[vox] [Fwd] Warning CPR provisions for OpenSource under attack

[Bill Kendrick]

Another message from Owen, directed towards LUGOD, in fact.
There's a hearing at UC Davis on September 27th that Owen is encouraging
OSS folks to attend, to help rebut the closed-source lobbiests that will
be there.  See below...


  Please pass this along to LUGOD as well...

    <http://cpr.ca.gov/updates/archives/update56.shtml>

  This is the schedule for CPR public hearings.  The next and apparently only
  remaining Northern California venue is Davis, September 27th.  Ideally, we
  should get as many members of the Open Source community as possible to
  attend and make comments endorsing SO10.

  Other hearings are 9/9 (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles),
  9/10 (CSU Long Beach), 9/17 (CSU Fresno).  If we have any way to get
  anyone to show up and testify at those meetings, we should try to do that
  as well.  I guarantee you the closed source lobby will be at each and
  every one.

  Some information for people who go to testify (I'm sure this will be
  familiar for a lot of you, but, there are some dos and don'ts included
  specifically from my observations of this meeting):

    1. People are limited to three minutes.  Try to keep it under
       that.  If you don't have anything to say that hasn't been
       said before you at that hearing, keep your comments to
       "I'd like to echo what has been said before in support of
       recommendation SO10" and leave it at that.  They are not
       impressed by unnecessary repetition.

    2. Use this template or something very close to it:

       My name is <your full name>, <SPELL your last name>
       <state any relevant affiliation, such as President of
       Linux Users Group, or, simply state I am a citizen of
       California>,
       and I'm speaking in support of recommendation SO10.

       <One sentence describing your idea of the primary benefit
       to SO10>

       <Whatever you want to say, try to keep this to 90 seconds>

       <Summarize>

       Honorable members of the committee, thank you for your time,
       and for your attention to this matter.  I also urge you to
       review the written comments filed in support of this
       recommendation.

    3. Don't worry if you don't use the full three minutes.

    4. Try to speak slowly.  Unless you've done this a lot,
       nerves will tend to cause you to speak much more quickly
       than normal.  Make an effort to speak slowly and clearly.
       Avoid shouting or mumbling.

    5. There will be a guy sitting in front of the committee that
       will hold up a 2-minute sign, then a 1-minute sign, then a
       30 second sign (all yellow), and, finally, a red STOP sign
       if you are over the 3 minute time limit.  I did not see them
       let anyone go more than 15 seconds beyond the 3 minutes, and,
       they were generally pretty annoyed with anyone who did.

    6. Be neat and clean in appearance.  You don't need to be in
       suit and tie, but, it wouldn't be a bad idea if you have
       a good one and can wear it comfortably.  Try to appear as
       professional (in the lawyer sense of the word, not the
       programmer sense :-) as possible.  Remember, these people
       are lawyers and bureaucrats, so, we need to speak to them
       and appear on their terms as much as possible. (yeah, this
       one is the hard one for me, too).

  Owen


-bill!