On Wed, 20 Oct 2004, William Sherwin wrote: > Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 15:00:06 -0400 > From: William Sherwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: ARGG!!!! > > Haverim, (Friends) > > Would you be willing to translate that article for me? My Hebrew isn't > that great - and, since I can't seem to find an English version, and > since I do have a strong interest in Israeli politics, I'd appreciate it... > > Todah rabbah. (Thank you.) > > William > > ik wrote: > > On Wednesday 20 October 2004 19:05, Ely Levy wrote: > > > >> Just when things started to look good Just when I thought someone > >> in the goverment finally has some brain I get to rid a story like > >> that: > >> > >> http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2992659,00.html > >> > >> Tell me it doesn't get you upset!Tell me it doesn't stinks out of > >> corruption! > >> > >> Ely Levy System group Hebrew University Jerusalem Israel > >> > >> > > > > Now you understand why the pupils thinks that on Jerusalem there is a > > sea, and the Givat Hatachmoshet is at the Golan heights... The > > education ministry make sure that the pupils will not learn, and pay > > allot of money for this... > > > > Ido
Ministry of Education has chosen MS: new details Ministry of Education and NS have re-declared the signing of the software agreement between them on May. We used this chance to find out new details about the incentives for this long-term contract. Gal Mor, Moran Zalikowitch CEO of MS Europe, Jean Philip Cortawa (?), is expected in Israel today, and on an interestingly close date, Ministry of Education has recycled today a press release, stating that it has signed a long term deal to buy software from MS Israel. The agreement itself was signed on May between CEO of Ministry of Education, Ronit Tirosh, and CEO of MS, Steve Balmer, while he was visiting Israel, and was announced on ynet, but in MS Israel they want to present achievements towards the visit of the important guest.Tirosh has presented this morning the principles of the agreement to the high management of the (system? editors?) in a meeting in which Aryeh Scoop, CEO os MS Israel, was present. In response to our questions, the ministry has made clear that indeed this is not a new contract, and in the event today the contract got its official "set sail". We used this attempt of recycling to find some more details about the cooperation of the two bodies. REMINDER The School Agreement settles the rights of usage and upgrade of MS products in all educational establishments in Israel for a period of 5 years. In it, MS sells the MOE Windows and Office and other software for 130K computer stations in schools in Israel. NEW DETAILS According to new details released today, under the agreement Office Professional, Windows XP, Visual Studio.NET, Project, Windows servers, SMS management tools, Sharepoint (organization portal) and email (exchange) software will be installed in schools, kindergartens, and managers offices. MS Israel must invest 20% of her income from MOE in activities related to education and community. It will cost MOE 9 million shekels a year (45M per 5 years), whereas MOE claim it yields a saving of 14Million shekels per year without the agreement (compared to expense on MS software only - G.M.). old computers will be used as stations which will be remotely managed using a main server, with Terminal Server Technology (by MS). The "bonus" to teachers and education system emploees: the right for free home usage, except the cost of the CDs and their shipments. Sofia Mints, manager of communication, data systems and computers in the MOE, says they considered the option to offer the students to purchase MS software at discount. This option is included in the agreement. "There was no place for an auction - ther is only one MS" Mintsh reveals that MOE chose MS as a single supplier after it was allowed to do that by the MOF. According to what she says, the Ministry picked (I think this should have been examined , Orna) comparable software, and concluded that MS's offer is the best. Even if it is cheap, it may be worth it to MS, which thinks highly of exposing children to MS products at such an early stage in their life. Even if Mints is right, and MS's offer was good, such a long and vast contract of the Education system arouses questions about the procedure of choosing, especially in the light of the already existing alternatives. "The question here is which softwares suit the needs of the system better", says Mints. "For example, all the learning software are nowadays based on MS, not on Linux, and this status is not about to change soon, according to a check we did, which is also based on experts from abroad. The quastion of compatibility to the home computer was also the most important thing that made us take this decision (This was illogical in the origin - Orna). When the student goes home with a presentation he prepared at school, the home computer must be fully compatible. "The agreement has exit points" "It is important to note that the agreement has exit points every year. If things change, and open source softwarea nd Linux change, there will be an option to talk about it." We asked the MOF asking how does this long, vast agreement settle with the ministies declared policy, which calls for competiotion in software, and in light of the governmental aid to Open Office. We were told that MOE is autonomious on this decision to prefer to renew the agreement with MS, in contradiction to the government's decision not to. "to my great sadness, MOE's moves make a clear impression that Israel's goverment's support in alternative software in general and open source projects specifically is only by words. More than anything, it is meant to improve the governmental negotiation stand vs. MS", thinks Lawyer Haim Ravia, expert on law and computers,"of course saving the public's money is in itself a praised cause. The question is what will happen when MS understand the governement only calls "Wolf! Wolf!" when it threatens in migrating to alternative environments. 20.10.04, ynet Orna. -- Orna Agmon http://vipe.stud.technion.ac.il/~ladypine/ ICQ: 348759096 ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
