Conflict of Interest Derails UK Government Open Source Consultation

judgecorp writes "The UK government's consultation about the use of open source in public sector IT has been sent back to square one, with discussion results scrapped because the facilitator, Andy Hopkirk, is involved with Microsoft. Hopkirk is well regarded, but the open source community feels the debate dismissed RF (royalty free) standards in favor of the FRAND definition, which is more favorable to proprietary vendors."

Hopkirk

[Anonymous Coward]

>discussion results scrapped because the facilitator, Andy Hopkirk...
Hands up who expected the next word to be "(deceased)".

Re:Hopkirk

[mwvdlee]

The actual following words were "is involved with Microsoft.".
I guess it's not too far off.

Say it ain't so

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft playing dirty? Who would have thought!

Re:Not surprising...

[symbolset]

We all know how committed to maintaining openness and compatibility Microsoft is. For many years their support of free and open systems has been legendary.

Re:Respected, not ethical

[gstoddart]

He can't be that evil, he has a most impressive white beard.

Bah, so did Saruman. Look how that turned out.