyone (whereas Konqueror can be set up easily by anyone with half a clue to look and act like IE). It's exactly the Internet client problems that are mostly solved on the desktop. Don't invent problems that do not exist. Surely you could set up mutt and procmail on a library computer, but then don't be surprised if people point and laugh.
But cost savings are not the main reason to move to Linux. The main reason are the long-term benefits of source code openness, which includes easy expandability, which is a major plus, because many additions by anyone from government agencies to corporations will be returned into the pool of open source software, to the benefit of all -- the more open-source software (GPL) is used, the more powerful this effect becomes (and there's the obvious "given enough eyes .." security/stability advantage, which also increases exponentially). Also, schools and libraries will not have to deal with unmanageable obsolescence cycles which are deliberately created by the Wintel duopoly. OSS will make computers better, more easy-to-use and cheaper. You should support those trying to make that difference, or become one of them.
Give me a map and compass, drop me into the Amazon Rainforest, and I will be lost immediately too. But that Crocodile Hunter guy on TV would figure out where he is, and start walking. Might take him a week, but he would find his way out, while I would still be trying to reboot the compass.
Crikey! If you look ovah here, you can see a primo example of the dread Linux Hacker. 'e's a dangerous brute, but ain't 'e bayutiful?!
I can get this close to 'im because I respect 'is terrortree. You're a notty hacker! Yes you are! He's a dangerous wonk, alright, but I'm okay because I'm a trained profeshun'al.
Let's all remember the the Linux Hacker is an endangud species. Paoching and biggah predatas like the fanged Microsoft encroach on 'is terrortree more and more each yeah. If we want to keep these bayutiful creatuhs around, we gotta protect 'em!
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Make your campaign slogan "Free as in Beer"
Then make posters like this:
FREE
as in
BEER
Make the "FREE" and "BEER" in a really big size, and the "as in" in a really small size.
Oh, don't forget to put your name on the poster somewhere too. In big letters. Probably as big as the letters you make "FREE BEER".
Seriously though, I would check with the town clerk or historian and see how much they have been spending on software over the past few years. Draw up a budget plan and present it to the people showing the disparate prices between the software, and the re-training/OSS costs.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
When was the last time that such minutia actually changed your vote one way or the other unless it directly affected you? Probably never.
.5% of the local government costs. All these decisions take time, far too much time for the average voter to concern themselves with. We have public officials and representatives for a reason.
Even if you THINK you do, I doubt you really do. In order to make an informed decision on these matters must spend SOME time learning the background and the difference between the competing alternatives. Even with an issue like Open Source, there is considerable debate in the technical community about whether or not it actually saves money and it's got to be even harder for the average person to make heads or tails of it. It's not as if there's a simple authoritative source you can go to that says Open Source > Closed Source. It may be trivial to discover that the software itself takes money to actually purchase, but finding out the actual support costs, training, quality of the software, and other elements takes a lot of time and intuition. Speaking for myself, I'd actually be opposed to this kind of adoption, especially in a government agency.
Now you're going to do this kind of research for each and every little item? Asphalt? Shovels? Paper? Paper clips? It may sound ridiculous, but I doubt software costs more than
This argument is especially ridiculous when you consider that the kinds of day to day payroll decisions made by managers have a far greater impact and cost far more. For instance, would you rather have an experienced admin run NT or a bunch of clowns running Linux? I know which I'd pick. Yet it's blatantly obvious that we can't effectively engage in this kind of oversight.
That is very unlikely since the chances are that the city already has bought much of its software.
I think the guy has no clue as to the relevance of open software to a town council or the amount of influence a junior councilor is likely to have.
The division of responsibilities between city and state vary. Even so it is unlikely that a town of 40K would have more than 200 odd administrators. sure they may have a lot of police, teachers etc, but people in that type of job are unlikely to use very much software and that they do use is likely to be chosen for compatibility with county, state or federal systems.
The running of the executive office is typically the responsibility of the mayor or an appointed chief executive. Either way that individual is not going to allow you to dictate their IT policy. If that person says that the cost is $1000 per employee to retrain them or that the open software option does not meet their needs it will be near impossible to persuade the rest of the council to override them, and if they did their motive is unlikely to be commitment to open source.
