Chris Sells
Sells Brothers, Inc.
8539 SW 166th Terrace
Beaverton, OR 97007
http://www.sellsbrothers.com
csells@sellsbrothers.com
Oregon State Representatives,
My name is Chris Sells and I run a one-man software consulting firm from my home
in Beaverton, Oregon. For more than 20 years, I’ve been pretty much everything
you can be in the software world: software engineer, chief architect, director,
author, speaker, consultant and even marketer, so I know software ins and outs pretty
well. In addition, I’ve been the treasurer for the Cooper Mountain Elementary
School for the last two years, so I’m familiar with how important computer-related
purchases are to at least one branch of the Oregon state government and how those
decisions get made.
Before I start my testimony, I’d like to tell you about my experience in my
high schools’s band. I played the trumpet for seven years, four of them in
the marching band. I wasn’t great, but I loved to play. It gave me a deep
feeling of satisfaction to be part of the band and to perform for the audience.
I even continued my playing into one semester of college band, but it just wasn’t
the same. The band at that level required a degree of skill and professionalism
that I just didn’t have. Once I figured out that I didn’t have what
it took to be a professional musician, I went on to find something else to make
my living (computers).
By and large, open source software is often very much like a high school band. No
one cares about the money. An open source programmer just wants to have their work
seen and appreciated, regardless of whether they’re good enough, or thorough
enough, to be paid for it.
Sometimes a high school band will be amazing; easily good enough to compete at any
level. However, this is very rare when compared to professional bands that get paid
based on how well they entertain their audience. Likewise, sometimes open source
software achieves the same level of quality as closed source software. In those
cases, I?m completely in favor of considering open source software to solve Oregon?s
software needs. However, I?m not in favor of mandating open source software, which
is what HB 2892 does.
By putting up artificial barriers to entry for closed source software, Oregon is
narrowing their choices to those rare cases when open source software lives up to
the letter of the requirements for a Request for Proposal (RFP) but doesn?t provide
the same level of thoroughness that competing for money on the open market requires.
This narrowing of choice is going to cost Oregon considerable additional funds in
support, training and documentation, all things that the open source community lives
without because of their own level of expertise. Continuing the analogy, assembling
your own electric guitar if fun for an enthusiast, but requires very specialized
skills. Likewise, using, supporting and maintaining open source software requires
real engineering skills, which is the hidden cost you don?t see when initially installing
open source software.
In addition to mandating open source software, HD 2892 calls for open data exchange
standards. This is something that I?m very much in favor of. The latest and most
general purpose standard for open data exchange is called the eXtensible Markup
Language (XML) and is fully embraced by both the open source and the closed source
communities. However, it?s the closed source vendors, like Microsoft, IBM and BEA,
that are really making XML a reality by pushing it into their software at all levels.
In fact, these same closed source vendors as going beyond just XML and building
standards for communicating data between computers based on open source and closed
source operating systems to make sure that all computers can communicate with each
other. These standards are called ?web services? and are based around the Simple
Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Defining, implementing and testing standards is an
expensive proposition involving man-decades of dedicated engineering work, which
is why it takes companies that make money on software to turn them from an adolescent
dream into an adult reality.
I believe that open source should absolutely be considered for the state’s
software needs. However, being open source is but one quality that needs consideration.
Things that also need to be considered include the cost of training, documentation,
support, upgrading and maintaining software systems and their support for open data
standards. Some open source software will achieve the level of functionality and
attention to detail that Oregon needs, but artificially narrowing your choices to
open source software is like open picking high school bands to play at the Rose
Garden. Sometimes you’ll get lucky but more often the audience is going to
demand a refund.
Thank you for your time and attention,
Chris Sells
