Steve: "IMHO you get what you pay for. What usually happens to go one step further is that contracting companies with connections in Salem and usually with the lowest bid get the job." Can you think of any ideas to prevent this from happening? This seems to be one big bugaboo. Is there a fair way to conduct RFP's? I mean, as discussed in an earlier thread, the state uses consultants when acquiring technology. Oftentimes, these consultants have a preexisting relationship with a vendor, and they usually have an interest in moving (through customized RFP's) business to those vendors. "As to milking the state dry... the project manager needs to have the knowledge to know what he/she exactly needs and to realize when they are getting milked." Agreed. The scope of projects need to be clearly and concretely set out at the beginning. Otherwise you end up with a lot of "feature creep" and cost overruns. I do agree that there are applications where using open source would unpracticable. However, I do think that there are some applications where open source could be quite useful, especially with custom solutions. "The key really is to set some PRACTICAL standards, audit them regularly, and force people into compliance. The only way to do this is a top-down buy in from the governor, legislature, and the various turf-lords. Which means somebody has to tell these people - now is the time. " Andrew, what sort of standards would you suggest? Greg: "The open source community is unlikely to produce massive and specialized software systems such as what the IRS or FAA or State of Oregon need." But would companies that were historically non-open source produce open source material to obtain a contract? Rob: "You know, that wireless stuff is neat! I got one at home. We could really save a lot if we didn't have to run cable around the building." Aghh!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 24 2002 - 18:29:00 PDT