Politics in IT
by Blogie • 12 March 2007
No, I’m not talking about trapos here. There is much politicking within the IT industry, especially involving two camps: the pro-Open Source and the rest. Curiously, "the rest" don’t seem to give a hoot. Ok, let’s name them, shall we? "The rest" are the supposedly pro-Microsoft people. When I talked to some of them, they were surprised that they’d been categorized into such a misleading nomenclature. My bad.
I’d been so taken up by the Open Source types, with all their slogans and campaigns, that I’d conveniently — but mistakenly — created a simplistic categorization of these two camps. The allegedly pro-Microsoft people (or anti-Open Source, as they’ve also been referred to) don’t really care for that monicker. I know, because I’ve been labeled as such.
How could I be pro-Microsoft when I myself use Open Source software? I’ll tell you how. 1) Because I’m best buddies with a known Microsoft-only developer. 2) Because I’ve taught a short course on how to effectively use PowerPoint, and refused to broaden my coverage to include Open Office. And most recently, 3) because I spoke out against the FOSS Bill.
Explanatory notes: 1) I don’t choose my friends based on what software they use. Gawd, how pathetic could that be?? My detractors don’t seem to know that I am also close friends with one of the pillars of DabaweGNU. Also, and this is not a well-known fact: my supposedly pro-Microsoft buddy was the one who taught me PHP! 2) This was a decision based on market needs. I was requested to present PowerPoint only. End of discussion. 3) Being against the FOSS bill that Bayan Muna’s Casiño authored does NOT mean I am against FOSS itself. Duhh…
I hate to say this, but I see now how some of these pro-Open Source people operate. They sling ugly nicknames such as FUD towards their "opponents," but are unwittingly behaving exactly like their perceived enemies. And some of these people even just mouth off these slogans without knowing their history.
I refuse to be called pro-Microsoft, not because I hate Microsoft, but because I firmly believe that people should not be categorized.
When will these politicking and war-mongering Open-Source advocates realize that the answer is not in trying to change the minds of people, but in the fostering of cooperation? The fight is not in the choice of software at all. The battlefield is called underdevelopment.
We do want to become the next big IT outsourcing destination, don’t we? Then let’s stop bickering and work at it! We should realize that having both Open-Source skills and skills in Microsoft etc. technologies actually helps our country’s IT image. It will never ever happen that the whole world will be homogeneously Open Source, nor the other way around. So, that means there is a market for each camp.
To end, here are a couple of tenets I try to live by:
If you can’t say anything good about anybody, shut up.
Lord, who is my neighbor?
Speaking of politics, here’s one real politician who seems to be doing what he’s supposed to do. Well, Mar Roxas supports IT, and in my book, that’s a good politician. Read about the 2010 Programme for the IT Outsourcing Sector and what Mar Roxas is envisioning for our industry.
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