On Thu, 2006-07-13 at 09:33 -0400, Louis Suarez-Potts wrote: > This is fine. :-) It's not using the list to privilege X organization > over OOo and it is focusing on how OOo is being advanced in schools-- > the point of this list :-)
I had better explain the strategy then so people in general understand why posting about UK government recognition is directly relevant to take up of OOo in schools. If anyone has a similar strategy for the education market that they believe to be of significance to OOo, please post it so we all know about it and we can look for areas of co-operation. The UK schools assessment market is worth > 1 billion dollars a year. The school curriculum is largely driven by national certification based on national criteria which drive the curriculum content. The Curriculum content determines which software gets used. Control the certification and you will largely control what software is used. At present most of the Awarding Bodies have qualifications that are dependent on software to one degree or another. eg macros in Excel and Word, multi-media stuff in Powerpoint that can't easily be translated by OOo but that is only the tip of the iceberg when considering educational software apps in general. The Learning Machine will soon become a new Awarding Body that guarantees its qualifications can be done entirely with free software. UK government approval will make it a lot easier to get into other countries and so we have potential to scale globally. The first certificates will be IT certification in commonly used office software with requirements to learn about Open Standards and Open Source and to participate by making meaningful contributions to Open Source projects. OOo is recommended for this and all support information is in free formats and available under CC license. This teaches both students and teachers about Open Source and increases the resources to support such projects by widening the community to people that would not otherwise have taken part. Such a strategy needs a commercial model for assessor training and moderation for quality assurance as well as marketing etc. The Regulatory Authorities require a sound commercial footing before any organisation is accepted as an Awarding Body. The Learning Machine plans to use revenue from the certificates to fund Open Source applications among other things, to support the curriculum content leading to the certificates, extending certificates to other subjects such as music technology, enterprise and environmental studies driven by grass roots demand in the schools. This will enable open source web based applications to be provided to support the entire curriculum removing many of the objections to an Open Source infrastructure. In this process we can 1. Raise the profile of OpenOffice.org and the community which become educational resources, not just an office suite. 2. Encourage the take up of OOo on educational grounds rather than just on price - MS Office is a lot less expensive for schools than for businesses and MS are likely to cut prices further. 3. Provide a sustainable source of income to fund Open Source development some of which has already found its way into the OOo community and helps support work on the OOo file format. 4. Provide work for people in the Open Source Community so they are not expected to do everything just as a matter of goodwill. This is an ambitious strategy and in the absence of any particular capital input it will take time to achieve its ultimate goal. It is, however, self-sufficient and beginning to bear fruit after 4 years of hard graft. FAQs Why didn't I set up a not for profit company? First some of the initial work was funded by grants that are only available from the Department of Trade and Industry to profitable small businesses. Second, I'm not the only company shareholder and others have put in resources to get this going on a risk basis. If they take the risk its not too surprising that they expect some return. Third, if we ever require VC funding there is no chance of getting it for a not for profit. Fourth, in the UK there is no tax break for not for profits, only for registered charities which are far more constrained in what they do. Why didn't we just make this an OOo project? I discussed this with the Marketing Lead at the time I started planning, (Nick Richards), who led me to believe that there was no mechanism in OOo to do it. I don't believe that situation has significantly changed. We are quite happy to be co-operative with any members of the OOo community that see the value in our work. I believe Sun and Novell both contribute to the OOo community, their staff discuss their strategy and their contributions. Some community members welcome this, some don't like it, c'est la vie. Why post to this list? Because posting a strategy that directly or indirectly supports take up of OOo in education is entirely on topic whether it comes from a company or an individual. So if there are other business strategies focusing on how OOo is being advanced in schools in some planned and systematic way, as Louis says, let's hear them and discuss ways forward. After all, its - > the point of this list :-) Ian -- www.theINGOTS.org www.schoolforge.org.uk www.opendocumentfellowship.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
