[plug] Closure of OSWA

[Tim Bowden]

On Mon, 2006-10-23 at 10:44 +0800, Stuart Midgley wrote:
> I posted this to the forums on the saveopensourcewa.com website... I  
> would be interested in people's perspective here.
> 
> 
> 
> I have watched with interest the discussion and observed the emails  
> on the PLUG email list.
> 
> What functionality of OSWA did people actually use? What  
> functionality do people want in such a centre? Did people use the  
> demonstration centre much? Or was it more a point of contact and  
> advocacy?

How have I directly used OSWA? Only the PLUG seminars held there.  What
functionality of OSWA would I like to see?  Given that I am involved in
implementing open source at the core of a major govt IT project (SLIP-
Shared Land Information Platform, for Dept of Land Information) I'd like
to see govt tech staff being able to call on the resources of OSWA to
get a handle on how open source typically works, how it differs from
proprietary software in development and support and how find support
services for FOSS. There is often a degree of kickback at the tech level
where FOSS is something new that is being introduced (from the top down
in this case).

> 
> I'm concerned that people have jumped onto the (general) opensource  
> bandwagon without clearly articulating what functionality of the  
> centre or use of its resources they are concerned about.
> 
> 
> --
> Dr Stuart Midgley
> Industry Uptake Program Leader
> iVEC, 'The hub of advanced computing in Western Australia'
> 26 Dick Perry Avenue, Technology Park
> Kensington WA 6151
> Australia
> 
> Phone: +61 8 6436 8545
> Fax: +61 8 6436 8555
> Email: industry at ivec.org
> WWW:  http://www.ivec.org
> 

Tim Bowden
Mapforge Geospatial