More likely however is that the decision on which software to buy is made on an individual basis. If a secretary knows how to use word they get her a copy of word.
However, you'd better be prepared to back that up with a good plan and some hard figures.
A good place to start would be finding out how much the town spends each year on software and how much of that is on applications that have open source alternatives.
The overwhelming probability is that most of the spending dollars on software go on low volume niche type software that would only be relevant to councils. Public sector accounting packages, pupil progress monitoring packages, police evidence management systems, court clerk management systems. The council that size might buy a hundred copies of Office a year for $40K but an accounting package might easily cost $100K plus the same again for installation, customization etc.
While 40K might seem a lot to you it is not a major item in a city budget. If the only plank in your platform is that you can save the city 40K you should probably be directed to the suggestions box rather than the council chamber.
The guy appears to share the somewhat arrogant assumption of many voters that the state is granting people a great favor by allowing them to work for considerably less than the going rate in industry. The choice of software has the greatest effect on the employees work environment. Why should some open source monomaniac decide that they have to use something different because their current software offends his religion?
If open source has any validity it is about choice, not compulsion. The cost of software is irrelevant compared to the cost of employing the person who uses it.
If you actually want to save the council money a much better approach is to look into opportunities to cut costs by outsourcing IT functions. Most companies outsource their payroll because it is cheaper to let ADT work out all the fiddly tax laws than have someone build that experience in house. Many companies outsource management of their email systems, it is cheaper for a company like USA.net to have 50 admins working 24x365 managing 500 companies email than it is for any of those companies to have a half time admin during business hours only.
The problem for small enterprises (city governments being typical) is that they are simply too small to realise the savings of scale that large companies can.
The cost of software is really not where the pain is. The Total Cost of Ownership and Return On Investment are the metrics used.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Just don't. Trust me on this, the average user just does not care about his computer. He does not care about improving performance, or being able to tweak his programs, or helping other programmers. He just wants "the machine" to work. If you focus on open source, you will get hammered in any and all public forums. Just for the heck of it, here's a quick sample speech by a hypothetical opponent of yours that could be made after you gave an "open-source" schpeel:
"Ladies and gentlemen, like many of you, I have heard Mr. Jaquith's speech on the benefits of switching the town to what he calls 'open-source' software. And like many of you, I am confused. Our city need money for roads, and schools. Our children need more parks and playgrounds, and children's programs to keep our youth off the streets. As we go into this new century, our city faces questions of crime, of poverty - Mr. Jaquith talks about Linucks and Debean or whatever it's called - I, for one, cannot make heads or tails of it.
And that's his perogative, of course - the right to campaign freely is what makes this country what it is, the unshakeable roots of our culture. But not to put too fine a point on it, do the people of Charlottville really care about my worthy opponent's issues? As long as our taxes and payrolls for city workers are processed in a timely manner, as long as other computerized fuctions are carried out properly - why should we change them? Even Mr. Jaquith cannot tell us how they will save any meaningful amount of time - in fact, I tell you it will cost us time, as our town employees are forced to learn the new system. So why does Mr. Jaquith want this?
I can tell you that. He believes that it is wrong, my friends, to pay for software. He believes a product that costs thousands of man-hours to produce must be given away for free, and that those who would not do this are evil. Go to a web site called slashdot.org, or freshmeat.net, or read any "linux advocacy" magazine, and the "open source" position becomes clear.
I know that this is a tight race, and that I may not be elected. That's fine, that's the democratic process, and I can accept that. But my fellow citizens, I ask one thing of you. When the time comes for you to vote, vote based on the issues that actually matter to your lives. Schools, taxes, health care - if you do not agree with me on these things, then please do not vote for me. But please don't vote for Waldo Jaquith for the sake of a complex new system that we don't need. Thank you."
It's a little rough, I admit, but with a little polishing it might be good against you, sir. Find "real" issues, like those mentioned in the speech above, and campaign on those - open source is something you can work for once you're actually in power. I hope this helped.
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