Constructing a Corporate Open Source Policy?

Stokey asks: "I work for a global finance firm, (60000+ employees and presence in 25+ countries) in the Group IT department. Pressure is building from the businesses to cut costs and Open Source software has been pushed onto the discussion table. I am trying to educate IT Directors where I can with correct definitions, breaking down assumptions, and will most likely end up writing the group wide Open Source policy. The challenges are well known: risk, cost, support, licensing, benefits, training, and so forth. I am looking for help in putting together a pack that can be handed to our IT Directors forum which contains a policy, TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) reviews, and risk reviews by companies that have done it. After asking what Gartner has to say, the next question will be 'So who else has done this?'. Can Slashdot assist?" What information do you think should be included to sell Open Source to management at the top-level of any corporation or business?

I'm sure several of you have run into this situation before, so I figure this may be as good of a place as any to suggest what information might be appropriate to place in such a policy, especially for future IT workers who find themselves in this position. If people are serious in getting Open Source further into the enterprise than it has already is, such information will be necessary to convince the powers-that-be on the things that we already know: Open Source can be as good as, or better than, commercial software for business tasks. Things like licensing descriptions, common misconceptions, and what Open Source really is would be an absolute must. What other information do you think would be absolutely necessary to include into such policy?

Comments

Re:Don't think of it as open source

[orthogonal]

Ignorant statements like yours show why the OSS community is having trouble getting its message across. Get it through your skull....

Get this through your skull: calling people ignorant and telling people to "get it through your skull" just reinforces stereotypes about open source advocates (and geek in general) being socially awkward know-it-alls who take pride in being jerks and not getting along with people.

To the extent there's any merit to your opinion, it's obscured behind the flood of bitter vitriol and ignored by those who prefer to take their advice from more level-headed posters.

And posting it as "Anonymous Coward" just tells everybody you're not man enough to back up your name-calling.

And yes, I know, you'll spend the next month sitting in your mom's basement, scheming to down-mod any post of mine you see. All hail the Conan the Key-Board-barian! Have fun!