All go for Open Source Society

By RICHARD WOOD

The Open Source Society is a couple of weeks away from completing its incorporation and is now planning its much-delayed first annual meeting for February 30.

But tardiness in achieving these basics has not stopped the 141 members pumping the use of free software developed using community models.

A membership and advertising drive has been held off until the official structures are in place. A Clendon Feeney lawyer and critic of Microsoft software licensing, Craig Horrocks, is assisting with the constitution.

Society spokesman Peter Harrison said OSS members last year focused on increasing awareness of open source, with a highlight being involvement in the launch of the Dick Smith Electronics Terminator Linux PC.

A CD with Knopix Linux and a range of open-source software including office software Open Office and graphics software Gimp is being created that will be distributed with Dick Smith's next catalogue.

The initial focus has been on building the support infrastructure. The society is aiming to have a paid 0800 number hooked into the open-source community. Harrison said the society had researched overseas Linux training certifications and would endorse three major ones.

"We're going to be introducing an official certification that will give people certainty when they hire these people that they know what they're doing.

"It's changing people's perception from the hacker stereotype to the professional."

A "Linux-friendly" hardware certification system is also planned that will set a base line for hardware that it be automatically detectable by major Linux distributions, or that drivers can be installed off a CD without recompiling the software.

The society is planning an education program to business and government professionals and has applied to speak at the Govis Government IT conference. There is also a plan to hold its own conference for CIOs and CEOs.

While the Green party made open source software official policy last year, the NZOSS regards itself as non-aligned and is targeting all political parties to take on open-source-friendly policies.