To:

Presidency of the Greek Republic
Greek Parliament
Prime Minister's Office
Ministry of Transports and Communications
Ministry of Education, Life Long Learning and Religious Affairs
Members of Parliament and candidates of all parties
Computer Scientists Union of Greece
Technical Chamber of Greece
Free Software / Open Source Software Society

Cc:

General Secretaries of Districts
Prefects
Mayors
Universities and Technical Schools Computer Science Departments

Dear sirs,

A few days ago the Computer Scientists Union of Greece, scientific and professional association of university and technical schools graduates submitted to the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs draft law proposition in order to establish a National Chamber of Communications and Information Technology.

The preamble in the report states clearly: "Establishing a National Chamber of Communications and Information Technology (NCCIT - ETHEEP) is a matter of vital national importance. It may be a central pole for the treatment and the potential implementation of an integrated strategy for the development of the country and informatics. The development of informatics can not be done without the participation and the institutional representation of computer scientists in decision making, as far as in the present conditions of European integration and globalization, the opinion of experts must be in first place on informatics matters."

Also subsequent to the reference for participation in NCCIT is stated: "The members should be technical and scientific information technology graduates, ie IT graduates of Universities and Technical Schools and permanent teachers of these departments, related to informatics objects. These departements are these that have been placed under qualification list of Public Sector (Presidential Decree 347/2003, GJS (FEK) A'315 / 31.12.2003, as amended), in the branches of Informatics University Status and Technical Status.

The Association of Greek Users and Friends of Free Software / Open Source Software (GREEK.L.U.G. Greek Linux User Group), National NGO / Non-profit organization that aims to promote Free Software in general, is opposed to the hasty establishment of a Chamber of Information Technology without dialogue and consultation with all insterested parties whether they be sole traders or companies or entities that have been associated with IT.

We disagree with the invocation to "experts" as stated in the preamble of the proposal and in particular identifying them as the graduates of University and Technical Schools Computer Science Departments and their permanent teachers. In the market there are currently tens of thousands of professionals who have Information Technology as their main object of work and who may not have relevant university or technical degree, but know very well their field of work.

Programmers, Systems & Database Administrators, Maintainers and Sites Developers are the most common types of professions, which currently provide a number of people even the necessary to live.

Therefore we oppose any demarcation effort of this science which from the very beginning was free and should continue to be. We will not mention the view of some people who consider programming as an Art (although this can be adequately documented with the work of Donald Ervin Knuth, famous professor at Stanford University, USA, The Art of Computer Programming) we just simply say that a large number of people involved in Free Software / Open Source Software and follow its innovative and participatory development model, never studied Information Technology.