[plug] OSWA closing ?

[Bernd Felsche]

skribe <skribe at amber.com.au> writes:
>Adrian Chadd wrote:

>> Hm, who would be a good candidate though? I'd say "opensouce WA"..

>Maybe try talkback radio.  I don't listen to them but their rep is that 
>they're always dissing the govt.

>> Besides, "innvoation" doesn't have to mean "open source".

>Sure, it shouldn't be exclusive.  But it's somewhat hypocritical to 
>claim to be supporting the IT industry while closing one of the agencies 
>that assists new innovation.  I'm sure even the mainstream media can see 
>that.

Looks like my presentation is about 3 months too late. :-(

In my presentation, I'll be dealing with some of the business
advantages that open source provides... and they're not limited by
the software usually being "free".

Innovation is important for business. It's one way of getting and
maintaining a competitive edge.

The sticky talk will address how businesses can minimise their
exposure to risk by going "all FOSS", and instead maintain their
"mission critical" proprietary systems. At the same time, they can
move forward and innovate their business, using open source software
to keep in touch with their proprietary system; in both directions.

Good, proprietary systems have enormous inertia and are often too
expensive for even medium-sized companies to change significantly
when the way that they do business changes. So the business would
ordinarily, in the "old" model, be stuck with their old system
imposing artificial barriers, or they would have to upgrade/change
to a different proprietary system that encompasses what they
_expect_ to be their future needs.

Western Australia is home to a surprising number of small to medium
businesses that deal with the rest of the world on a regular basis.
Many have sustained their operations for more than 5 or even 10
years, but the way in which they're now expected to deal with their
customers (e.g. EDI, WWW) cannot be done directly with their old,
trusted systems.

FOSS provides a myriad of choices and possibilities for those sorts
of businesses to adapt rapidly and at low cost to changing needs.
That is what is needed to maintain a competitive edge.

You don't have a competitive edge if you are forced to do business
in the same way as others in the same market, who can use the same
proprietary systems.
-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
\ /  ASCII ribbon campaign | "Laws do not persuade just because
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