Re: Public administrations

[Sebastien Biot <seb viralata net>]

Thanks Claus for bringing up that topic. I have a few things to add to 
the discussion based on my experience working for the state of Maryland 
for about 4 years. I believe it applies to a wide range of state 
administrative agencies in the US. I don't know how much it would apply 
to other places.

1. Gov. agencies are part of large(r) systems, bigger branches of the 
government, which generally make a lot of decisions for them, especially 
when it comes to IT. They don't necessarily decide what they buy or use. 
There's a state-sanctioned web browser, a state-sanctioned office suite, 
a state-sanctioned way of doing web development etc. It's not as bad as 
it sounds but it's there and it's something to take into account.

2. Gov. agencies have their own procurement channels. They enter into
contractual relationships with big vendors who sell them software and
hardware at whatever price have been negotiated (government prices). It 
can be hard for outside people to get in. You need to meet certain 
standards; you need to be able to play by their (the agencies') rules.

3. Gov. agencies subcontract a lot. They usually pass along the 
technology guidelines they were given to their contractors who happily 
oblige. Contractors are therefore not encouraged to innovate and instead 
go for proven solutions. This lack of originality is made worse by the 
fact that state agencies are told that they have to act business-like 
which usually translates into doing whatever the private sector is doing 
however dumb or costly that may be.

4. Gov. agencies are big on meeting standards. Their adoption of a given 
technology is sometimes guided by the standards it meets or doesn't 
meet. Businesses may have the option to compromise on those; 
administrations often don't.

What does that all means in terms of marketing and promoting GNOME is an 
interesting topic for debate. I would suggest the following:

 - Unless they are encouraged or told to innovate, gov. agencies don't. 
Instead they tend to follow trends. If you want to sell GNOME, you 
should sell it as a proven solution. GNOME has a pretty good track 
record there I would think. The more legitimate and mainstream GNOME 
appears to be, the more attractive it will be to those agencies.

 - Gov. agencies don't interact directly with "what's out there." 
Instead they rely on intermediaries: contractors, vendors, whatever gov. 
branch is above them, etc. That seems to indicate that there's not much 
we (volunteers on a mailing list) can do to reach them. That's a job 
better left to FOSS businesses or to the GNOME Foundation which can act 
as such an intermediary and can provide the kind of respectability they 
look for.

- One exception to the observation above is conferences and professional 
meetings. Getting people to give talks about GNOME at some of those 
would work. These conferences are not geeky or trendy events but boring 
business conferences with large companies always well represented and 
kissing ass as hard as they can. I don't know how we could get people in 
there; maybe with the help of the Foundation?

- Gov. agencies can't afford to take risks (their purchasing powers are 
limited, they are closely watched, etc...) and will buy known solutions 
from known vendors. Not much we can do here unfortunately except perhaps 
always keeping in mind in our marketing and promotional efforts that 
mentioning (and pointing to) the availability of support is crucial. I 
think that's a point which applies to other groups as well.

- Selling GNOME as a development platform to gov. agencies could be a 
waste of time. They are usually on the receiving/purchasing end of the 
development cycle. We should spare them the tech talk. That's also a 
point which applies to other groups: mention development to developers 
and to no one else unless they ask.

- We must make sure that we communicate well the standards GNOME 
complies with and perhaps see which important ones we might be missing 
and by how much.

- They are individuals in those agencies ready to rock the boat. We 
should think about ways to help them. Two obvious ones come to my mind:
  * provide a lot of nice documentation highlighting some of the points 
above to show their boss;
  * ask FOSS businesses to provide training and certification programs 
-- training is another way agencies ensure they use and purchase serious 
IT solutions. The idea of being "GNOME Certified" or something similar 
might sound ridiculous to you but I have a feeling it would help.

That's all folks.

--
Sebastien Biot - www.viralata.net
         "mus in pice"