[kictanet] Software procurement in kenya

Sun Sep 14 08:41:45 EAT 2008

Liko,

Like you, reality is a friend of mine. Just like they are free to hire and fire, private sector CEOs, without consulting, are at liberty procure whatever they feel or believe will increase shareholders return (aka bottom line) But unfortunately, government's 'shareholders' are a different lot. 

Government would be acting as an agent of proprietary software monopolization(1) which negates innovation aspirations of Vision 2030. It would also be creating barriers to new expression through new software and solutions creativity. Furthermore, hardware supplied with pre-installed software(2) defeats competitive supply of goods and services intentions of the Act(3) and considering also stated government objectives of efficient utilization of taxes in public service delivery.

If anything, our law should compel all software vendors to disclose whatever goes on behind all "closed" software(the source code and documentation). The last thing *any* government needs are backdoors calling home:)       

References:

(1) “When governments  become agents of Monopolization,” Georg Greve, President of the Free Software Foundation,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnBYQkMLZ64> 

(2) "The European Union's decision to force Microsoft to unbundle its media software from Windows could constitute a legal precedent that will affect the company's future products." <http://news.cnet.com/Ruling-could-be-key-to-Microsofts-future/2100-1014_3-5177521.html>

(3)"EU think-tank floats OS bundling ban"<http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2199378/eu-think-tank-floats-bundling>

--- On Tue, 9/9/08, Liko Agosta <likoa at verviant.com> wrote:

> From: Liko Agosta <likoa at verviant.com>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Software procurement in kenya
> To: alex.gakuru at yahoo.com
> Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 1:20 PM
> Evans,
> 
> That law should be changed :)
> 
> If a government agency has already invested in some
> technology stack, they
> should have the right to say they want a solution that
> ran's on that
> technology stack ....lets says Microsoft SQL Server .. 
> 
> Why ... The license for SQL server will be a sunk cost at
> that point and
> getting different technology is making a bigger financial
> commitment and
> raising project risk .... also .. if the customers
> programmers/admins know
> C# and SQL Server or Websphere and DB2, the client has the
> right to pick
> that platform ... 
> 
> We have ran into this with our clients. Whenever we are
> doing project
> discovery, we will find out which technologies they
> currently have/support
> ... if a client has SQL Server, we will typical ask for
> usage reports for
> that SQL server box and in most cases, we have been able to
> save money by
> "adding to" their existing infrastructure ... or
> tuning their existing
> infrastructure to take more load.
> 
> Many organizations we have worked with tend to buy a
> servers/software
> licenses for each project ... we advice against this and
> are usually for
> consolidation and better management. That way a 4 CPU
> license for SQL Server
> Enterprise Edition (approx USD 80,000) will be apportioned
> to the 20 systems
> or projects that will use a well tuned 4CPU SQL server ....
> 
> So .. good intentions... bad law ... why enforce or spend
> time on it 
> 
> My 2 cents
> 
> Liko Agosta, CEO
> Verviant Consulting Services. 
> 
> www.verviant.com
>  
> Phone    : 1-919-341-1820
> Fax        : 1-978-268-8403
>  
> Toll Free: 1-866-551-4935
>  
> Pager: 9193891551 at txt.att.net
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> kictanet-bounces+likoa=verviant.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> [mailto:kictanet-bounces+likoa=verviant.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke]
> On Behalf
> Of Evans Ikua
> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 1:34 PM
> To: Liko Agosta
> Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> Subject: [kictanet] Software procurement in kenya
> 
> Interesting what Google can come up with:
> 
> http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/052308-kenya-linux-group-challenges-proc
> urement.html?fsrc=rss-linux-news
> 
> 
> We finally got to meet with the PPOA on Friday, 5th
> September. We had  
> a very fruitful discussion on the Public Procurement and
> Disposal Act  
> 2005, whose provisions are being ignored by Government
> procurement  
> agents:
> 
> https://ict-innovation.fossfa.net/taxonomy/blog-tags/kenya
> 
> This good law stipulates that procuring agents should not
> mention any  
> trade marks, companies or product names when requesting for
>  
> quotations. They are required to just give the specs of
> what they need  
> to accomplish. But how many times do we see these RFQs with
> brand  
> names such as Microsoft *?. This has got to stop and nobody
> has any  
> excuse to break the law with impunity.
> 
> We will be putting details of the proceedings on our
> website soon, and  
> also in the media.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Evans Ikua
> Linux Professional Association of Kenya
> Tel: +254-20-2250381, Cell: +254-722 955 831
> Eagle House, 2nd Floor
> Kimathi Street, Opp. Corner House
> www.lpakenya.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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