Comment on We tested a transport app that cost the public £4m against Google Maps

mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• Gargantuan@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  why would that mean it has to be open source? Should we be open sourcing all our defece projects too?

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  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Yes.

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  • mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    It’s a transport app. Not the code to the nuclear defences.

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    • Gargantuan@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      that’s not my point. it’s the assumption that anything tax payer funded should be open source by default.

      as a tax payer, I’m not sure I want other countries freeloading on our investments.

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      • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        “I have helped pay for something good. More people could benefit from it, at no additional cost to me. But I’d rather they not.”

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      • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        as a tax payer, I’m not sure I want other countries freeloading on our investments.

        Ugh. Money is a curse

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      • Magnum@infosec.pub ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Thank you sir for making this planet a living hell

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      • scratchee@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        I do, when those investments can be copied for free

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      • tetris11@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Then it dies as an investment, relegated to the halls of decay like other closed source apps as soon as it loses relevance

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      • Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Maybe you should only use it based on how much you paid/contributed. You don’t want to free load off other tax payer’s money

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      • a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Great point. If someone else may derive value from it, then it is a lost cause and no one should have it.

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      • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        as a tax payer, I’m not sure I want other countries freeloading on our investments.

        Ugh. Money is a curse

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  • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    That might not be practical. But everything else done with public money should be open source. A lot of these software projects are more or less necessary for every city globally. Collaborating on a few apps and programmes is a lot more sensible then everyone having an app custom build by a contractor.

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    • CannonFodder@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Public money of one jurisdiction shouldn’t necessarily pay for things so a different jurisdiction gets them for free. It’s an opportunity for the city to generate some revenue to offset other costs. Or it could be structured as a non-profit effort to develop open source, paid by ongoing grants from a number of cities that would use it - that would be nice, but difficult to orchestrate .

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      • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        See my replay to the other comment.

        I really do believe that the most sensible way to formalise it is just requiring publically funded code to be open source. Requires less complexity than co-op, and works out the same if enough countries opt-in.

        See this as an example:

        github.com/Governikus/AusweisApp/

        …europa.eu/…/european-union-public-licence_en

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      • 20dogs@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Right, so keep it simple and just open source it

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    • Gargantuan@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      so any other country should get free access to the all software the UK tax payer invested in?

      nah. I don’t think so.

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      • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        And the UK taxpayer might save money by using open source projects funded by other municipality in different countries. This is already the standard for some EU projects.

        Could some countries ‘freeload’? Sure. But what’s the actual cost for that? The people in those places getting better software, while the original users are no worse off?

        Could also help with less wealthy countries having access to software they couldn’t otherwise afford to develop.

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      • Don_alForno@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Oh no! Somebody else might benefit from something you would’ve made anyway, at no additional cost to you! The horror!

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      • 20dogs@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        We also get free development and contributions from others.

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  • Hegar@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Open source defeces projects do sounds pretty shit.

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  • apotheotic@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Security by obscurity doesn’t exist, so perhaps yes.

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