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Massachusetts IT Chief Quits, Cites Lack Of IT Funds
Government Enterprise ^ | October 05, 2006 | David Gardner

Posted on 10/11/2006 8:45:51 PM PDT by Golden Eagle

The chief information officer of Massachusetts' Information Technology Division (ITD) resigned earlier this week, citing a lack of funding for the state's IT programs. Louis Gutierrez had been a champion of open standards and was a strong supporter of the state's plan to implement the OpenDocument format (ODF) and his resignation could slow the ODF rollout, which is scheduled to go live in January.

Gutierrez had been sounding the alarm over the lack of funding since August when the state's legislature failed to approve a bond issue that would provide financing for various IT programs including the move to ODF.

(Excerpt) Read more at governmententerprise.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ibm; microsoft; odf; opensource; oss
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1 posted on 10/11/2006 8:45:52 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle

Isn't all the good software free these days? Who needs funding for free stuff?


2 posted on 10/11/2006 8:46:52 PM PDT by MarkeyD (The tree of liberty must from time to time be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.)
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To: MarkeyD

I guess the free stuff costs more than they thought.


3 posted on 10/11/2006 8:47:36 PM PDT by Golden Eagle (Buy American. While you still can.)
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To: Golden Eagle

What, after saving all that money on open systems software? Oh, did they reduce his budget by the amount of "savings" and he found that the "savings" statement was all smoke and mirrors?


4 posted on 10/11/2006 8:48:02 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Prayers for our patriot brother, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub. Brian, we're all pulling for you!)
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To: ShadowAce; FLAMING DEATH; rzeznikj at stout

chirp chirp


5 posted on 10/11/2006 8:48:59 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: Petronski; MikefromOhio; JRios1968; stephenjohnbanker; antiRepublicrat; zeugma

AIT...


6 posted on 10/11/2006 8:53:13 PM PDT by rzeznikj at stout (Boldly Going Nowhere...)
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To: NonValueAdded

I think they're having the same problems with these open source rollouts over in France and Germany. But for some reason they are still passing laws requiring it.


7 posted on 10/11/2006 8:53:29 PM PDT by Golden Eagle (Buy American. While you still can.)
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To: Golden Eagle
I guess the free stuff costs more than they thought.

Golden Eagle...if Yogi Beara runs out of steam and needs a ghost-
writer of "Yogisms", you might be a shoe-in for that job.
Especially if they finally let Yogi do another AFLAC commercial!
8 posted on 10/11/2006 8:53:47 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA

I guess Golden Eagle can always take over for Casey Stengel...


9 posted on 10/11/2006 8:55:26 PM PDT by JRios1968 (Tagline wanted...inquire within)
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To: VOA

FUNNY!


10 posted on 10/11/2006 8:57:12 PM PDT by Golden Eagle (Buy American. While you still can.)
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To: NonValueAdded; MarkeyD; Golden Eagle

As I understand all you confusion about how this little flack could happen let me try to explain the benefits and drawbacks of Open Source Software. The benefits are that, in many cases you don't have to deal with expensive licenses and costly maintenance agreements. Open Source Software is frequently monitored for security and operational bugs. There is an Open Source Solution for every commercial application in existence. Now the drawbacks is you need to hire IT personel familiar with these applications. In many cases this can offset the cost savings of the Software being free or low cost. In some cases, there are companies that provide support or maintenance agreeemnts for Open Source, and often much cheaper than for commercial applications. But again you need staff that is familiar with the software.


11 posted on 10/11/2006 8:58:10 PM PDT by phoenix0468 (http://www.mylocalforum.com -- Go Speak Your Mind.)
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To: Golden Eagle; ShadowAce

If all IT people quit their jobs over lack of sufficient funding there would be no IT people left.


12 posted on 10/11/2006 8:59:06 PM PDT by KoRn
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To: VOA

LOL.


13 posted on 10/11/2006 8:59:07 PM PDT by phoenix0468 (http://www.mylocalforum.com -- Go Speak Your Mind.)
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To: JRios1968; Golden Eagle

JRios1968,
Thanks for the prompting. Casey did have some beauts:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/casey_stengel.html


14 posted on 10/11/2006 8:59:41 PM PDT by VOA
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To: phoenix0468

I've been saying that about "free" software for years.


15 posted on 10/11/2006 9:00:47 PM PDT by MarkeyD (The tree of liberty must from time to time be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.)
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To: phoenix0468

Don't forget training costs for the users. There are also productivity costs as users adapt to the different look and feel. That is the whole point about cost savings statements generally being overly optimistic, usually because of errors of omission.


16 posted on 10/11/2006 9:06:02 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Prayers for our patriot brother, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub. Brian, we're all pulling for you!)
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To: MarkeyD

The benefit of the software being free does eventually overtake the drawback of having to hire "specialists". You have to understand that there are other benefits as well. I.E. you can customize an Open Source App to your business model, while commercial "off the shelf" products are not customizable (in most cases). You don't find SDKs for SQL Server 2000 or Oracle unless it's the Enterprise edition and your organization is paying tens of thousands for licensing, support, and maintenance.

Open Source is still in it's infancy, and while it might be a tough sell, those organizations with vision will see the eventual cost savings. Those without vision will continually line the pockets of Larry, and Bill.


17 posted on 10/11/2006 9:09:13 PM PDT by phoenix0468 (http://www.mylocalforum.com -- Go Speak Your Mind.)
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To: VOA

Thanks, those are great! I love baseball, actually had a softball game rained out tonight.


18 posted on 10/11/2006 9:10:02 PM PDT by Golden Eagle (Buy American. While you still can.)
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

19 posted on 10/11/2006 9:12:01 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: phoenix0468
You don't find SDKs for SQL Server 2000 or Oracle?

What do you mean you don't find SDK's. Plenty of ODBC or ADO drivers out there. Or do you mean you don't find SDKs for Linux. FYI, I'm a developer.
20 posted on 10/11/2006 9:19:29 PM PDT by MarkeyD (The tree of liberty must from time to time be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.)
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