[LINK] Alston backflips

[hartr@redhat.com]

On 22 Jan, Danny Yee wrote:
> Does Red Hat have lobbiests in Canberra?  Is there any kind of free
> software (or open source) lobby group in Australia?

Red Hat does not have lobbyists - it's our aim to be in the black this
year, not in politics!
 
> We (and I include myself) need to stop complaining about lack of
> government attention for free software and start lobbying more
> effectively.

Hmmm

I do take your point, but I would have thought that the IT advisors for
the govt might just have caught a the visible open source trend and be
interested in finding out more about it.

Whilst we don't have lobbyists we are perfectly prepared to speak with
govt if they want to listen. I have had a number of discussions at
various levels of govt outside Australia - but none inside - since
returning to Oz.

My view of lobbying is that it is trying to speak to people who don't
want to listen: right now, we at Red Hat are working furiously hard
speaking to people that do want to listen...the open source community,
customers and potential customers, partners etc!

-- 
Robert Hart						 hartr@redhat.com
Red Hat Asia-Pacific, Unit 15, 23 James St, Brisbane, Qld 4006, Australia
Tel +61 (0)7 3872 4808                             Fax +61 (0)7 3257 4800