[clug] Your Best arguments please

[Michael.James at csiro.au]

Chatting with Kim Holburn, it seemed to us that there were 4 levels.

1) Documented protocols and formats should be pushed for anywhere.
	Once the goal-posts are cemented in position,
	let OSS and proprietary duke it out, we will end up with a mix.

2) Further where a government agency is interacting with the public
	a) Readers/viewers must be generally (and freely) available.
	b) For FOI archiving, the format must be documented. (see 1)
	ie: No word DOCs on government websites.

3) Where there is a question of trusting code,
	as in Defence and other Govt agencies,
	that code must be available to the client for audit.
	Could be secret, but the OSS assurance-of-many-eyes is still valuable.

4) And where public trust is required, (as in a voting system)
	 the code MUST be publicly available.
	ie: if the public is the client the public must have access.
	There is a case to be made here for mandatory OSS.

-- 
Michael James				michael.james at csiro.au
System Administrator			voice:	02 6246 5040
CSIRO Bioinformatics Facility	fax:		02 6246 5166