On Tue, 2007-08-14 at 18:53 +0100, jonathon wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > phil bogle wrote: > > > could switch over 100 clients (at least 200 installations) to Open > > Office if I had some good comprehensive training programs. > > This is one area that OOo falls short on. > > INGOTS is about the best training program that can be used by third > parties. However, it is geared towards educational institutions, and not > the corporate environment. :(
In fact we are getting interest from corporates and as a UK accredited Awarding Body we can devise/modify new qualifications for specific purposes. As things have evolved, the INGOT qualifications themselves have become more about supporting understanding of open systems and Open source, see for example our optional Moodle course for Gold INGOT unit 1 at http://moodle.theingots.org/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=30 > OOoAuthors is producing documentation, but not for the power user in a > corporate environment. (That documentation works fine for the "average" > user in a corporate environment.) In the end it comes down to resources. If we made the INGOTs very specific to power users of OOo I don't think the market would be big enough to be viable. I think power users are probably self-sufficient enough to find out what they need. The biggest need is to support average and below average users as these are the biggest in number. I hope at some point we might be able to develop on-line learning to support OpenOffice.org but its going to be a while until we can support that. Now that Star Office is being distributed by Google it could be that Sun will provide this sort type of support. They might do already so it might be worth asking. > There used to be (maybe still is) a set of videos on using OOo, that was > commercially distributed. I don't remember the name of the organization > that produced them, though. :( There is some stuff on You Tube. > > Lynda.com or VTC.com are quality companies and would do a good product. > > Both companies are looking for presenter / trainers if you have the > > inclination. > > Interesting. > > > more effort needs to go into building demand for Open Office. > > This gets back to "how does an organization do mass marketing, when > their budget is zero dollars and zero cents?" Yes, its why I advocated putting effort into providing services through the community to generate a sustainable income. Unfortunately that was not particularly well-received or understood. It renders the whole project entirely dependent on Sun. > > With a high demand we could have a distribution pie to slice. > > One issue I see is in migrating to OOo from whatever Office Suite the > organization has been using. There are two or three books on migrating, > but no migration tools. Sun have them but only with Star Office. > Migrating an office is easy. Migrating legacy documents is not easy. > In an ideal world, there would be a tool that reads in the legacy > documents, and outputs that document in both PDF and ODF format. > > > Another help would be for a certified expert program like MySQL and others > > have. This would help > > build the demand for the product. > > +1 But someone has to have the vision to invest in it and I can tell you from 4 years graft, its not that easy even if you have the professional knowledge to do it. In principle though I agree. Ian -- New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications www.theINGOTs.org You have received this email from the following company: The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
