[AktiviX-discuss] Ethical ICT...

Dan dan at aktivix.org
Wed Jan 5 14:42:34 UTC 2005


Allo,

Now excuse my ranting on this list:  I always feel a bit like a fraud, 
given that I'm not a techie in any meaningful sense of the word.

But I just wanted to pass something by you...

A while ago, I wrote to various people about the fact that I'd just 
started working for a fairly small company who set up centres for social 
change groups.  I was hoping to push the company in an open source 
direction. 

I've failed miserably - but in analysing why, I think there's some stuff 
to think about, and I'd like to know if anyone else thinks any of this 
has legs / what thoughts people might have.

What did I try to do?

1. Ask techies I knew if they had any ideas on what I might say to my 
company.  My non-techie vagueness was met with, um, well... not very 
much positive.  Which is not surprising, coz I was vague... but see below.

2. Ask my company to consider open source as a route - they were in the 
process of setting up a shared system for all centres, so that 
organisations could e.g. book rooms online.  I got quite a lot of 
feedback - but in the end, the IT bod went for - oh fuck! - Microsoft 
Sharepoint, spending £4000 in the process.

Why?  Well - they're not techies, and its a really busy company who 
needed an IT solution. 

That's where I start to think:  well, why the f**k wasn't there an 
ethical, open source one?  How hard can it be to be able to go to 
ethical / community / social change organisations, saying -

1. Here's the reasons why traditional products suck.

2. Here's how much cheaper our solution is

3. And we can offer support and back-up, as well as bespoke 
installation.  But you'll be paying nothing for the software, we can 
integrate it with your current Microsoft systems if necessary, and we 
can even supply you with internet ready PCs for just £10!

It's the ease with which this is an option that's the thing - from the 
point of view of a company shelling out a huge sum of money.  And I 
guess there are plenty of people who'd never support Microsoft 
systems... and so that means that companies like mine will just become 
more and more locked into it.

So - does anyone think there's scope for some kind of not-for-profit 
company / all profits would go into the Aktivix fund to e.g. get 
Indymedia a new server, start up a community ICT project where a fund to 
pay programmers came into being / choices of project were chosen by 
consensus... see where I'm going with that?

It all exists already: all that needs to happen is that someone is able 
to see it from the point of view of a company like mine - who do *try* 
to ethically audit what they do - who don't want to have to spend a 
stupendous amount of time messing about, and who hence end up going for 
what feels safest.

Thoughts?

Dan

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The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
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