Comments on: The Tragedy of the Anti-Commons

By: Boycott Novell » Does Microsoft Rely on Illegal Tenders to Shun Free Software?

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:59:20 +0000

[...] The Tragedy of the Anti-Commons [...]

By: Aspire One: Victorian Education Discriminating Against Linux? « Brendan Scott’s Weblog

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:54:51 +0000

[...] (a) it shows that the value for money fit for purpose metric used by the Government is fatally flawed; [...]

By: Boycott Novell » Big Set of Shakeups for Microsoft O[OXML]ffice, ODF Rises

Boycott Novell » Big Set of Shakeups for Microsoft O[OXML]ffice, ODF Rises — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:02:14 +0000

[...] Scott, who has covered some of the OOXML fiasco, wrote a very long essay about it this issue. He explains how governments became agents of monopolisation, anti-Commons. Misapplication of [...]

By: brendanscott

brendanscott — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:09:08 +0000

Thanks Dylan, I agree.
However, there’s something further about Woolworths v the Government and that is that it is legitimate for Woolworths (and any other company) to prefer its own private interests to the exclusion of countervailing public interests – at least within the constraints of the law and ethics.

Government on the hand has a primary duty to prefer the public interest. It would not be appropriate for Government to prefer a benefit which accrues to itself while causing a cost to the community at large (just as an office bearer should not take personal benefits from vendors at the expense of the public – although this is complicated by conflict issues). Government should not through its actions cause a net aggregate cost to the community.

By: Dylan Jay

Dylan Jay — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:56:55 +0000

Actually most of this applies to purchasing in big companies like woolworths for example.

Their buys are measured on profit margin. Yet a short term decision a buyer makes to pick the cheapest vender can put another vendor out of business, and in certain markets lead to a monopoly which leads to much higher prices.

To avoid this you need buyers to be measured on diversity of the market place as well as profit margins.

By: brendanscott

brendanscott — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:41:10 +0000

Please note that the paper is arguing that the acquisition by one person (in this case the Government) imposes costs on other people [in economics speak they are externalities].

I would guess that any costs that use of closed source imposes on Government (such as lock in costs mentioned) are comparatively minor to the costs the Government’s use imposes on the rest of the community.

By: SPM

SPM — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:26:48 +0000

The problem with TCO applied to software and IT systems is that it excludes Total Cost of Lock-in (TCL). The latter generally exceeds the former by a large margin in proprietary solutions involving a market monopoly player, if it is properly accounted for – ie. including the cost of uncompetitive tendering, the cost of forced upgrade, the cost of conversion of data to get out of the lock-in etc.