Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: [Fsfe-uk] Early Day Motion for Parliament on FLOSS

[Toby Smithe]

And here is the letter:



Dear Greg Clark,

I am a pupil at the Judd School in Tonbridge, and I feel that the
school abuses Microsoft's monopoly, and fails to benefit from the
wonders of free and open source software. I feel very strongly about
this, to the extent that I have written two essays (and am soon to add
a third) on the matter, which you, should you be so inclined, can read
at http://tibsplace.co.uk/.

Free software and the proliferation of open standards is crucial to
global adoption of technology, and to ensure that anything created
today is still usable, or readable, a hundred years into the future.
With proprietary formats, such as Microsoft's .doc, or their Windows
Media Format, this may not be the case; and there are very viable and
open alternatives to both, with the Open Document Format (for
documents), and Ogg (for media). 

My school does not take advantage of either of these. Furthermore, they
do not discourage the spread of Digital Rights Management software,
which (as we learnt from the recent Sony BMG "rootkit" scandal), is a
terrible blow to the heart of liberty. Again, there is plenty of
information on this on the internet, but a good starting place is
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/en/about. I can see you voted against
ID cards, and I am completely with you on that. I hope to see that you
can see where I am coming from here, as well.

However, I see you have not signed the Early Day Motion 179, Software
In Schools
(http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=31752), and I
urge you to do so. This is based on the following information, which I
have taken from a recent e-mail on the gnome-uk list. GNOME is a free
software desktop environment for UNIX based operating systems. You can
learn about it at http://www.gnome.org, and you can read the e-mail
here:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-uk-list/2006-November/msg00011.html

Here is the extract:

  * Schools receive questionable advice on IT procurement from
BECTA, the government agency responsible for the use of IT in
education.
  * BECTA's framework agreements look only at the long-term
financial performance of suppliers, seriously hampering the involvement
of SMEs and ignoring the risk that schools could become locked into
expensive and restrictive contractual arrangements.
  * Lists of approved suppliers are very limited both in number and
variety - only only fifteen suppliers for non-curriculum software for
example, none of which has any commitment to open source software.
  * BECTA's own case studies found considerable savings in cost for
schools using open source software.
  * Government policy claims to promote a level playing field for
open source software.  This is not happening in schools because BECTA's
advice is partial and inconsistent.

Based on this information, I urge you once again to add your name to
Early Bird Motion 179, tabled by John Pugh MP.

Yours sincerely,

Toby Smithe



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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: [Fsfe-uk] Early Day Motion for Parliament on FLOSS

[Toby Smithe]

On Thu, 2006-11-23 at 20:13 +, Nik Butler wrote:
> Can I ask , if you have written a letter to your MP in relation to 
> anything open source would it then be  possible that you might post the 
> text of your letter somewhere appropriate on this Wiki ? I think theres 
> many of us for whom letter writting is not the first skill and having 
> something with which we can form a more coherent communication may be a 
> benefit.
> 

OK... Now I've gotta find where it goes when you click send...

If I do find it, I will copy it here.

> Its just a thought and we can push this then to the fridge and possibly 
> Linux Format or User and Developer as another Story.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Nik
> 
> 

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: [Fsfe-uk] Early Day Motion for Parliament on FLOSS

[Nik Butler]

Can I ask , if you have written a letter to your MP in relation to 
anything open source would it then be  possible that you might post the 
text of your letter somewhere appropriate on this Wiki ? I think theres 
many of us for whom letter writting is not the first skill and having 
something with which we can form a more coherent communication may be a 
benefit.

Its just a thought and we can push this then to the fridge and possibly 
Linux Format or User and Developer as another Story.

Cheers

Nik


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: [Fsfe-uk] Early Day Motion for Parliament on FLOSS

[Toby Smithe]

I am writing to my MP. This is a very important step. I hope my school
takes note.

On Thu, 2006-11-23 at 16:25 +, Andy wrote:
> I thought the following could be of interest to Ubuntu-uk.
> Its from the Free Software Foundation Europe's UK List
> 
> One thing it doesn't provide is a link to the EDM (Early Day Motion),
> it can be found at:
> 
> At this time only 11 people have signed it, so write to your MP, I
> shall be writing a letter shortly, all I have to do is decide how to
> write it.
> 
> I don't think we have long, anyone know anything about EDMs?
> 
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 22-Nov-2006 11:24
> Subject: [Fsfe-uk] Early Day Motion for  Parliament on FLOSS
> To: fsfe-uk@gnu.org
> 
> 
> Dear FLOSS supporter,
> 
> John Pugh MP has tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons
> entitled Software in Education, number 179.  Please write to, or email,
> your MP within the next week with a request that (s)he add his/her name
> to this motion.
> 
> I would be grateful if you could keep me informed about the letters you
> send and replies you receive.
> 
> You can find more information below and at www.openschoolsalliance.org.
> 
> Yours sincerely
> 
> Iain Roberts
> iain.roberts (at) opensourceconsortium.org
> 
> Ian
> --
> www.theINGOTS.org
> www.schoolforge.org.uk
> www.opendocumentfellowship.org
> 
> 
> 
> ___
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> Fsfe-uk@gnu.org
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Did you think it should be legal to rip a CD to your PC or MP3 player?
> Change the law, sign the petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/privatecopy/
> 

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[ubuntu-uk] Fwd: [Fsfe-uk] Early Day Motion for Parliament on FLOSS

[Andy]

I thought the following could be of interest to Ubuntu-uk.
Its from the Free Software Foundation Europe's UK List

One thing it doesn't provide is a link to the EDM (Early Day Motion),
it can be found at:

At this time only 11 people have signed it, so write to your MP, I
shall be writing a letter shortly, all I have to do is decide how to
write it.

I don't think we have long, anyone know anything about EDMs?

-- Forwarded message --
From: Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 22-Nov-2006 11:24
Subject: [Fsfe-uk] Early Day Motion for  Parliament on FLOSS
To: fsfe-uk@gnu.org


Dear FLOSS supporter,

John Pugh MP has tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons
entitled Software in Education, number 179.  Please write to, or email,
your MP within the next week with a request that (s)he add his/her name
to this motion.

I would be grateful if you could keep me informed about the letters you
send and replies you receive.

You can find more information below and at www.openschoolsalliance.org.

Yours sincerely

Iain Roberts
iain.roberts (at) opensourceconsortium.org

Ian
--
www.theINGOTS.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
www.opendocumentfellowship.org



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