At Quirk we have three types of individuals – the completely non-tech (Kelly), the medium tech (Darryn) and the super-hardcore-I-think-in-code tech (Java Coders like Jean). So a little while back when Jean sent an email around the office about Aslam Rafee, Daniel Mashao and Helen King's formal complaint registration against the IEC for its “failure to provide information as required by the Bill of Rights”, there were a few blank faces around the office. But this definitely twanged something inside of me (medium tech) and might just have sent me into the crazy echelons of “I-think-in-code” geekiness. 

For those who are more non-tech, these three pretty much make up the who’s who of Open Source in South Africa:

• Aslam Rafee chairs the South African government’s Open Source working group. He is a complete Open advocate and has affected some amazing change in the roll-out of Open Source solutions in both government and education.

• Daniel Mashao is the Chief Technical Officer of SITA (State IT Agency) and has been applauded for his ability to tear through the enemies of Open Source Software (*cough Microsoft) and ensure positive change.

• Helen King is the principal advisor to the Shuttleworth Foundation, a complete go-getter and a firm believer that Open technologies, education and processes are the way forward. Helen was instrumental in the fantastic Open Everything event which took place a couple of weeks ago and essentially sparked this complaint.

But what did the IEC do?

Well, it turns out that it is defined in the Bill of Rights that all members of the public are entitled to equal access to information that the IEC makes available. Unfortunately, their website is inconsistent with this legislature as it only works with Internet Explorer. In the past we at Quirk have found many sites which don’t quite render correctly in IE, but this is the first time I have ever seen a site which point blank refuses to load because of the browser:

This is of huge concern especially as democratic voting is something so central to our country's success. Open Source technologies are in direct agreement with the concept and implementation of democracy – something which the IEC seems to have missed. 

While fiddling around with the site I came across some very interesting things:

1. The Webserver is Quarterdeck WebStar – a propriety piece of web hosting software which I had never heard of before.

2. The Webserver is setup rather unconventionally – example: http://www.iec.org.za/index.htm oops! (for the completely non-tech, non-geeks, click here) 

I was very privileged to attend Open Everything a little while back and met Aslam and Helen. Aslam presented a case study on Open Technologies in government (and was interviewed by the “we will be nice to you” duo of Matt Buckland and Steve Song). It was absolutely fascinating and I would highly recommend you have a listen to it:

Aslam spoke a great deal about the need for software and process transparency in government and when asked which agencies weren’t playing by the rules he gave the example of the IEC. This sparked some fascinating “off air” commentary around the responsibility of the average individual to stand up and challenge government to implement and govern its own Open Source policies. It’s great to see that these words are slowly being put into action.