[ubuntu-uk] Is the demise of Becta an opportunity for FOSS?

[Alan Bell]

Colin McCarthy wrote:
> Smart Technologys the makers of 'SmartBoards' one of the two popular interactive whiteboards already do a linux client. Its almost exactly the same as the windows version and works perfectly. I have used to many times at our LUG meeting which occasionally meets in a school.
>
> Capita recently bought Ramesys (a large education IT provider) so there is little chance of BFS, Building Schools for the Future, schools to have any local control and choose Open Source software.
>
> FOSS does stand a chance in private or indepenent schools.
>
> Mark Thomas and SiruisIT do a lots of FOSS stuff in schools.  Maybe they could be on the Ubuntu UK podcast to talk about it.
>
> Colin
>   
it is Mark Taylor (@Mark_Antony on twitter, Antony is his middle name)
and yes, he would be a good interviewee for the podcast. Becta have done
some good stuff relating to Open Source, if you look through the 152
downloadable publications they have produced several are advocating open
source technologies and they have made several advisories about the
risks of being locked in to high cost proprietary software. I think they
were influential in getting Microsoft to offer an alternative site
license to the one that means that you have to pay by the total number
of computers in the building, regardless of what they were running
(under the standard scam if you install a media suite of 30 Apple
computers you would have to pay Microsoft for each and every one of them
even if they run no Microsoft software). Becta also set up the Open
Source Schools project and you can read more about the Becta close there
http://opensourceschools.org.uk/bectas-closure.html Ultimately I don't
think Becta did enough to justify their cost, and that seems to be the
view of the new government too.

The interesting question is what, if anything, fills the void. Stuff
like the home access program will go or be managed by the department of
education (no great loss if it goes). Publications and advisories will
be pumped out from all directions. Not sure how good this is going to
be. Schools will have to make up their own minds a little bit more
(which they did anyway, but could just point at a Becta publication to
abdicate responsibility for poor purchasing decisions). Microsoft may
put up their prices in the absence of a collective bargaining point (a
role which Becta tried to do with limited effectiveness) personally I
think Microsoft prices going up would be a good thing, too much effort
has been put to saving pennies in that direction rather than looking
about for real savings.


Just to clarify a few points made:

BSF schools can tell their system integrator what they want and that can
include open source software. A few have done so to a limited extent (I
think just insisting on Moodle).

SIMS is a problem, Capita do not appear to be interested in supporting
open standards at this time. It is a big application, it was big when I
was using it 18 years ago on Novell Netware 3.1.1 and it must be huge by
now. There are alternatives, but I don't think anything with the level
of maturity that would be required for deployment. Schooltool is the one
I would look to, and interestingly enough that is supported by the
Shuttleworth foundation.

RM is quite Microsoft focussed, but they have been around forever and
used to actually build their own computers, remember the 480Z? They also
were one of the largest suppliers of the eeePC running Xandros. I had an
RM branded one for a bit. They are actually less dependent on Microsoft
marketing money than the regular box shifters.