FOSS support for organisations (was) Re: [Fsf-friends] Re: [??.??.??.?] Red Hat signs MoU with Kerala govt

[Pramode C.E.]

> 
> I was asking a question here which you could have
> found out if you had read my last complete
> mail - " How can we ensure non-commercial, timely
> and reliable support to organizations 
> moving to FOSS solutions?". 
> 


It should be possible to build two kinds of support
structures - (a) the local engineering colleges (at
least a few of them) have students who are technically
much more competent than so-called `support staff' of
most big companies. Maybe, we might try forming some
kind of `foss  development cells' in these colleges
and put them to work actively solving problems. Yes,
there are lots of practical difficulties (students
can't work full time, you won't get them during exam
time, ...), but at least, what is wrong in trying this
out? 

(b) Even when you look at the commercial support
angle, what is more sensible is developing enough
expertise locally - kerala has an abundant supply of
unemployed graduates - and most of them are not dumb.
Why not think of training these people so that they
can be gainfully self-employed as `FOSS technical
consultants'.

When we think `commercial', let's not think of big
companies. Lets think of small, local enterprises. 

Regards,
Pramode
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