Re: [Fsfe-uk] Munich, swpat and Linux - possible in UK

[Ian Lynch]

On Tue, 2004-08-17 at 17:11, Ralph Janke wrote:
> Ian Lynch wrote:
> 
> >SIMS admin systems are a bit of a special case. The Government is
> >supposed to be establishing a common format for all admin software
> >through a sort of mega pupil record system but I haven't heard what
> >progress there is at the moment. Its been in progress years. If we could
> >get an open and standard file sturcture for the data it would go a long
> >way to aleviating the SIMS monopoly. It would be best to campaign on
> >behalf of may be 3 issues for open standards in education
> >
> >  
> >
> I believe you probably mean the PLASC system. All schools have to report 
> around February their information into
> the PLASC system. However, there are some other smaller, specialised 
> systems as well in which information is exchanged.

Not sure if that is the same thing. PLASC took over from form 7 but I
think the Common Data format was intended to be something more
comprehensive though I could be wrong about that.

> I believe the format is open. I have not seen a spec yet, but I haven't 
> looked for it either. The information is transfered via
> XML files. Therefore the format could always very easily be reverse 
> engineered.
> 
> However the accounting is now also done between the CIty Council and the 
> Schools via information exchange. I haven't looked into those yet.
> 
> >The OASIS file format for productivity tools
> >The exclusive use of open standards for web based learning 
> >A published and open data format and structure for reporting schools
> >administration infromation to LEAs and Central Government.
> >
> >Thes are difficult to argue against and would go a long way to opening
> >things up to FLOSS.
> >
> As I understand MS is not coherent to OASIS. When will the government 
> put pressure on the schools to move away from it ?

I doubt they will, but they might promote OASIS and therefore put
pressure on MS to adopt or at least provide filters. The Government
won't do anything overtly anti-MS but expecting them to conform to an
international standard is not anti-them since they are free to do it.
Best to fight winnable battles so I would advocate pressure on the
Government to recognise OASIS and to advocate its adoption rahter than
anyhting directly related to MS. 

> >Everything helps. There is an incredible amount of ignorance in the
> >DfES. I think simple messages about open systems and promoting fair
> >competition might be a good angle with Governors since a lot won't
> >really understand all the technical issues but they can understand
> >simple concepts. eg MS have said they will only implement open file
> >format standards if customers demand it. Wel the DfES is a big customer
> >and it should be doing just that. Governors can put pressure on
> >Ministers to do the right thing. The more angles it comes from the
> >better.
> >
> >  
> I think Governors can first put pressures on Headteachers since they 
> must approve among other things the budget of the school.

Except the Government won't lead. It will require pressure on the Gov to
do these things and Governors are influential in this respect. 

>  One thing that 
> should help is the opening of the IT costs for the schools. When the 
> governors start to see that more than 50-60% of the annual budget is 
> wasted in license fees for proprietory software and a solution of no 
> license cost software would be available as an alternative, many 
> Governors might start to ask questions and deny budgets with such waste.
> The Ministers can probably only be pressured in the long run through the 
> Governors network...

I think if say 10 independent Chairmen of Governors wrote to the
Minister, it would not be wasted time, but if the entire network lobbied
it would be even better. Maybe both is best ;-)


> 
> Ralph Janke
-- 
Ian Lynch <address@hidden>
ZMS Ltd