Cover Letter
(mailed to Ministers as an introduction to our Open Letter.)
Dear Ministers,
A few of weeks ago, a group of New Zealand-based information technology
companies wrote an open message to you which I subsequently
made available on a web site, www.openz.org. Its purpose was threefold:
- to alert you to the fact that our government and related public institutions (e.g. schools, the healthcare system, etc.) have become entirely dependent on the products and continued viability of a single foreign information technology vendor.
- to reveal the far reaching implications of using information technologies which are inherently exclusive - tied up by the closed standards of that one vendor - and in which our domestic IT community can play no meaningful role.
- to propose an alternative to the current IT status quo. The alternative promotes openness and integration, and potentially involves all IT vendors. It would encourage the development of a strong, adaptable, coordinated yet competitive, distributed domestic IT industry where many vendors differentiate themselves based on knowledge and skill with related technologies rather than perceived corporate stability and mutually exclusive proprietary technologies.
Our message has garnered a good deal of support from a wide range of
companies and individuals, and I believe that, on the heels of the "Knowledge Wave
Conference," we can provide a plan of action for the government which, if
adopted, will foster the development of a vibrant knowledge-based economy.
We, the supporters of the "Open Letter to Parliament on Open Standards and
Open Source Software" would like to hear your response to our letter and our
proposed alternative to the status quo. We have offered to present to you
our capabilities, and it is our hope that you will call on us to do so.
There are many capable knowledge workers in New Zealand, and I believe that
collectively, not only can we provide you with world beating information
technology, but we can show this country that it has every reason to be
optimistic about its future.
Yours sincerely,
David Lane
Coordinator, Open Letter to Parliament on Open Standards and Open Source Software
Coordinator, Open Letter to Parliament on Open Standards and Open Source Software
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