[OT] TV, Internet, and Democracy

[Jamon Camisso]

Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> JoeHill wrote:
>>> What I would really like to see (and, as I'd hoped to point out in another branch of this conversation) is for the various, outspoken,
>>> components (alternatively, proponents) of our community working together to find an effective way to advertise our interests and concerns to the general public.
>>>     
>> Ditto!
>>   
> On that we appear to be in violent agreement. I'd go a step further and
> suggest that the necessary advocacy work is not the exclusive domain of
> the outspoken -- or even extroverted -- advocates. IMO more work needs
> to be done on low-profile work that's less popular because it's less
> personally rewarding, but anyone can do it.
> 
> For example: there's some important research to be done in finding out
> who the right people are in governments (city, regional and Queen's
> Park) considered experts (or decision makers) regarding issues of public
> IT policy, and especially in education where a number of jurisdictions
> around the world are introducing FOSS. Not just elected officials, but
> also senior bureaucrats. And then we need to talk to them.
> 
> A few months ago, CLUE's Russell McOrmond sent an information package to
> each MP educating them on open source, and related policy regarding IT
> procurement, "piracy", software patents etc. It would be great to be
> able to attempt this at a more local level, but it needs energy and
> bodies. This is the kind of work that doesn't get someone mentioned on
> Digg or Slashdot, but quietly goes a long way towards elevating FOSS
> from novelty to mainstream to preference.
> 
> Part of my points deal with the fact that FOSS is out of the
> novelty/curiosity phase, which require a change in tactics compared to a
> decade ago. While the average person on the street may not know what
> Linux is, they likely won't know a lot of other important things about
> the workings of computers. People who make it their business to know and
> make decisions) about IT are at least aware of Linux, even if that
> awareness is negative or just enough to be the source of FUD. That's why
> I said that the message -- and the target audience -- is now more about
> the answer to "why FOSS" rather than "what is FOSS".
> 
> Yes, Microsoft does publicity stunts. But it probably spends far more on
> behind-the-scenes lobbyists and PR than on special-event stunts, which
> is the part of the balance which we don't do. Folks in the community
> such as Colin, Marcel and myself have a great awareness of the value of
> PR; but we don't have the cycles to do it ourselves. Spending all one's
> advocacy resouces on stunts is very visible (thus what I referred to as
> a "feel-good" effect) tactic, but without less-visible gruntwork (and
> followup!) its net effects are dubious.
> 
> I'm _not_ saying that stunts are bad, just that they're spectacularly
> ineffective and inefficient _if_ that tactic is the only dimension to
> our advocacy. There's plenty of work to do, it just needs people with
> the energy and cycles to keep it going.

So what are we doing for linuxinthepark 2007 this year then? Geek 
love-in or public outdoor tech advocacy love-in.

Jamon

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists