I was surprised to find in Ireland that the reliance on the ECDL meant
that OS applications are regarded as a bit odd. Fortunately my employer
flew the flag for LibreOffice, although some new employees did grumble
at first. My employer was a co-operative and viewed OpenSource as being
in line with co-operative values. Indeed the ICA Guidance on
co-operative values and principles makes direct reference to OpenSource
software. a few years ago there was a massive data breach in the Health
Services Authority which appeared to have been caused by some units in
the Health Service still using patched-up Windows 7 systems.
In the UK OS is a little bit more established in the voluntary and
co-operative sector and I think that this would be a good marketing
target. It is in fact the reason I joined this group. There used to be a
group in Cambridge called (I think) Net Riders, which provided training
and support to Third Sector OS users. I believe that Norfolk County
Council is OpenSource but this may have changed. It got started by
renovating obsolete hardware, stripping out the Windows OS, installing
OS, and selling them cheaply to individuals and small organisations.
This turned Microsoft's obsolescence strategy against it.
The Co-operative Movement and the wider Third Sector (Charities and
Social Enterprises) are a fruitful field for increasing market
penetration. A mapping of the sector to identify target organisations in
each country would be a start.
Happy to help,
Norman Rides
On 26/03/2024 16:10, Sully Sullivan wrote:
I think this underscores the need to market ourselves effectively to
local-level governments. But perhaps think a little smaller than the school
systems. Education is not the low-hanging fruit on that branch. I'll explain.
A part of the problem I see here is that public school curricula need several
layers of approval and that even a small school department is a very complex
hive. The ecosystem around large proprietary user bases and huge educational
publishers is one chokepoint. It's not just MSOffice that crowds this space.
Google, for instance, has large resources devoted to getting US schools to
purchase ChromeBooks for their students and faculty, to use the Google
Classroom suite of educational management apps, and to teach using Workplace
system that is our competitor. Cf. https://edu.google.com/ You'll see that
there are sales teams, trainers, developers, etc. devoted just to the schools
market.
If we can get much smaller entities of municipal government to forego expensive
proprietary software licenses--the public works office, the library system, the
town clerk--as a discretionary choice so that their funding can go to other
programs, then there are inroads to the bigger budgets within government.
Best,
Sully
---- On Tue, 26 Mar 2024 11:42:32 -0400 <[email protected]> wrote ---
Good evening all
To clarify that the uk and most of the eu educational institutions follow the
ECDL curriculum which is MS based sadly, LO is featured with linux under the
ICDL and woth todays generations computer users like us are seen as power users
as many are more adjusted to using thier phones and tablets for everything
these days through an app, some dont know what a folder/directory means
Do keep it in mind that most educational curriculum is centered around moulding
the young for the workforce and not for life and the many options it tosses at
them
I may be out of line to say that this is a
Paradox for OSS vs proprietary in the educational feild as it is mosty following
what the market’s & government strengths are..
Regards
Warren
- ossmalta.eu / mt.libreoffice.org
Sent from my iPhone
On 26 Mar 2024, at 14:14, mailto:[email protected] wrote:
Hi Mike
This is indicative of a widescale problem. At my daughter's school the "Information
Technology" classes were not generic e.g how to use a spreadsheet, database or word
processing/presentation application. It was specifically how to use Microsoft Office -
nothing else.
At one parents' meeting I took the IT head of department to task over this, asking why no
reference was ever made to free/open source software. He seemed to know roughly what
"open source" means but had not the slightest clue about the concept of free
software and no interest in open standards or open formats.
All the while this is indicative of the level to which our children are being taught the
only scope for the adoption of FLOSS applications by the general public is going to be
limited to nerds and other "self starters". This suggests to me that the
emphasis - in the UK at least - needs to be on business, where staff use whatever
applications are mandated by their organisation. In my early days of using computers I
tended to use at home whatever applications I'd grown used to using 40 hours a week at
work. Perhaps that same principle might eventually apply and the wider use of
applications like LO could
ripple out from the workplace.
All the best
Nige
LibreOffice - Free and open source office suite: LibreOffice
Website<https://www.libreoffice.org/>
Respects your privacy, and gives you back control over your data
________________________________
From: Mike Saunders <mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: 26 March 2024 10:07
To: Marketing list <mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: [libreoffice-marketing] Marketing campaign/infographic idea: Freeing
schools from proprietary software
Hi everyone,
On Twitter (I mean, "X") someone posted about their school requiring
students to use Microsoft Office. Even worse, the school has a quiz for
new students where they are asked what software they can use, and
LibreOffice is an option, but the "correct" answer is Microsoft Office.
Here's the thread:
https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FWarlockN1ck%2Fstatus%2F1771748533038911601&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cc93f52042af64f05947908dc4d7cd659%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638470445774235987%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Hk513vhDtuym8vzJecPi1uhXZbPdkPV%2FNSKnWJ10O3k%3D&reserved=0<https://twitter.com/WarlockN1ck/status/1771748533038911601>
And for those who don't want to use "X", a screenshot:
https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FnvxTvAm.png&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cc93f52042af64f05947908dc4d7cd659%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638470445774244181%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BCvwMKgE6IoHOQn6KLxZuMl2Jce1v1XJt7pEOdeZDX4%3D&reserved=0<https://i.imgur.com/nvxTvAm.png>
So what can we do about this? My idea is a short infographic that we can
post in response to such things, pointing out the benefits of FOSS
(especially with regards to data privacy) and how it's important for
students to have choice in the tools they use, and the value of learning
other tools.
Ideas and mockups very welcome :-)
--
Mike Saunders, Marketing and Community Coordinator
Deputy Member of the Board of Directors
The Document Foundation
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