Come to our second Success in Education Conference

We're very pleased to announce or second regional Success in Education conference will be held in a school running its own ICT completely on Free and Open Source Software.

Join us at The Skegness Grammar School in July 2008  and Open Source Software in education and have the opportunity to see how The Skegness Grammar School uses 100% Free and Open Source Software in their ICT.

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, this conference is free, including lunch.

We hope to confirm the date shortly.  If you'd like to register now, we'll get in touch when we have all the details.

Register now...

PRESS RELEASE  [Government ICT Policy, Technology]
For Immediate Release

Minister refuses to answer charge of providing illegal state aid in ICT debate

London 10th October 2007 -  In a surprise move during yesterday's parliamentary adjournment debate on ICT procurement, Angela Eagle, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Labour MP for Wallasey, refused to clarify whether the government's systematic preferencing of one software supplier's operating system as the standard for government software provision and web services was tantamount to illegal state aid.

Read More....

Schools take control with Open Source Software

 
UK schools are taking an increasing interest in Open Source Software, giving them the opportunity to finally take control of their investment in ICT.  Key benefits include:

• Substantial cost savings with no recurring licence fees
  
• Smaller carbon footprint
• Increased flexibility
• Access to high quality free applications at little or no cost
  
• Opportunity to play an active role in worldwide software development communities.

The Current Situation

Schools spend millions of pounds annually on proprietary software which they have no rights to distribute or modify, relying on vendors for software upgrades and new features.

Software upgrades are tied closely to hardware power. Becta has reported that 96% of school computers are not powerful enough to run the top Windows Vista release and 55% cannot run any version of Vista.

The Result

Community and home initiatives are hindered or prevented altogether.

Software is frequently expensive and often doesn't do what is needed.  

The proprietary upgrade cycle forces ever increasing costs and energy consumption.

There is another way

Open Source Software puts schools back  in control,  not only meeting their learning objectives and providing professional support but allowing  them to work together to develop the software they need with the features they want.  This allows a 'grass root' approach to make full use of  economies of scale.

The Open Schools Alliance campaigns for greater use of Open Source Software in schools, helping educational bodies find information and get assistance with implementation.