Support and OpenOffice.org

This is a not atypical scenario: Government Blue wants to adopt foss but is uncertain about support, services, training, certification, liability, not to mention the longevity of the foss project in question. So, even though that free technology is gratis and more powerful, extensible and secure, Blue decides to stick with the status quo, as that SQ satisfies the crucial (and wholly nontechnical) requirements that the purchasing department insists upon. From the purchasing department's perspective, this scenario is simply anarchic chaos and very undesirable.

I've noticed this now for several years and have suggested the same remedy: related foss groups can form consortia. The result would be a single vendor who is responsible for all the above. Support can be contracted out, as can the other elements. The crucial point here is that Blue would not be dealing with a single responsible vendor.

Of course, this demands considerable cooperation among groups and individuals who formed small businesses and became independent precisely because they wanted to work alone. But it's necessary, I think.

OpenOffice.org fortunately is addressing this problem, though we still have some ways to go. Well over 350 companies offer professional support and services in many languages and in many lands; and that is not even counting Sun Microsystems, which offers per-call support for OpenOffice.org users. We list support options, free and not, at http://support.openoffice.org/.

We have ways to go. I would love it that when a user downloads OpenOffice.org (and most who download it form the OOo are Windows users), they are presented with support options. And that companies recognize the options available to them: that foss projects like OpenOffice.org are both community and professionally supported.

On Festival Software Livre, Brasilia, October 5-6

To say that Brazil has taken to OpenOffice.org and software livre is an understatement. Claudio Filho, the lead of the Brazilian Language project, and one of the leads of the BrOffice.org group, estimated that there are about 10 million OOo users here. (One must use BrOffice.org instead of OpenOffice.org in Brazil for trademark reasons.)

Like most countries, Brazil remains primarily a consumer of FOSS, not a producer. And although one will save money with free software, one has not changed the relationship to the commodity that free software offers: one is still a consumer and effectively in debt to others for the product. That is something that I and many others would like to change. In my previous trips here, especially the last, in April of this year, I've tried to encourage students, professors and other would-be developers to consider working on OOo. Although I certainly hold out the hope that many would-be new participants would do so at their leisure (and have, say, a day job), I am cognizant that many (most) would likely participate as part of their job. OOo has certainly become easier to work on and one may contribute in any number of ways that have little to do with coding; and , to be sure, we have made it much easier to create extensions. But to work on OOo code requires an allocation of resources. And that implies that OOo be seen as popular enough, powerful enough, and possessed of a future. It has to be seen as worth the investment. Just saving millions of dollars is probably not enough; after all, regressing to typewriters or pens and pencils would also save money, as does not doing anything at all.

(Status quo or regression is tantamount to erecting a fatal wall of isolation. The fact is that the modern world requires the tools that can produce electronic documents and it also requires interoperability. Isolation of any sort is hobbling. At the same time, it's also clear that if a nation is expected to compete globally, its residents need access to the tools of production. They cannot just be limited to the elites nor can we accept the proliferation piracy as any sort of solution to giving all the appearance of access to informatic tools of production. [Pirated copies of proprietary software are still proprietary and have all the encumbrances we have come to expect.])

Brazil and other nations increasingly recognize the problem of being merely consumers and the advantages of becoming producers. Moving from one to the other, let alone moving simply enough to foss, is not trivial. The move to foss saves money; the move to producing foss also saves money, but in cases can also cost. One has to shift educational systems and in some cases encourage markets. Relying on the invisible hand for all this probably doesn't work, at least not at this stage. It doesn't work because in a monopoly environment, there is no invisible hand; there is no real market: that's what a monopoly is all about. The agent enabling this shift has historically been the government: it alone has the ability and the responsibility. For what's at stake here is not the success of one private company or another but a lot more, the commercial health of the nation.

But back to the Festival. Held in the Catholic University (Universidade Católica de Brasilia) just outside Brasilia, and sponsored by an impressive array of local and multinational companies, the event, the second in as many years, spanned two days and included presenters from various ministries as well as national and multinational companies. Its primary organizer, Kleber Fígaro Rozado,the director of Training Tecnologia, invited me. I went down uncertain of the audience; it turned out to be mostly students, which was good, as they were clearly engaged. Even more encouraging, the professors were clearly interested in furthering the connection to fosters users and developers. They want their students to be producers. (Follow up emails have been sent but more needs to be done to ensure that what was sown in October actually bears fruit.)

As is always my fate, I was too occupied with impromptu meetings and discussions to attend all the presentations, which was a pity. But I did catch the Caixa presentation, David Kuhn's of Serpro, Keith Bright's of IBM, and in some ways my favourites, Maddog's.One of the really encouraging things about Caixa's presentation was mention of their contributions to OpenOffice.org. Unlike so many who use without contributing, they recognize that absent their contributions, the fruit may not just whither but never arise. Foss projects need participation, else we are back to commodity dynamics.

I only regret that i had to leave so soon and was unable to enjoy the pleasure of seeing friends. I am glad I was able to renew my acquaintance with Roberto Salomon, now of IBM and one of the leads of the Brazilian language project, and of course, to say hello to Claudio again. I hope to see them again soon, at next year's fisl, an event not to be missed.

FOSS publishing

Last May I had the pleasure of boring people at the LGM event in Montreal, where I met some of the Scribus team and also learned more about FOSS publishing and graphics. As a kind of update, my friend, Mayank Sharma, sent me a link to the magazine he writes for, o3:magazine, and its issue #9 is on open-source publishing. I pitch it here not because Mayank asked me to, but because the magazine touches on creating documents with OpenOffice.org. In particular, Mayank's article on "Collaborative editing with OpenOffice[.org]" is useful and interesting for both editors and writers. I would add that with 2.3, we have improved the component considerably.

Worth a read.