[SWLUG] Fwd: Early bird motion in parliament

[Neil Greenwood]

Hi all,
Some of you may have seen this circulating on various LUG lists already.
This particular version is from the Ubuntu-UK list, via Iain Roberts
from the Open Source
Consortium, via Dave Neary on the gnome-uk list.

Neil.



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

+++++++++++++BACKGROUND INFORMATION++++++++++++++++++++

The text of the motion is :

That this House congratulates the Open University and other schools,
colleges and universities for utilising free and open source software to
deliver cost-effective educational benefit not just for their own
institutions but also the wider community; and expresses concern that
Becta and the Department for Education and Skills, through the use of
outdated purchasing frameworks, are effectively denying schools the
option of benefiting from both free and open source and the value and
experience small and medium ICT companies could bring to the schools market.

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=31752&SESSION=885


CONTACTING YOUR MP

An easy way to contact your MP is by email using the step-by-step guide
at:

http://www.writetothem.com/

The Open Rights Group (ORG) have sensible and practical information on
how to write to, or email, MPs:

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/orgwiki/index.php/Letter_writing

If you decide to follow up your letter with a visit to your MP's
constituency surgery, please look at ORG's advice:

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/orgwiki/index.php/MP%27s_surgery


POINTS TO COVER IN A LETTER

You may wish to cover some of the following points

       * 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.

If you have some connection with an SME (proprietor, partner,
employee, ... ) please make this clear in your letter as the impact on
SMEs in their constituency is something MPs can relate to.

If you are involved with a school, on the staff, a governor,
parent, ... , mention that also.  Again the wellbeing of schools in
their constituency is something MPs are keen to be seen promoting.

MAKE SURE YOU FINISH OFF WITH A SENTENCE LIKE THIS BECAUSE THIS IS
WHAT YOU WANT YOUR MP TO DO! :
"John Pugh MP has tabled Early Day Motion number 179, entitled Software
in Education expressing concern  about this and I urge you to add your
name to it."

SOFTWARE, PARTICULARLY MOODLE, BEING USED BY THE OU AND OTHERS

You can read about the OU's innovative use of FLOSS and about
the lukewarm support from the DfES here:

http://www.ukuug.org/mediawatch/?p=789

There is a Wikipedia entry for Moodle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle


BECTA AND ITS FRAMEWORKS

There is a Wikipedia entry on this topic;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becta

This ZDNet article, referred to in the Wikipedia entry sets out the
issues for FLOSS very clearly:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39256053,00.htm


EARLY DAY MOTION

An Early Day Motion is a parliamentary device to introduce an issue to
MPs and to gauge support; you can find out more from the Wikipedia entry
about EDMs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_day_motion


HOW WE GOT HERE

This EDM is the first parliamentary result of the Open Source
Consortium's work to raise the political profile of free and open source
software.  Several other groups are involved, particularly UKUUG,
SchoolForge UK and FFII-UK; you can find more information on the website
of the Open Schools Alliance, a newly-formed pressure group:

www.openschoolsalliance.org

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