I don't know if this is a first or not, but a group of us (The Web Team) at work just presented a geeklog intranet site to my boss and the Director of our division. I don't know all the do's and don'ts about what I can or can't say, but suffice it to say they were quite impressed. I need to know, by the laws of open source/GPL, what we need to do to be able to use the site legally for a government agency. I know that it's free as in speech, not free as in beer. I know that we have to contribute, but how? a link on our site? uploading the custom theme we built? posting to this site? I need specific clarification in order to get this approved.

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All the legalese is in docs/license (which is simply a copy of the GPL). IANAL, but as long as you don't distribute your version, you are free to add or remove whatever you like. No need to contribute, link to us or even tell us about it ... bye, Dirk

Thanks for the prompt response. I think we will still link to this site and I will talk to the rest of the team about uploading our theme. Many, many, many thanks to the Geeklog Team. Excellent product. -------------- http://cl1ck.net

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I worked for the government for a number of years. We often hired small companies and individual consultants to do certain work for us. Although as Dirk says the software is completely free is use and modify, IF your budget allows it consider hiring a couple of the programmers here to do some custom work. This helps you get a better tailored product and they get some compensation. Win-win. I fully realize some agencies have much tighter budgets than others. That's why I used the word IF. I suspect you'll end up with a nice bonus if/when this software is approved for internal use. So, at least consider throwing some paid work their way IF the opportunity arises.

A LOT if "IF"s there ....

I used a lot of IF's because I don't know what agency he works for. Some have very tight bugets compared to others. The one I worked for hired small companies and consultants quite a bit. I think most government orgs could benefit from open source CMS'. Many don't use them because they don't know they exist. If this guy plays his cards right, he can get Geeklog used not just in his own department but throughout the whole agency. The biggest hurdle is getting people to use something new. More power to him. If I was still working for the government, I would do the same.

I work with the govt. as well and actually the funny thing about opensource is many of the govt. agencies are trying to use opensource because large corporations charge out the a$$ for something that you can get in opensource and pay a few bucks to the programmers to get it customized. I'm not saying OpenSource Programmers are cheap or shouldn't be paid a lot because they do one hell of a job. I have been working with the place I work at in getting more opensource into the door. Granted that is very very hard because of our connection to the Internet, but it is a slow and steady process. I think if many of us new and old employees of the govt work hard we can start using less govt. money on outrageous things and spend it on things that it should be going to. Education, health care, etc.. I'm not starting a debate here so if you don't agree, don't tell me because I don't care. Just giving my two cents. Anyway great job to the Geeklog Team!!!!

One small step for Geeklog. One giant leap for OpenSource-kind. The first step was to get them to approve the intranet site. Then next will be to let us install Geeklog for the www page. Well, Geeklog has been approved for the intranet and it should be up and operational in a week or two. I think gov't agencies know OpenSource projects exist but many are afraid and don't know much about the GPL. I just started this job in Dec '02. At my previous (gov't) job they have been trying to bring up an intranet site since Apr. '02. They have spent tens of thousands of dollars for high-powered servers, M$ licenses, M$ SQL lisences, and consultants.....all that and damn near a year later it's still not up. They are still trying to figure out how to delegate authority to different people/groups for different sections of the site(!) along with other things that Geeklog already does. I think it's a case of people just sticking with what they know because they are afraid to learn something new or simply don't want to learn something new. I suggested Geeklog when talks of an intranet site came up last year....they laughed. Literally. I certainly have no problem giving back to Geeklog...and I plan to. We are going to clean up and release our theme after we get the site up. Who knows..maybe I will get a phAt bonus. I wouldn't mind sharing a little of the wealth.-------------- http://cl1ck.net

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