Yes, the logo/letterhead is indeed a joke. The missile is a `Penguin'. Please dream up a real logo and send it to us.

Dear Sir [or Madam, as appropriate]

We represent a number of industry consultancies which are becoming concerned that the Australian Government, and in particular the Education sector, are failing to address a significant paradigm shift in the way educational IT is carried out, while other countries in Oceania and around the world hasten take advantage of it and position themselves as leaders in the field.

We note an additional $14 million in the new Federal budget for computers in education, and wonder if this will be squandered - as previous funds have been - without producing computer literate students, and at great cost both to Australia's perceived lead in education, and to Australia's general technological edge.

Parliaments around the world are moving to take advantage of the improved security, auditability, localisation and reduced cost of this new computer paradigm, but Australian politics appears to be dead in the water as regards addressing it.

Schools around the world are installing new computer labs at half the cost or less, escaping torturous and eventually ruinous licencing agreements, practically eliminating their virus problems, and at the same time giving their students access to the next revolution in computer software, and empowering their students in ways that the previous generation of software systems cannot.

We don't have a product to sell you, we speak of other people's products, and often these products offer literally infinite value for money. All of us are up to our eyeballs in work in this new arena already, we don't need more work from you. But all of us believe that Australia will suffer if it continues to neglect this important and largely silent reformation which has been underway for more than a decade and is only now beginning to hit the mainstream news services.

You can help to secure Australia's IT future by investigating the Open Source revolution for yourself, discovering the many possibilities it opens for you which are impossible with yesterday's software paradigm, investigating the potentially huge cost savings, and finding ways to begin integrating it into the plans for your own organisation.

[Click-here | see-the-following-pages] for details. [here in OpenOffice.org 1.0 format]

(Signed)

every man
his dog

The Open Source Reformation

And What It Can Do For You

Computer software is nearly unique in that the cost of storing, copying or moving it is very small compared to the cost of making it or the benefits it can bring.

When computers as we know them today were first being developed, everyone involved usually had access to all of the pieces, and different computer centers, sometimes even competing companies, more or less freely shared techniques and software. These days soon passed, and computers soon became as dog-eat-dog competitive as any other field.

Richard Stallman, a man who was involved with electronic computers from these very early days, lamented the loss of this valuable, fruitful co-operation and worked hard to establish a set of rules and some foundational programs (collectively known as `the GNU system') to foster truly open and collaborative programming again.

Through his work and the Free Software Foundation, these rules have gradually become accepted by an enormous number of talented people in every country across the globe, and healthy interaction has once again begun to have an impact. The very fabric of the Internet, systems like names, web sites and file repositories, firewalls and email, is today supported largely by systems built around his rules (called `the GPL' or `the General Public Licence') and related sets of rules like `the BSD licence.'

The thing that makes the GPL special is that it guarantees that if you can get a program, you can get all of the pieces for it. This means that if the company goes out of business, or if you want to change or fix things (either yourself, or by paying someone to), you can do it.

People whose fortunes rest on extorting as much as possible from systems doomed to forever be mysterious `black boxes' to their users are understandably terrified of the GPL, so they have begun to work hard at slandering, mis-representing and undercutting it.

On the other hand, computer users who understand just how valuable the added control and safety of GPLed software is, like us, are rallying in support of it.

Many countries, such as Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Peru, Argentina, Germany and Italy, have recognised this value so clearly that they are making or have made laws to say that all software used in government service must have a licence like this wherever possible. Australia will soon stand out in Oceania as one of the few lacking a clear and positive public policy towards Open Source.

Many countries, such as in Thailand and America, have seen schools which are under threat from the corporate greed of software suppliers turning to Open Source solutions and finding them suitable, economical, reliable and secure. They are also finding that Open Source software can be used with their students in new and exciting ways which are literally impossible with `closed' software. Some `closed' software suppliers even go so far as to explicitly forbid these excellent uses in their licence agreements.

There is no easier answer to a software audit demand than `we don't use any of that,' but you can't give that answer if you haven't already adopted Open Source alternatives.

In the following pages, we will give you an exploded view of Open Source software making your organisation:

• More economical

• More secure

• More reliable

• More autonomous

• More standards compliant