On 11 Jul 2003 07:05:42 -0600, you wrote: >To make a long story short, I know the incoming President of the >national organization, Wayne Hicks. I have been exchanging e-mail with >him because BDPA just announced a major alliance with Microsoft as a >corporate sponsor. This has raised concerns within BDPA about MS using >this to kill off advocacy of free and Open Source software in a major >professional community organization. Many of us feel that BDPA is a >natural fit for using and advocating Open Source solutions - >particularly Linux - to bridge the Digital Divide. > >While the MS deal is nice, Wayne says he is also absolutely willing to >pursue similar win-win relationships with companies like Red Hat. While I understand your desire, my personal feeling is this is a no-win situation for Red Hat or any other Linux vendor. No Linux company (and few others for that matter) have the resources to take on Microsoft in a spending contest so even attempting to start is not a wise move. Much more effective would be making sure the organization's rules don't allow one company to "buy off" the organization, and then continue the traditional grass roots campaign that has worked so well for Linux.
