Ladies and Gentlemen,
It has been interesting reading all the fine words on 'Public
domain', 'Open Source' and so on over the past few days, but please remember
the very large number of small, independent - or in some cases nearly so -
museums around the country that have to turn a profit just to keep going
from their only asset, their Collections.
David Lingard
Chairman, Dartmouth Museum
----- Original Message -----
From: "J Martin" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 2:50 AM
Subject: Re: BBC Article
> Hi Colin,
>
> Thanks for this.
>
> A couple of film quotes spring to mind:
>
> "Greed is good, greed works" - (Michael Douglas in 'Wall St').
>
> and:
>
> "You don't own that 'plane, the taxpayer does" - (baldy US CAG Commander
> in 'Top Gun').
>
> Make thy choice!
>
> IMHO, the UK cultural heritage "industry" should reject any, covert or
> otherwise, efforts to turn "public domain" into "profit centre". Our
> citizens deserve better and it would indicate a gross dereliction of duty
> to those we serve on our part were we to inhibit the free
> dissemination of information.
>
> Whilst "Web 2.0" per se has some merits, un-educated adoption of it by
> institutions can lead to real harm IMHO. No doubt they will learn.
>
> Regards,
>
> James
>
> P.S., Is the final (dodgily ISO-approved) OOXML spec. available via. bl.uk
> yet? (I jest!). Not too bothered if not as we run EduBuntu rather than the
> very expensive and even more deficient Microsoft offerings.
>
> On Tue, 22 Apr 2008, Colin Hynson wrote:
>
>> Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:25:08 +0100
>> From: Colin Hynson <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [MCG] BBC Article
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Thought you might be interested in this:
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7360263.stm
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Colin Hynson
>>
>> **************************************************
>> For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit
>> the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
>> **************************************************
>>
>
> --
>
> Important IT news update follows:
>
> The European Parliament's IT team is moving to Ubuntu + OpenOffice +
> Firefox http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7565 ("the tests show this
> Open Source configuration meets the Parliament's office requirements.").
>
> The UK government is migrating 3,000,000 HMG desktops to OpenOffice
> (saving us taxpayers GBP 3,000,000,000) -
> http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/03/31/230047/pc-deal-could-save-public-sector-billions.htm
> keywords: "OpenOffice, networked [i.e., thin-client]".
>
> http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/CP0041OpenSourceSoftwareTrialReport.pdf is
> also a very good read.
>
> [log in to unmask]
> SDF-EU Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf-eu.org
>
> **************************************************
> For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the
> website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
> **************************************************
>
**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
**************************************************
