[olug] Real opportunity for getting Open Source into theEnterprise

[Matthew Platte]

On Tuesday, November 26, 2002, at 08:24 PM, J.R. Wessels wrote:

> I can (almost) guarantee that other stations around the US would be
> interested.

Who at the stations is interested, though? The techies or the PHB's 
[obligatory Dilbert reference]?

I've been on both sides of the "Here's a new, better database" 
presentation, mostly on the buyer's side as the techie. As I'm sure you 
all know, the decision (not) to buy the product is based on a number of 
issues both rational and irrational, and one of the toughest is meeting 
the comfort level the Boss requires with the humans that will 
install/program/maintain the system. She will ask questions like, 
"who's gonna fix the database when the magic smoke leaks out of the 
server two years down the road?"

My guess is that without a well-defined support and maintenance 
organization, the Boss will say, "thanks, but we require a bit more..."

Would OLUG -- or a subset of OLUG -- be willing and able to make a 
long-term commitment to provide the deliverables? How would we organize 
and represent ourselves? Corporation, co-operative, workers collective, 
or principled band of independent geeks? Who wants to carry the cell 
phone?

Personally, I think it would be way cool for OLUG to do this thing, and 
I'd be willing to carry the cell phone at least part of the time. I 
live a little over a mile from NET World Headquarters.



--
   ---------^^--
Matthew D. McCain Platte
"We're the world's best problem solving organization," one guy said. 
"How do you solve problems," I asked. "With a smoking hole," came the 
reply. "If your problem needs a smoking hole, we're here to help."  
--Doc Searls visiting Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories