Toronto Municipal Open Source Revolution, anyone ?

[Marcus Brubaker]

I highly suggest that if you're serious about this (and you seem to be)
that you plan a face-to-face meeting on the topic with everyone who is
interested in participating.  Moreover, don't just have an ad-hoc get
together, make an agenda and have a list of tasks that people can work
on.  A bit of research will be needed for something like this.

Off the top of my head, the kind of initial information you might need:

1) What kind of computing resources/services does the city use and
require?  Specifically, what kinds of applications are being used, by
whom and for what?

2) Are there any contracts or existing licensing that would be
affected?  Did the city just spend a few million on Oracle?  If so, will
that contract permit them to switch to Oracle on Linux without
significant expenditure?

3) How does the cities situation compare to other, similar
organizations?  Someone mentioned Berlin, but there are a lot of other,
governments throughout the world that have been doing these kinds of
moves.  How did they fare and how do they compare to Toronto's position
and requirements?

4) Who do we talk to?  Failing that, where do we go to find out who to
talk to and who is going to do that?

That's basically just gathering information.  Then you'll need to get a
plan together.  For instance:

1) Where does Linux make sense?  Why?  Precisely what do you intend to
replace and with what.

2) What kinds of returns can be expected?  Versus the initial transition
costs?  What is the comparative savings over 2 years?  Over 5?  Anyone
with business experience know how to do a formal returns analysis?

Just throwing out ideas.  Good luck!

-- 
Marcus Brubaker <marcus.brubaker-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>

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