[vox] City of LA ponders going open source?!

[Nicole Carlson]

Hello Davis-ites; time for another dispatch from the Land Of Smog

Seen on blogging.la:
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LA should go Open Source

In a totally bad ass move Councilmembers Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel and 
Jack Weiss introduced a motion today to divert millions of dollars spent 
on potentially unnecessary software expenditures into a fund dedicated 
to the long-sought-after expansion of Los Angeles' police force. Anyone 
with half a brain knows this is a good idea, unfortunatly it's been a 
long time since anyone with half a brain was making those decisions. 
 From the press release that just showed up in my inbox:

     "For taxpayers, this is a no-brainer," said Councilmember Eric 
Garcetti, member of the Information Technology and General Services 
committee. "By engaging this online community, we can make our own 
communities safer. Free open source software can be as capable and more 
secure than products that cost the city millions."

     "By rethinking the way we do business and taking advantage of new 
technologies, City Hall can save money * money that should be going to 
pay for ambulance service and police officers," said Wendy Greuel, Chair 
of the Audits and Governmental Efficiency committee.

     "Open source software offers an interesting opportunity to save 
public money," said Councilmember Jack Weiss, chair of the Information 
Technology and General Services committee. "The City should explore open 
source software and all other potential savings that could provide funds 
for additional police officers."

I'm too psyched to type anymore at the moment, here's the official docs: 
Motion (9K PDF) | Press Release (28K PDF)

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Those are at http://blogging.la/archives/Open%20Source%20Motion.pdf and 
http://blogging.la/archives/newsOpenSource.pdf, respectively.

Off to write a letter in support of this...

--nicole twn