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Re: [News] Big Free Software Push Coming from the Philippines

____/ skydweller on Thursday 15 November 2007 23:39 : \____

> On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:04:48 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> 
>> UP Manila pushing open source initiatives for SE Asia
>> 
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Marcelo said that next month, the IOSN will release five free and open
>> source | software (FOSS) primers focused on five topics: health, small
>> and medium | enterprises, FOSS interoperability, security and
>> interoperability of disaster | management of information system.
>> `----
>> 
>> http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?
> article_id=100849
> 
> Hmm.  Less than an hour after this was published, Microsoft and CompTIA
> announce a joint initiative to promote OOXML in the Philippines.
> 
> Nahhh, must be a coincidence.
> 
> So, who has the ear of the Philippine government - the best and brightest
> of the Philippines, or "outside agitators"?
> 
> Or, perhaps, the ear takes a back seat to the pocket.
> 
> Have a nice day.

Microsoft lobbies very aggressively in that country. Examples from the past
years include:

Open source bill hits snag in Congress

,----[ Quote ]
| The bill was criticized by the Philippine Software Industry
| Association (PSIA), an industry group representing major
| software vendors. In a statement, PSIA said the bill limits
| freedom of choice among users and hinders the growth of the industry. 
`----

http://www.asianjournal.com/?c=190&a=18662

That's the BSA (Microsoft police) of that nation.

FOSS Bill Listed For First Public Hearing

,----[ Quote ]
| Listed for November 15th, the hearing by The Committee on Information and
| Communications Technology has invited comment from various stakeholders
| potentially affected by the bill, including community representatives as
| well as industry giants Microsoft and Oracle.
`----                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

http://www.localfoss.org/Philippino_FOSS_Bill_Public_Hearing



Context:

EU experts to conduct open source workshops

,----[ Quote ]
| The event, titled "Philippine Conference on Free and Open Source
| Software and E- Governance," will be held March 7-8 at the
| Edsa Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong City.
`----

http://www.asianjournal.com/?c=190&a=18386


The Open Source Bill

,----[ Quote ]
| "This act shall be known as the "Free/Open Source Software (FOSS)
| Act of 2006"
`----

http://www.chinwong.com/Documents/FOSS_bill_draft_.pdf


I do try to keep track of that sort of corruption. If it's published openly,
someone in the nation can pick it up and accuse the government of what it does
without attracting too much media attention. It's the same in some
neighbouring countries. Even American states had ODF bills watered down, but
that's another story that involved corruption and bullying, e.g.:

Microsoft's 'Men in Black' kill Florida open standards legislation

,----[ Quote ]
| It was just a bit of text advocating open data formats that was slipped into
| a Florida State Senate bill at the last minute with no fanfare, but within
| 24 hours three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were
| pressuring members of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations
| (COGO) to remove the words they didn't like from Senate bill 1974. 
`----

http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/2019244&from=rss


State by state, Microsoft responds to creeping threat

,----[ Quote ]
| Characteristically, as lawmakers like Homan have learned,
| Microsoft's hardly taking a passive position.
| 
| [...]
| 
| 'Microsoft sees what's coming. Things like Word and Excel 
| sort of like a drug now getting ready to go generic.'
`----

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/state-state-microsoft-responds-assault/story.aspx?guid=%7BC0D943C4%2D4ADC%2D471C%2D8F87%2D9181A4EC3E7B%7D&siteid=yhoof
http://tinyurl.com/2akafj


,----[ Quote ]
| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis 
| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political 
|                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document 
| ^^^^^
| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's 
| Office Open XML file format.
`----

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50


,----[ Quote ]
|    Quinn:  Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
|    the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
|    or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
|    is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
|    Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
|                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|    Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
|    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|    playbook and words, in my opinion.
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729


MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group

http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183


Other goodies:

Changing the Report, After the Vote

,----[ Quote ]
| That agreement was nearly imperiled last weekend, though. Gerri
| Elliott, corporate vice president at Microsoft's Worldwide Public
| Sector division, sent an e-mail message to fellow commissioners
| Friday evening saying that she "vigorously" objected to a paragraph
| in which the panel embraced and encouraged the development of open
| source software and open content projects in higher education. 
`----

http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission


Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'

,----[ Quote ]
| leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of
| lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread
| adoption of open-source software.
| 
| Sent in response to a recent report on the role of open-source
| software in the European economy, Microsoft-funded pressure
| group, the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) warned of
| potentially dire effects if too much encouragement was given
| to open source software development.
`----

http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109

If you want more examples, please say so. It's rather amazing what Microsoft
and its lobbying arms can get away with. Someone should take action. More
action (Neelie sold out).

-- 
                ~~ Best of wishes

.oʍʇ sɐ buıɥʇ ɥɔns ou s,ǝɹǝɥʇ 'ɹǝpuǝq 'ʎɹɹoʍ ʇ,uop :ʎɹɟ
.oʍʇ ɐ ʍɐs ı ʇɥbnoɥʇ ı puɐ ...ǝɹǝɥʍʎɹǝʌǝ soɹǝz puɐ sǝuo .ɯɐǝɹp 1nɟʍɐ uɐ
ʇɐɥʍ 'ɥɥɥɐ :ɹǝpuǝq

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