Re: [Fsfe-uk] BECTA discriminate against FLOSS?

[ian]

On Wed, 2003-12-17 at 22:48, Neil Darlow wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I had the following forwarded to me via an original post to the Milton Keynes
> LUG mailing list. I think it demonstrates some consideration for FLOSS by 
> BECTA.

BECTA is conducting a TCO study of FLOSS. They also have some
information in their technical papers section at
http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/display.cfm?section=22&id=2831

Last I heard, BECTA cost £12m of taxpayers money to run and mostly its
an information dissemination and policy advisory unit for the DfES. They
really have to do something about FLOSS as is exists in the education
domain. The main thing is that they are reactionary in that they only
really back innovation that is safe ie past the innovation stage. So,
the more evidence they get that FLOSS is being used in schools the more
likely they are to take it seriously and the less likely they are to
mindlessly block it by setting biased specifications. The fact that
their TCO survey is about 3 years behind most of the other ones is
fairly typical and the fact that TCO can really be used to prove
anything about anything seems to have escaped them. Note they didn't put
any effort into getting FLOSS pilots set up. I gave them a list of
schools using FLOSS at the desktop and from the feedback I have had,
most of the schools in the survey are from that list. 

So BECTA are becoming more aware of FLOSS and we need to fan the sparks
to produce some flames. They will have representation at the FLOSSIE
conference, so a good turn out is essential or they will dismiss FLOSS
as a niche for a few enthusiasts. Same applies to the DfES who will be
represented separately.

-- 
ian <address@hidden>