[ubuntu-us-ma] Fwd: Business Plan of Action for Ubuntu Professional Support & Distribution

[Algot Runeman]

David,

Over the past couple of years, one of the main concerns I have heard
from technology people in schools has been that the FLOSS implementation
process is without "real" tech support. Schools and school districts are
a medium to large technology implementations.

In Massachusetts, a couple of partnered organizations which would be
good to approach are MassCUE <http://masscue.org> and METAA
<http://www.techdirectors.org/> and certainly also the state school
superintendents' organization MASS <http://www.massupt.org/>.

There are many companies trying to provide technology support for
schools, and getting recognized as a "player" by the Massachusetts
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education isn't easy. None of the
tech support businesses, to my knowledge, actively support FLOSS
installations. Microsoft products are dominant with Apple Macintosh also
common.

I have felt a serious FLOSS support business is needed to give school
tech staffs the backup support they need. School budgets are under
constant pressure. Do more with less. FLOSS implementations may be one
way to partially alleviate the problem. Administrative personnel aren't
easy to convince, but if they saw a strong Massachusetts company
available to support the transitions, they might be more open to the
suggestion than they currently seem to be.

Ubuntu is my personal choice for FLOSS implementation, but I think a
viable education support business would need to be more broadly
supportive of distributions.

At this time, I don't think that schools should be the centerpiece of
any business plan you put together. Schools aren't ready to jump on the
FLOSS bandwagon. A solid reputation in the area business community would
be a positive selling point for schools, though. Keeping in touch with
the school implementors of tech should be a part of your plan, though.
When the right moment comes, it would be great to have a  tech support
business ready to jump in.

Whatever happens, good luck.

--Algot

David Wolfman wrote:
> I love this discussion, Michael, Martin, thank you for your responses...
>
> I am really trying to work within the existing models and extend them
> in a way that fulfills the needs of both consumers and providers of
> Ubuntu...if someone had a better idea, and it was ethical and
> sustainable, I would embrace it. I have searched the net and can't
> find anything about a revenue model focusing on sustainability for
> Ubuntu service approaches, or even a service model relating to Ubuntu
> for oranizations. It is up to us to design it, all I really ask is
> that when I'm done, there will be some peer review, so it can be a
> cooperative effort, and so objections can be made, discussed and
> alterations can be exercised. It will take me a month just to get the
> first version of the proposal designed and written, including a
> business plan and information about a theoretical hierarchy of
> support, and possibly example contracts.
>
> Canonical support is limited, but it is a good point, I'm talking
> about hands on support or remote desktop support that end users demand
> and aren't getting.
>
> I repeat, this is an attempt to extend the provision of th GPL2 (which
> I must review again) and the Ubuntu product, terms, and philosophy
> with a focus of sustainability. I am getting consultations from all my
> contacts in non-profit and also open-source that I have, I am on the
> phone quite a bit, and believe I can deliver a framework we can work
> with. For now, any discussion about the subject I view as positive.
> I invite all input!
>
> Thanks, peace, Ubuntu,
>
> David Wolfman
> dvwolfman at gmail.com <mailto:dvwolfman at gmail.com>
>

-- 
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Algot Runeman
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