[Lincs] [Lincoln LUG] Linux Server Admin/Network Manager vacancy, Lincoln

[Rich Harley]

Hello all

This message posted by Terry has come to my attention. I’d like to briefly respond. The time Terry is referring to is 2011 when the company had two employees - myself, and the developer mentioned. We were trying to start the business via an open source model but it quickly became apparent this model was not working. The UK school MIS (management information system) market is simply not geared up for open source. Potential customers told us free software was not a viable option for them for many reasons (financial stability being a large one). It was not possible to fund the development costs of a project this large in scope via a freemium model and make it work in a short (3-5 year) timeframe. We pivoted to a paid for model, took on private investment and 4 years later we are 22 employees with over 300 schools, still based in Lincoln. Open source is great, but it’s a tough gig in many markets, school MIS being one (happy to debate this if anyone is interested).

To the original point, I was unaware of the ‘free for open source’ projects deal hosting Terry and his company provided. I joined ScholarPack a year or two after the lead developer began the project as a solo project. Terry’s server was organised before I arrived. I remember we did use a server from Terry to host our website for a little bit but by mid 2011 we’d moved everything to our own development servers. Changing business model quickly was not an easy time, so Terry please accept my apologies on behalf of the company for not informing yourself. Neither myself or the other developer at the time would have deliberately mislead anyone on purpose.

Applying for this job would not mean leaving ‘ethics at the door’. We would not have grown to the size we are by having those values, especially in the education sector where reliability and integrity are absolutely fundamental. We’re the only new player to break into this market in a big way in the last decade. Right now, we’d like some new faces to join the technical team so we can continue to grow. I can assure you we are a friendly and meritocratic organisation. 

Kind Regards
Rich Harley

--
Richard Harley
CEO
scholarpack.com





> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Terry Froy" <tez+lincoln-lug at spilsby.net>
> Date: 30 Jan 2015 18:21
> Subject: Re: [Lincoln LUG] Linux Server Admin/Network Manager vacancy, Lincoln
> To: "Lincoln LUG mailing list" <lincoln at mailman.lug.org.uk>, "Hull Linux User Group -- http://www.hulllug.org" <Hull at mailman.lug.org.uk>, "Lincolnshire Linux User Group" <lincs at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Cc: 
> 
> On 29/01/15 21:31, Rebecca Newborough wrote:
> 
> > Hi everyone
> >
> > I've been asked to pass this along to fellow LUG members, Lincoln and
> > surrounding areas - it's a Linux server admin / network manager vacancy,
> > based in Lincoln. Please feel free to circulate wider if you know of
> > other people who may be interested in this.
> >
> > http://t.co/tAQwnW2Ofg
> >
> > Hope that it generates some interest and some applications. Good luck.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to point out that this particular company openly abused our
> 'free hosting for open source' service that we offer to open source
> projects.
> 
> Their primary (and only) software product originally started out as an
> open source project and we provided free hosting to them because we are
> nice people who have received great benefit from using open source and
> wished to give something back.
> 
> Their head developer then took the project completely closed-source (and
> as result, made it non-free) but conveniently 'forgot' to tell us that
> they had done this.
> 
> For anyone tempted by this role, I would strongly suggest leaving your
> ethics at the front door before starting work for this company.
> 
> Regards,
> Terry
> --
> Terry Froy
> Spilsby Internet Solutions
> http://www.spilsby.net/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Lincoln mailing list
> Lincoln at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/lincoln

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