[EuroPython] government money, socialism et al.

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Laura Creighton wrote:
> 
> Do we want to call it the 'Python in Government and Business' Track then?

No.

The government money issue is really part of the options you have
for raising money for a project, start-up or event. It fits
in nicely as talk, but shouldn't dominate it.

> When I was at the OReilly Open Source Convention in the USA 2 years ago,
> I met many Germans who were very happy that the German government had
> passed some law that required the government to use Open Source
> Solutions when available.  Can I see some relevant documents about this
> and how it has worked out?  German is ok, but I would really like some
> Swedish English or French ones if you have any.  It would make a
> great business talk.

I don't remember such a law :-) There was some talk to at
least consider using open source, but that's probably it.
(If there were such a law the government wouldn't put up the question 
of whether or not to use open source software for the parliament.)

Could be wrong though...
 
> The way you get a great business track is to figure out what you want
> to have said, and then commission the papers from the people who would
> say this best.  Of course you have an open submitted process, and you
> will get a few real astonishing wonders that nobody thought of.  This
> is gravy.  It is _not_ like a scientific conference, where you never
> know what you are going to get because it depends on what people are
> willing to submit. 

I don't think we can commission talks (I only know these under
the name "invited talks" or "key notes"), simple because we can't
offer anything much in return.

> (Actually sometimes you commission papers for them
> as well, but let's not discuss _this_ here and now.)  Free
> accomodation and conference entry is all we can offer, correct?

I'm not even sure about the free accomodation part -- it all
depends on the budget.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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