Thanks for pointing out that report, though I certainly don’t thank you for the internet time-wasting that it started- I ended up visiting the Conservatives web site (yuck) and read a speech by George Osbourne that seemed to suggest that they’ve just heard this cool new term “open source” and want to apply it to absolutely everything, including politics! Interesting, yet slightly misguided. However, whether they understand what the term means or not, it would be great if Government IT was opened up to smaller firms with more transparency.

Jo

Meanwhile, in other news (already posted this but for some reason it didn’t “stick”): The UK Conservative party seem to be looking at OS as a possible means of cutting costs for government IT contracts and reducing long-term dependence on big suppliers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7853086.stm

If even the Tories can get their heads around these potential benefits of OS, why on earth can’t the current government? Still, maybe you guys can take advantage of being ahead of the game on this, eh?

It was good to see you there as well! I’m sorry you couldn’t stay for the rest of the talk but thanks for getting in touch. The best place to find out about the local chapter is to sign up at the wiki page http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/United_Kingdom where there is an address for the mailing list. I do try and post about things here too, but you never know what I might miss!

Jo

It was great to see you there and attend your presentation. Unfortunately, me and my friend Jo, we had to leave shortly after 7pm and we didn’t have chance to talk later.

I hope you will keep posting here announcements about next meetings.