Okay, you've probably seen this link by now:
http://uf.freeculture.org/2007/04/01/legislature-2007-state-of-florida-it/
Bottom line: Rep. Ed Homan (R-Tampa) tried to get a small paragraph
added to a general IT bill in the State Senate that mildly favored open
standards (i.e. ODF etc.) in state IT operations. It was a quiet effort,
he told me, but still, within 24 hours all the State Senators on the
appropriate committee had been contacted by lobbyists representing
Microsoft, who also paid him a visit.
"It was like 'Men in Black," Ed told me. Three men, all wearing black
suits."
Ed had a lot more to say. And so did others close to the matter. I'll
have a story up on Linux.com Monday.
**BUT** you can help make this a better story and a STRONGER LOBBYING
EFFORT, too, by making a couple of calls.
These are the members of the Governmental Operations Committee:
Al Lawson (Chair) - (850) 487-5004 - lawson.alfred.web@flsenate.gov Bill
Posey (Vice Chair) - (850) 487-5053 - posey.bill.web@flsenate.gov Nancy
Argenziano - (850) 487-5017 - argenziano.nancy.web@flsenate.gov Jim King -
(850) 487-5030 - king.james.web@flsenate.gov Steve Oelrich - (850) 487-5020
- oelrich.steve.web@flsenate.gov Frederica Wilson - (850) 487-5116 -
wilson.frederica.web@flsenate.gov
Please call these people's offices and ask them why they rejected the open standards addition to SB 1974.
Don't email. Call.
AND take notes on what they say, and please email those responses to me, robin@roblimo.com
If any of these Senators deny any lobbying influence, here are the lobbyists' names and affiliations:
Will McKinley of Dutko Poole McKinley, Jim Daughton, Jr. and Geoffrey Becker both of Metz, Hauser,
Husband & Daughton, PA.
Ed said that as far as he knew, this was the *only* input the Senators got about his little attempt to bring at least a tiny ray of open source goodness (starting with open standards) to Florida state government. No legislators regularly hear from citizens interested in either open standards or open source software.
Ed and his son, Doug, have both told me they think (like, this is a surprise?) that most FL lawmakers know -zero- about this stuff; that it's too late to educate them for the current leg. session, but that we really need to start working on them for next year.
Ed gave me info for IBM's lobbyist, who may be willing to help on the open source side. I'll call her shortly.
Meanwhile, if you could call the Senators noted above -- and possibly your own legislators -- and let me know what they (or at least their office people) have to say, I would appreciate it as a LUG member, as a journalist, and as a Florida taxpayer.
Thank you,
Robin 'Roblimo' Miller
Editor in Chief, OSTG
Bradenton, Florida
PS - please forward this email to as many other LUGs, computer user/developer groups, and interested individuals as you can. We need all the help we can get! :)
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