Advocacy
From Schoolforge-UK
Advocacy means taking action because you, the individual with a voice and a vote, can make a difference. On countless occasions, the supposedly "inevitable" course of history has been changed through the efforts of a relatively small number of people. It's not necessary to be a Gandhi or a Princess Di - with a personal letter, or a carefully-prepared meeting, or by some other clearly focussed action, you can change the mind of a decision-maker in a way that makes things happen. This is politics, but with a small "p".
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History of FLOSS
This recent article in Business Week Online explains how the Linux operating system and the free software movement developed since the early 1980s, when Richard M. Stallman (RMS) created the Free Software Foundation to develop the GNU (GNU's Not Unix) operating system, followed by Linus Torvald's decision to use Stallman's GPL licencing scheme for the kernel software he developed at Helsinki University. The resulting operating system is properly known as "GNU/Linux".
Books about FLOSS:
"Open Source, The Unauthorized White Papers", by Donald K. Resenberg, IDG Books
"Just For Fun, The story of an accidental revolutionary", by Linus Torvalds, Harper Collins
If you can get hold of it, there's a DVD called "Revolution OS" which includes interviews with all the key players. Try http://www.revolution-os.com.
Groklaw has a review of the Business Week article with additional links, which may be of interest to anyone wishing to learn about the history of FLOSS in more depth.
UK Government Policy
When dealing with official bodies, bear in mind that the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) published a policy document on Open Source, which states that:
- UK Government will consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis.
- UK Government will only use products for interoperability that support open standards and specifications in all future IT developments.
- UK Government will seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services.
- UK Government will consider obtaining full rights to bespoke software code or customisations of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) software it procures wherever this achieves best value for money.
- UK Government will explore further the possibilities of using OSS as the default exploitation route for Government funded R&D software.
In October 2004 a further report from the OGC states that
- Open Source software is a viable and credible alternative to proprietary software for infrastructure implementations, and for meeting the requirements of the majority of desktop users
However, government agencies are tending to use the threat of FLOSS to negotiate reduced licence fees from Microsoft - see this article. We must ensure this doesn't happen in the education sector: no matter how low the licence fees, it's still money that should be spent on books and teachers.
How to be effective
Ian Lynch suggests getting in touch with your MP can be very useful. Education is one of the most visible things that they are held accountable for, so they really should be receptive to hearing FROM people involved in the field. If your MP doesn't respond/get email, try FaxYourMP.com, but please DON'T just cut'n'paste arguments - put your opinion in your own words!
Promoting free software in schools
If you need to persuade management and local government officials, this publication from the UN will be handy: FOSS Education Primer
Free software can be a valuable resource in education, as explained in this section at the GNU Project
This article from Sun is also useful in forming arguments: Open Source and Open Learning
If you are presenting FLOSS to a school, Scott Belford kindly gave permission for us to reproduce his presentation outline.
Jo Harris has prepared some FLOSS posters which may be freely copied and adapted for a school IT lab.
Here is a list of cool software that you might like to show people.
Microsoft schools licence
(This summarises and email from Ian Lynch)
Under the Schools Licence agreed between DfES and Microsoft, schools have to pay for all PCs on the premises, including machines not running Microsoft software. Of course, not all schools licence their MS software this way, only if they do so through the MS Schools agreement.
This is currently being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (contact Neil.Maxey at oft.gsi.gov.uk). There isn't much chance of getting FLOSS into schools if they have to pay MS licence fees for every GNU/Linux machine.
There is a general lack of strategy in the public sector to obtain best value by promoting competition in the desktop software market.
The Digital Rights Management (DRM) software being espoused by Microsoft gives rise to fears about invasion of privacy - see This Resolution.
Write to your MP about these or any other issue you feel is appropriate in promoting an environment where FLOSS can thrive. Best to be not too technical, or too emotional. Short and to the point and make it relevant to local issues eg schools and hospitals having funds diverted out of learning and health care etc. Get other constituency members to periodically E-mail on the same issues.
Advertising works by regular inserts over a period so keep sending the E-mails every few weeks and try and get a variety of sources - more votes potentially lost!
European software patents
Computer software has historically been protected by copyright, and patent laws explicitly excluded software. However in recent years the exclusion has become relaxed, so that for example in UK, a computer program can today be patented if it makes a "technical contribution".
In 2002, the EU began developing a common legislative framework known as the "Computer-Implemented Inventions" directive. Heavily influenced by a powerful lobby of large businesses, Patent Office officials and patent lawyers, this directive adopted a generous approach towards admitting software patents. However, the European Parliament recognised the concerns of smaller software businesses, and in September 2003 voted for amendments that specifically exclude computer software from the scope of patents. Despite this vote, at the next stage of developing the legislation in May 2004, the Council of Ministers narrowly decided to ignore the Parliament's amendments, again making European software patents admissable.
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) has extensive and up to date coverage of this issue, and explains why software patents are bad for small software businesses, and especially for free software. http://nosoftwarepatents.org also provides useful information. O'Reilly Network has an excellent summary.
The situation is reaching a critical point in 2005. Some countries such as Spain opposed software patents from the outset, and it is likely that other Council members who supported the May 2004 decision did not fully appreciate the consequences of their action. For instance the Dutch parliament instructed their representative to reverse their vote on this issue. The Polish government, and the Belgian, Danish and German parliaments have moved to oppose software patents. Regrettably, our UK government strongly supports the EU Council's version of the directive.
The directive as it now stands will go to a second reading in the EU Parliament, where a clear majority of 367 MEPs is needed to amend the legislation. Even then, any changes must be negotiated through the final stages in Council. It is important to make UK MPs and Euro MPs aware of the harm that will be caused by software patents, and your lobbying efforts are urgently needed. You can find several suggested actions on the FFII site.
To understand why software patents are a bad idea, see this Register article about a patent recently granted to Microsoft.
Security concerns
Does it bother you that Windows, which is not rated by Microsoft for security-related applications, is being used for government projects? This article in The Register and its linked related stories should set alarm bells ringing. Why not let your MP know about this?
Other Advocacy Resources
OSSWatch has a useful article on using Open source in your IT strategy.
There is an Open Source for Teacher Materials Movement in the United States. [1] Original and creative materials are presented under a Reciprocal Public Materials License [2]. Joseph Chmielewski
