HB1197 Status

[Ed Lawson]

On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 06:20:20 -0500
Seth Cohn <sethcohn at gnuhampshire.org> wrote:

> Upon checking with the Office of
> Information Technology, it was determined that the state does
not have
> the technical resources to control or support such software. 


I believe there are some things that should be done before
planning for next year.  First, go and read the committee
file on this bill in order to ascertain exactly what information
was presented to them on paper to compare that to what was said.
Second, go talk to the folks at OIT to ascertain what their issue
was regarding support and what their position happens to be on
Open Source generally. I seriously doubt OIT directly supports
desktop applications in various departments.  People need to look
at RSA 4-D and study it.  Look at the various entities created
there and what their roles are.  Obviously there are several and
a great deal of lobbying can go on with them before going to the
legislature.  In fact, if the entities created under RSA 4-D
are doing a good job, then they should be studying open source
anyway.  If not, why not and what do they need to get it on their
radar?

 I really do not want to discuss this further, but the
public perception of what the legislative process and politics in
NH is like and what really goes on are two very different things.
This is a good example.

 It is entirely possible OIT opposed it
simply because they saw it as an assault on their turf and
assigning their job to some study committee when this task has
been assigned under RSA 4-D anyway.  In fact I could make a good
argument against the legislation on the basis it was the wrong
way to get the state to consider using more open source
software.

Ed Lawson