The Tribe welcomes direct association with the Vermont Ubuntu Local Community (VTLOCO). Ubuntu is a bright light shining, communion and association are both a pleasure and a duty.

VTLUG/VTLOCO supports a three-fold statewide community development ideal:

There is currently a trend in the economy, society and industry to privatize, compartmentalize, classify and restrict many areas of civic life - everything from file formats, medical information and research to educational opportunities and public services. This is not to say that all restriction and private action runs counter to community well being. However, in many cases, privately-developed and copyrighted software, information and knowledge places business and communities like those that exist in Vermont in the precarious position of having no alternatives in the adoption of expensive and ill-adapted solutions for government, medicine, business, communication, data, education, local administration, professional collaboration and for civic action.

Moreover, closed technologies, information and knowledge-sharing policies can run counter to community development itself.

This lack of access to the source of the information systems in our communities is as pervasive a prosperity barrier as any material digital divide that runs through Vermont. The inability to manipulate technology is more damaging in the long term than inaccessibility to technology. Both of these unfulfilled needs conspire to make many "have-not" citizens unable to participate in new administrative and education systems. While great strides have been made to improve technology access, the legally and economically imposed access restrictions have proven to be been high -- and social inclusion has been less than complete. Open access to systems has not been part of the working class experience.

Many local Green Mountain organizations, small businesses, schools, medical facilities and local administrations face difficult and expensive decisions as to how to upgrade their older closed source technologies, databases, communication that these community economies rely upon. Community survival dictates that we seek new, more efficient modalities for teaching, learning, collaborating, managing and organizing collectively. In this context information systems transitions is an expensive and difficult decision to make, and even harder to implement. Newer systems often run in parallel with older systems. In some cases, the existing pool of information system assets is discarded, when in fact; some assets could be put to alternative uses or recycled. And in transition, citizens and employees may need resources, training and differential levels of support.

VTLUG further maintains that participation of all ages in the craft of open source development is the key to building this "open Vermont," in which all are better off, better informed and better educated.

Please join VTLUG in this community education initiative. And thanks for visiting our site at http://www.vtlug.org.

In all instances, the challenges are not simply technological. Ultimately, they are about how Vermonters want to build community.

Please join VTLUG and/or the VTLOCO in this community education initiative. And thanks for visiting our site.