Hi All, Somewhat old news now, but:
A UK government advisory group is recommending ODF long term and minimising upgrades to Office 2007 and avoiding OOXML. Becta is the UK Government's "key partner in the strategic development and delivery of its information and communications technology (ICT) and e-learning." It "provides strategic advice to school leaders, teaching staff and technical staff on the use of ICT in schools." - http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=becta >From http://fm.schmoller.net/2008/01/about-becta---p.html : On 9/1/2008 Becta published its review of Microsoft's Vista and Office 2007 products. This "draws conclusions on whether to upgrade, how to upgrade and document interoperability between home and school, recommending that schools and colleges review the findings of the report before considering any large-scale investment or deployment. Full report [291 kB PDF http://publications.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=35275]. ZDnet coverage of the issue http://www.zdnet.co.uk/misc/print/0,1000000169,39292025-39001084c,00.htm. The key recommendations from Becta's report are in the continuation post below. * Upgrading existing ICT systems to Microsoft Vista or Office 2007 is not recommended and mixed Windows-based operating environments should be avoided. However, Vista should be considered where new institution-wide ICT provision is being planned. * No widespread deployment of Office 2007 should take place until schools and colleges are sure that they have in place mechanisms to deal with interoperability and potential digital divide issues set out in the report. * To ensure widest compatibility of files between different applications, users of Office 2007 should not save in Microsoft's new Office format (OOXML). * Due to limitations in Microsoft's implementation of the Open Document Format (ODF) international standard, users should in the short term continue to save files in the more widely adopted .doc, .xls and .ppt formats. * Pupils, teachers and parents should also be made aware of the wide range of free-to-use products currently available and on how to use and access them. * The ICT industry should be facilitating easier access to 'free-to-use' office productivity software. -- Regards, Dave _______________________________________________ Advocate mailing list [email protected] http://badvista.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/advocate
