New York City Examines Law Mandating Open Source

An anonymous submitter writes "The New York Council held a hearing on the 'SOFTWARE WARS.' The Select Committee on Technology in Government, chaired by Council Member Gale A. Brewer (D-Manhattan), held a public hearing Tuesday on software procurement practices by state and local governments. Representatives from the City's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Microsoft, as well as numerous local software companies testified. Newsforge is carrying the testimony at the hearing of Tony Stanco, Director of The Center of Open Source & Government." Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.

Comments

Open Source: Yes! Closed Firehouses: No!

[d-man]

I hope this story hits the mainstream news wires soon. As a volunteer firefighter 10 minutes from the City line, it's depressing and disturbing to hear that the City's funds are so mismanaged that eight FDNY firehouses have to be closed. Maybe the UFA (the firefighters' union) should pick up on this story and run some numbers past the mayor and the council.

Go Tony!

Re:How about this?

[IamTheRealMike]

Use whatever is going to be the most suitable. It's as easy as that.

The sticking point is how to define what is most suitable, and to ensure that all options are considered (often they are not).

Shrugging it off with "it's as easy as that" is rather naive - it assumes civil servants are perfectly informed and completely neutral, something that unfortunately is not the case in the real world.

Good news

[r_arr]

Seeing how the city is almost broke and getting no support from Albany.(I live in NYC) And thinking about raising taxes or levies as they call it. I guess purchasing expensive MS products is out of the question. So I guess opensource would be the logical choice.

Re:Open Source: Yes! Closed Firehouses: No!

[d-man]

But most of those firehouses just don't need to be there.

First, that's simply not true. Fire houses, at least in NYC, tend to be spaced in such a way that minimizes response time for the whole city, not just one neighborhood, regardless of population density or income level. Traffic is still traffic. Also, if the rig in your local firehouse is out on a job, and you report a fire in your house, the engine that reports comes from the next-nearest firehouse, and the entire battalion, and eventually the entire borough, fans out to fill the gaps. Fewer fire houses farther apart breaks the whole system down, and can, in theory, lead to higher response times borough-wide.

But besides all that, you're missing my point. This is a way to save the city a few bucks. What's better -- closed firehouses and slot machines in the city (another wonderful Bloomberg idea), or open firehouses and open source?

Re:Mandatory?

[maxpublic]

it is illegal for the US Government to fund projects that directly compete with commercial interests.

It would be illegal for the government to start it's own software company and undercut MS in the market; it isn't illegal for the government to mandate the use of open source in it's own operations. Such mandates do not 'compete' with commercial interests in any way, shape or form.

It's irrelevant if MS were to lose out on a potential 'market' because of this. The government isn't required to provide 'markets' to corporate interest using taxpayer dollars.

Max