News about "City of Toronto" project?

[Max Blanco]

Hugh's comments are well-heeded.

I'm sorry that I am unable to join in the effort, too.

My advice would be to document everything, institute an open/transparent
agenda and meeting process for yourselves, and have your homework well 
done before anyone approaches the city (eg. which distro will you use?).

I have to sign off this list for now.  Thanks to everyone who helped with 
my debian ppc/linux questions.

max.


On Sun, 18 Jan 2004, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:

> | From: Robert Brockway <rbrockway-wgAaPJgzrDxH4x6Dk/4f9A at public.gmane.org>
> 
> | On Jan 12th a group of us met at a local restaurant.  We are formulating a
> | short document to present to the upcoming budget sessions the council
> | announced recently.
> 
> Sorry that I'm not able to be active in this.  Sounds like a neat
> project!
> 
> I have a little (bad) experience with this kind of thing.  It suggests
> that waiting for a public meeting is way too late.  Real decision
> making is too messy to be done in public.  Most decisions are made
> before the public meetings.  At the very least, groundwork for the
> decisions is laid before the meeting; that groundwork determines
> the outcome of the meeting.  This is why lobbying is necessary.
> 
> Note:  I'm not saying that lobbying is evil.  I think that the system
> actually make sense.  The decisions are way too complex to be laid out
> and solved within a meeting.
> 
> I strongly suggest that folks find out who the players are in this
> decision and meet with them to explore what is possible.
> 
> Lobbying should be a two way street: you need to listen as well as
> talk.  They have an idea (I hope) of what functionality they need.
> You might be able to help them refine or adjust this.  Then there is
> the question of mechanisms to meet those needs.
> 
> I suspect that the worst problem is that they have an idea of what
> solutions they want rather than what problems they wish to solve.
> 
> You need to talk to politicians AND staff.  I suspect it is going to
> take some digging to find out to whom it is worth talking.
> 
> Hugh Redelmeier
> hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org  voice: +1 416 482-8253
> 
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