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Conflict of Interest Derails UK Government Open Source Consultation

Posted by Soulskill on from the starting-from-scratch dept.

judgecorp writes "The UK government's consultation about the use of open source in public sector IT has been sent back to square one, with discussion results scrapped because the facilitator, Andy Hopkirk, is involved with Microsoft. Hopkirk is well regarded, but the open source community feels the debate dismissed RF (royalty free) standards in favor of the FRAND definition, which is more favorable to proprietary vendors."

6 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hopkirk by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Funny

    The actual following words were "is involved with Microsoft.".
    I guess it's not too far off.

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  2. Respected, not ethical by Internal+Modem · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to the post, he may be respected, but has been labeled unethical: "This [relationship with Microsoft] could be seen as a clear conflict of interest and should have been declared by the relevant parties at that meeting."

    1. Re:Respected, not ethical by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Funny

      He can't be that evil, he has a most impressive white beard.

      Bah, so did Saruman. Look how that turned out.

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  3. FTFA by bmo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "not been paid to specifically write their response to the Open Standards consultation but he is engaged to help them tease out the issues"

    Wow, what a bunch of political weasel wording by Hopkirk. It all depends on how "specific" Hopkirk defines "specifically." That's not just mere conflict of interest. That's conflict of interest and then still lying about it.

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  4. Not surprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've worked in Local Government IT on an account for a London Borough for over 12 years, both on the client and contractor side.
    It seems pretty much mandatory that as much public money as possible spent on IT is funnelled straight to Redmond.
    It's therefore not really surprising that they should invite someone strongly connected with Microsoft to discuss Open Source.

  5. a delay is success.. by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and profits in pocket.

    not paid specifically to do that, but paid anyways. if he was going to continue to be paid depending on the results would have been the next question to ask.

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