If I may be so bold as to apply an analogy to your comments. I see the issue as comparable to the evolution of transportation (whether rail or vehicular). Standards evolved from both commercial and other innovations, sometimes out of mere necessity. Recall the completely diabolical mess that was the former Soviet rail system of mandated standards coming from multiple fiefdoms and the resulting rotting cabbage at the depots. The goal does not necessitate that all the locomotives (and their inner workings) be in the public domain and that all the carriers be boxcars. That type of mindset will completely derail the goals of the open government initiative.

And my point is…who said it did?

It seems that the more people are misinterpreting your own words as “an effort to take open source of the table” the more likely it is that those words should probably change if that is not your intention.

“In my opinion, innovation is good, regardless of where it is spawned…”

Great, but how is this relevant? Do you think I am against innovation?

Please see: http://govfresh.com/2010/03/open-source-matters-to-open-government-really/

So, while I would love to knock your socks off in a debate, I have nothing to debate, with the exception that you’ve completely misunderstood the nature of my post and have tried to position me as “anti-open source”. As I pointed out to Gunnar, I am not attacking open source software or the process by which it is developed and I am certainly not suggesting it is not useful to open government, or that it is, a ‘dirty word’, on the contrary! Given that the company I work for is very active in both the open standards and open source world, that would be an nonsensical assertion.

My point is simply this. On the road to open government, there’s no single mode of transportation. To reach the full promise of this great experiment, not only is there a huge requirement to change culture, but there is a need for a healthy combination of open standards, defacto ‘standards’, ‘proprietary’ tools and, last but not least, open source to be brought together based on the needs and requirements of the people, not based on how they were designed, coded and deployed.

In my opinion, innovation is good, regardless of where it is spawned…..

I took the liberty of responding here:

http://passthesource.org.nz/2010/03/23/open-vs-open-the-shocking-truth/

Happy for my socks to be knocked off in the ensuing debate :-)

Thank you for the support as well. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss your thoughts on this topic. (and many other related ones as well)

Since we met here through Luke, I will ask for his guidance on where he would like to see us carry on this discussion.

All the best,

Bobby