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New York City Examines Law Mandating Open Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the budget-crisis dept.

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.

3 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Open Source: Yes! Closed Firehouses: No! by d-man · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!

    --
    Unix: Where /sbin/init is still Job 1.
  2. Re:How about this? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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.

  3. Good news by r_arr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.