Tony Yarusso's Blog

So I went to my Senate District's convention on Saturday, and while I was there had a chance to talk to a couple of politicians about OpenDocument in governement and open source in government and schools. While the responses were fairly predictable given the environment, I thought I'd share some of my observations.

First, they hadn't really heard much about it. Some were aware that Massachusetts had done something with ODF, but didn't know the details or what that meant. They didn't flinch or look at me quizically at the mention of the term open-source, but also didn't know why it was relevant to them generally. One, however, knew that open-source was a good idea for at least one thing - voting machines. The person who was the most excited about open documents and open source was the one who chairs the education committee. While this was a party-specific event, one representative recommended that I talk to a colleague from the opposition about it, as they were more experienced technically through their non-political professional life.

So, conclusions: I should really start talking to people more - apparently not enough of that is being done. Using the voting machines issue as an introduction might be a good idea, since they've already gotten some background on that. Targeting the education sector would probably be a very wise move. Open standards and open source shouldn't be treated as a one-party proposition.

Discuss.

I have a couple more people that had already had to leave by the time I made the rounds of the room - I'll let you know if they have anything significantly different to add to those observations. Also, apparently one of my professors is going to be testifying to the legislature about the education aspect, I think in financial terms, soon, which may add some talking points here.