Open Enterprise
Glyn Moody
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Glyn Moody's look at all levels of the enterprise open source stack. The blog will look at the organisations that are embracing open source, old and new alike (start-ups welcome), and the communities of users and developers that have formed around them (or not, as the case may be).
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Linked-in ProfileNo, Really: Spare a Fiver?
Published 11:02, 23 June 08
A little while back I was mouthing off about being willing to fork out a fiver in support of the UKUUG's valiant attempts to get to the bottom of the goings-on in the OOXML vote at the BSI. Well, my bluff has been called:
UKUUG is seeking funding help in its legal action against BSI over the proposed OOXML standard.
UKUUG is facing a potential legal bill of some 50k GBP if it is not successful.
The greatest part of our costs, if we lose, will be in paying the BSI legal costs. This stood at 24,500 GBP in mid May. Our legal opponents are well funded and, if they lose, the legal costs will not cause them any grief; the same is not true for UKUUG -- costs if we lose would cause severe problems. We regard this as an important matter but cannot afford to spend all of UKUUG's reserves in this action. A donation to the OOXML fighting fund would be gratefully received.
This is an important fight, because if the UKUUG is unable to continue its action, it will mean that money trumps justice. I don't think anyone would want that - well, aside from one or two organisations, maybe. But the only way to avoid that outcome is for people who care about open standards to cough up.
I've now given: so how about you?
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