The probability is high that Maricopa County IT is *not* taking this 
seriously.  That is they view the argument about Monopoly rules as a PR and 
legal hassle to be finessed, and the Linux/Free Software community as an 
annoying collection of libertarian hacker ne'er-do-wells.

Prediction:

Paul Allsing, Deputy CIO, Maricopa County holds a forum.  Its point is 
three-fold.

1) Allay any concern that the County is in violation of its own procurement 
rules.

2)  Contain the Linux PR nuisance.

3) Take the measure of the Linux activists against future interaction with 
the rabble nuisance.


In short, County IT's goal is to accomplish precisely nothing with the forum 
except to have the *nixen rabble leave with a warmer fuzzier feeling--or if 
that is not possible, have us leave well aware that County IT is 
professional, is sure of its strategic policy, and is assured by counsel that 
its procurement policies are entirely legal ... so we can take our 
enthusiastic hacker selves and go suck eggs.


What do you want to bet that Paul Allsing is Deputy CIO for Customer Service 
and Public Relations?



On Wednesday 03 July 2002 08:20, you wrote:
> If they are taking this seriously then
> case studies could help.