[kictanet] The end of Open Source as we Know it?National Position or National Opinion

[Harry Delano]

Nnenna,

I would be for one, be interested to know what position the OSS stakeholders
presented at
the consultative forum... , and as you raised the issue of MYSQL, what
became of it..?

Clearly, from most blogs am seeing, it's mostly the OSS community who are
raising 'hue and
cry' over this acquisition that threatens the very basic tenets on which
this platform was
built, and none of the 'seemingly' reassuring overtures by Oracle over the
future of MYSQL
seems to assuage anyone, me included..

Pse update..

Harry

-----Original Message-----
From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Nnenna Nwakanma
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 12:54 PM
To: harry at comtelsys.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] The end of Open Source as we Know it?National
Position or National Opinion

Hi people
> Open Source Software (OSS) has a long life and is here to stay. OSS 
> actually scares Proprietary Software such that the latter wants to 
> kill the former at the earliest possible opportunity. I agree that the 
> OSS community is larger than MySQL.

Certainly.  Now we have the very notion open permeating well beyond software
and licenses.

  And infact, I predict that the biggest growth in OSS will be in
> developing countries, hoping that Kenya will among others, provide the 
> next generation of leaders in the use of ICTs and the Internet.
Why not?

  Evans Ikua <ikua at lpakenya.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Not that there would be a "Kenyan Position"

I am not sure what a Kenya position will influence in the current business
plan of Oracle.  I know that governments who wanted to be informed towards
an opinion did so BEFORE the acquisition.  The US Department of Commerce
Consulted.  I do remember being consulted alongside other Open Source
Initiative board members.  An open meeting was actually held in Washington
in which all 'interested stakeholders were invited'.  Basically, we did
raise the MySQL issue.

The EU Commission has a Directorate of Informatics.  They also consulted OSS
stakeholders.

My point is simple.  Let us consult first, have informed opinions and
probably effect changes before they are made.

Best regards

--
Nnenna Nwakanma
Director, nnenna.org
Consultants on Information, Communications, Technology and Events for
Development (RCCM - CI-ABJ-2008-A-3.768)
Tel: +225 225 271 44
Fax: +225 224 264 71
Cel: +225 07 416 820
nnenna at nnenna.org
http://www.nnenna.org
http://nnennaorg.blogspot.com


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