[Fsf-india] IT Policy Govt of Kerala

[Khuzaima A. Lakdawala]

Hi,

To make a long message short, I have taken the liberty to quote
selectively:

Raju Mathur <raju@linux-delhi.org> writes:

> For instance, the system administrator in an organisation may consider
> freedom the biggest criterion while selecting software; his CTO/CIO
> would be considering a number of issues including the ones I'd
> mentioned in my earlier message; the MD of the company would only be
> concerned about the returns he can show to shareholders, and the
> shareholders are only interested in the price of the stock and the
> dividends they receive.  Trying to get each of these people to put an
> abstract (and probably completely, to them, meaningless) criterion
> like software freedom first on their list of priorities is impossible.

The flaw in this argument is that it keeps referring to software
freedoms as "abstract." There is nothing abstract about the freedom to
use one copy of the software throughout an organisation, the freedom
to access and modify the software source and the freedom to
redistribute modified or unmodified software (both to save cost and
help others). If this MD comes to know that his company is about to
buy a car which comes with a End User License Agreement as restrictive
as the one which comes with proprietary software, he is not going to
buy it. The *problem* is he is not even *aware* of the freedoms being
denied. Our foremost task should be to educate him about the
*existence* of these freedoms instead of presuming at the outset that
it is "impossible" to try.

In fact, if we accept the "impossibility" of the acceptance of
software freedom as the first priority in the choice of computer
software, then we are implicitly accepting that Free Software will
never "make it" (so to speak) and simply remain a kind of niche
player. Because, if Free Software is simply "marketed" in conventional
terms it will never reach any threshold required for a take-off. Free
Software was never intended to "compete" with proprietary software on
terms set by the proprietary software industry. By not stressing on
freedom first and trying to market free software on technical and cost
issues, we will be falling into a dangerous trap much to the glee of
the proprietary software industry. For them, it will be just another
marketing challenge which they will be more than happy to meet and
meet so successfully that they will beat us hollow because all their
marketing resources are primed precisely to meet challenges like
these.

> First rule of marketing: find out what the potential client wants,
> /then/ sell him your ideas.  Just forcing the idea of software freedom
> down a persons throat is never going to work -- understand his needs
> and requirements, then you can wrap your philosophy in the chocolate
> of TCO's and stability and get him to swallow it nice and easy and
> look! you have a convert!

A short term "convert" at best, until he is next approached by that
proprietary software marketing team. Only this time their EULA will be
wrapped in a more delicious offering.

You see the futility of this approach?

Regards,
Khuzaima

-- 
Khuzaima A. Lakdawala