[Bradford] Response to NonMS schools petition

[David Parkin]

David,
Indeed. I had prevously seen much of the content in BECTA's response but I knew of previous concerns about their role in the government's and M$'s love in and posted a couple of illustrations. From the Open Source Schools website, a reference to theirM$ concerns.

Interesting, too, about Dixons. We already know that these academies receive much greater (2X?) funding than normal schools and are more resistant (immune?) to Local Authority pressure. Some schools have been refused basic repairs unless they opted into a standard IT support package. Even schools with an established IT infrastructure have been told to ditch it if they wanted their leaky roofs fixed. Dixons is a recent build so the roof is not scheduled to leak for two or three years yet :-)

David




________________________________
From: David Carpenter <david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk>
To: David Parkin <david at davidparkin.com>
Cc: bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk
Sent: Monday, 28 September, 2009 14:55:59
Subject: Re: [Bradford] Response to NonMS schools petition

Thanks David

Your post got me google-ing and it was interesting! I present the
following with no bias either way, make up your own minds...

The OSS from a company with no experience of OSS, eventually set this
up:http://opensourceschools.org.uk/
and I'm pretty sure you could have expected something with a bit more
punch from some of the other bidders for that contract.

Look what I found in there tho....:
http://opensourceschools.org.uk/help-desk-and-resource-booking-dixons-city-academy.html

Interesting
David



On Mon, 2009-09-28 at 13:14 +0000, David Parkin wrote:
> David,
> You try googling BECTA. They have, in the past, been criticised for commisioning work on OSS from a company with no experience of OSS, losing £200m of taxpayers money (on the current M$ deal). I seem to recall that early on they supported OOXML, like the rest of HMG; looking at the response to the petition, it seems that their current stance is based on opposition the the terms of the contract on offer from M$. For many state schools the issue is not BECTA but the deals that the local authority (or SERCO, as Bradfordians call it) impose on the schools.  
> http://www.theregister.co..uk/2008/06/13/becta_open_source_schools/
> http://www.educause.edu/blog/StuartYeates/BECTAattackedontwofrontsoverop/166521
> 
> 
> David
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: David Carpenter <david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk>
> To: bradford <bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Sent: Monday, 28 September, 2009 9:55:39
> Subject: [Bradford] Response to NonMS schools petition
> 
> The response to the NonMS schools petition:
> http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/nonMSschools/
> 
> Has been published:
> 
> http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20711
> 
> Interesting, Becta doesn't come across badly in my opinion. The link
> from the response - while kind of not 100% on the mark makes interesting
> reading:
> http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=35287&CFID=3039363&CFTOKEN=a137e9f25b9bd7a6-039B1B27-E009-1FF0-287783710978C9D8
> 
> What's quite clear is that they'd like to see the adoption of open
> document formats in schools. - AND there is a requirement to educate
> parents about free-to-use alternatives.
> 
> Food for thought, fuel for action?
> 
> Cheers
> David 
> 
-- 
David Carpenter

nornir

E: david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk
Skype: carpenter.david

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