MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-02-16 |
| FROM | Christian Einfeldt
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Re: [Marketing] Re: Open Source for National and Local eGovernment Programs in the U.S. and EU
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Ruben,
Although I share your belief that MS should not be at that conference, the
momentum definitely appears to be on the side of open source in general, and
Open Office and Linux in specific.
I believe that the open source movement is democratic enough to include a wide
range of opinions, including a demonstration, if you feel that is the best
remedy to MS's inclusion in the conference. I don't think that I personally
would join such a protest, simply because time is so limited, and in this
particular instance, I don't think that the open source/ free software
movement is going to get shafted badly enough by MS's presence to warrant a
protest.
I also agree with you that it would be nice for some voice to be heard clearly
articulating the view that MS is NOT open anything. I'm a newbie, I can
basically only use pull down menus (I use SuSE Linux), so I don't really know
what the best way would be for your voice to be heard. If you decide to
protest, I would try to coordinate your efforts with those inside the
conference. MS is basically going to be like a bad fart in a crowded room,
and everyone inside the conference is going to know who cut the cheese, and
they will all attempt to move away from the stinker.
So, if we can't keep MS out, I personally would probably want to do something
funny and not too disruptive to protest their presence, such as go in there
with big fake clown cloths pins taped to my nose and a big fake clown aerosol
can with FART REPELLENT written on the side to mock Microsoft, and PRETEND to
spray it at them if they have a booth.
Also, during the speeches, I might want to bring a whoopee cushion and get
seat right down front so that whenever someone from MS speaks, you can have
your whoopee cushion inflated and ready to roll out a nice loud farting sound
by sitting on your whoopee cushion at the most strategic moments. Timing is
everything!!!!!
Just remember, a little bit of this comedy can go a long way, and too much
will make it not funny anymore, and will disrupt OUR chance to eat
Microsoft's lunch!!!!!! Meaning, I think that lots of these governmental
people are going to be there to just see each other, smile and nod and say,
yeah, see Bobbie Joe over there is using open source, so it's okay if we use
it too. Microsoft recently admitted in its SEC quarterly filings that open
source is going to hurt its biz, so we want to let these conferees get
together and eat Microsoft's lunch without too much interruption. IMHO.
On Sunday 16 February 2003 09:36, Ruben Safir wrote:
> In short, Your wrong, and you've missed the point.
>
> > We will work to make sure that there's no confusion by attendees.
> >
> > In short, I think a protest is a bad idea. Don't do it.
____________________________
New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
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