Re: Open source ERP

Leslie,

In a message dated 2/11/00 9:55:02 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
leslier@datrek.com writes:

> First of all let me say that only a consultant could dream up a downside
>  to this effort. 

Sorry :)!  Risk management and software ownership are two of the areas in 
which I spend a great deal of time...

>  Lets think about the downside, freely available viable source code that
>  has to be a bad thing. What better way to learn a language than to see a
>  few hundred thousand lines of code? 
>  But wait with all that free working source out there wont programmers
>  get better at their jobs, oh you can't have that. Then what would they
>  need consultants for? 

Now _THAT'S_ entirely unfair.  I mentioned only recently that the main reason 
ILE hadn't achieved its' full potential was that most developers learned from 
what the ISV's were putting out, and that the majority of ISV software was 
still in RPGIII.  My question was how do we define "working" and "viable"?  I 
have also posted recently that I don't like the fact that companies hire 
consultants rather than pay their employees a decent wage or hire sufficient 
staff in the first place.  I'd love nothing more than to have a fully, 
_PERMANENTLY_, staffed IT workforce so that I could focus on project 
management and business process engineering and return "programming" to my 
hobby where it is fun instead of work where it often is not.  Writing 
programs to fulfill "that's the way we've always done it" needs are not fun.  
An open source ERP package would be.

>  With a project like this, the immediate benefit to all of us is that our
>  level of expertise will increase. The long term benefit rest with IBM,
>  and those very same consultants who would love to put a wedge here. 
>  As open source becomes more the norm in the midrange arena, then large
>  companies are forced to compete in one of two ways already documented;
>  they either release their own product as open source and go full force
>  into support and r&d or they abandon their own product for a more stable
>  app.
>  Before you get all hot, I am not saying that we offer a stable app or
>  will anytime soon I have not seen the source yet, but what I am saying
>  is that this is the first log on the fire. 
>  More projects like this will follow, soon and those who foment division
>  will be left in the dust by open source. 
>  Those bandwagon jumpers out there should make this the next bandwagon.
>  This is the vehicle that will carry the 400 farther into the next
>  century!

I ABSOLUTELY DO _NOT_ "WISH TO PUT A WEDGE HERE"!!!  I also do not wish to 
"foment division", although I sense some out there against consultants.  I 
merely wish that the _CONSEQUENCES_, ALL OF THEM, be considered prior to 
leaping into an unknown area.  This is a _FANTASTIC_ idea!  That idea should 
not die due to a failure to look before you leap.  How does Linux do it?  How 
do we protect ourselves from employers claiming that employees did work on 
the OSP on _their_ time, and thus _they_ own everything that person wrote?  
How do we approve designs?  Code?  Functionality?  Documentation (TFM)?  What 
are the standards, and how do we determine adherence?  In short, what is the 
infrastructure for this project?  Excuse me for thinking that, having spent 
nearly 20 years designing, maintaining, writing, installing, and modifying 
various ERP packages on various platforms, I might have some worthwhile 
input.  Apparently, thinking isn't allowed in this discussion, especially if 
you are carry "consultant baggage."

I _WANT_ this project to succeed, not fail because it was put together in a 
half-assed manner or due to the preconceived notions of its members...

Regards,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what others say you cannot do."  -- 
Walter Bagehot
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