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Becta urged to find middle way on interoperability standards
,----[ Quote ]
| It said in a statement yesterday: “Becta agrees that the development of
| standards is key to the effective use of technology and this is central to
| our work. The report recognises the importance of these standards in
| supporting personalised learning, the Home Access agenda and encouraging the
| involvement of parents.”
`----
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/becta_interoperability_standards/
Digital Dark Age' may doom some data
,----[ Quote ]
| What stands a better chance of surviving 50 years from now, a framed
| photograph or a 10-megabyte digital photo file on your computer’s hard drive?
|
| The framed photograph will inevitably fade and yellow over time, but the
| digital photo file may be unreadable to future computers – an unintended
| consequence of our rapidly digitizing world that may ultimately lead to
| a “digital dark age,” says Jerome P. McDonough, assistant professor in the
| Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of
| Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
`----
http://news.illinois.edu/news/08/1027data.html
Recent:
Microsoft's interoperability dodge in UK schools
,----[ Quote ]
| discounts only make it cheaper to fall into lock-in. The Open Source
| Consortium's president Mark Taylor says it well: "Schools can now choose
| between long-term software freedom or a short-term discount on the next
| lock-in play."
|
| Fortunately, groups like Becta, which brought the original complaint against
| Microsoft to the European Commission, are unlikely to fall asleep at the
| wheel.
|
| Microsoft will no doubt eventually be forced into offering interoperability
| alongside its discounts.
`----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10043997-16.html
BECTA Back in Play
,----[ Quote ]
| Just in case you thought things were getting a little dull in the world of UK
| computing compared to, say, UK finance, here comes the BECTA roller-coaster
| again:
|
| "Becta has been working closely with Microsoft to understand how the various
| issues identified in relation to interoperability in its Office 2007 product
| will be addressed. Becta takes the view that effective interoperability is an
| important component of the technology infrastructure needed to improve
| educational outcomes, facilitate home school links and address the digital
| divide."
|
| Ah, yes, interoperability: Microsoft's favourite word of the moment.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1268&blogid=14
Open source has yet to learn it pays to advertise
,----[ Quote ]
| Why is it that all these open source news sites, blog sites, and resource
| sites are still being sponsored by Microsoft?
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2563
Ian Lynch's take on the BECTA fiasco
,----[ Quote ]
| Fundamentally, I’m not complaining that we were not successful in the
| tender - I have no idea how strong the winning bid was. I’m complaining that
| the tender process adopted was broken. This is despite the fact that 130 MPs
| signed an Early Day Motion in Parliament last year censuring BECTA for
| procurement frameworks that block out Open Source.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/ian_lynchs_take_becta_fiasco
Becta's Open Source Contract To Alpha Plus Outrages Other Bidders
,----[ Quote ]
| Mark Tylor, the Chief Executive of Sirius, an enterprise support company, has
| written an open letter on the name of Becta, charging it of “cronyism”
| and “political sleaze”.
|
| Mark Tylor claims that the project cannot work out properly, as the
| consultancy that has been awarded with the contract is incapable of handling
| open source project.
`----
http://oss.itproportal.com/articles/2008/06/17/bectas-open-source-contract-alpha-plus-outrages-other-bidders/
http://tinyurl.com/6z5f3t
Open Source UK attacks schools quango
,----[ Quote ]
| The Schools Open Source Project had been intended to encourage the use of
| Open Source software in schools, for education and infrastructure, and it so
| far seems to have achieved the feat of uniting the Open Source community, but
| against it.
|
| Ross Gardler, who bid as part of the not-for-profit OSS-Watch, also raised
| questions about Becta's evaluation process: "Some of the marks on our
| [evaluation] sheet were indicated as having been modified during the
| moderation phase," he said.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/16/open-source-uk-attacks-schools
Row erupts over schools open-source project
,----[ Quote ]
| Taylor went on to urge schools to ignore Becta and the project, adding: "Any
| of the organisations Becta rejected will be your best choice". It also called
| for an open source industry boycott of the project, claiming the project
| was "about jobs for the boys, spin, and discrediting non-proprietary
| software".
`----
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39434136,00.htm
The Groklaw effect hits Becta. And yes, I am coining a new term
,----[ Quote ]
| Right now Becta ( [the UK agency that snubbed the free software
| community]http://www.freesoftwaremagazin[...]) ) is in the process of being
| Groklawed by the free software community. A source close to the events right
| now told me quite clearly that Freedom Of Information Act requests are
| hitting Becta in flurries. In this case, it wasn’t Groklaw that Groklawed
| Becta. Instead, it was The Register with their article on Becta.
|
| [...]
|
| Unlike the Slashdot effect, the Groklaw effect is much more dooming for the
| company receiving it. While the Slashdot effect eventually lessens, and your
| servers can finally stop working overtime, the Groklaw effect are
| longer-lasting, and in order to get it to stop you can either straightened
| your actions, or pay the dearest price for any illegal or unethical action
| you carried out.
|
| If you’re a blogger, I invite you to use this new term. SCO’s being
| Groklawed, OOXML’s been Groklawed, and so is Becta.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/groklaw_effect_hits_becta_and_yes_i_am_coining_new_term
http://tinyurl.com/6r4smt
The OSC's open letter to Becta
,----[ Quote ]
| If you are a school, ignore Becta's project, ignore Becta, and seek advice
| from the people who are able to give it. Any of the organisations Becta
| rejected will be your best choice.
|
| If you are a member of the Open Source community or industry not yet touched
| by this scandal, boycott the project and refuse to have anything to do with
| it. It's not about 'Open Source', it's about jobs for the boys, spin, and
| discrediting non-proprietary software.
|
| If you are anyone else, throw your hands up in despair at yet more political
| sleaze, cronyism and incompetence, and vote for someone other than the
| current government at the next election, preferably someone with policies on
| Open Source and Open Government.
`----
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10008436o-2000331761b,00.htm
The Case for Linux in the Classroom
,----[ Quote ]
| Linux is the only OS designed and equipped with Education in mind. Edubuntu,
| a flavor of Linux, is designed with the classroom in mind. It comes
| preinstalled with education software and applications that suit students of
| all grade levels, and even has some handy applications for the teacher too.
`----
http://teachertechblog.com/the-case-for-linux-in-the-classroom/190/
BECTA Rubbishes Almost the Entire UK Open Source Industry
,----[ Quote ]
| I've written a number of times about BECTA, charting its constant flip-flops
| on open source in schools – sometimes damning it, sometimes driving it. Like
| me, you've probably been increasingly confused about BECTA's real attitude to
| free software. Well, I think we know now, following the snubbing of all the
| most experienced UK open source players in the awarding of a major contract
| to promote open source in schools.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=912&blogid=14
A learning experience
,----[ Quote ]
| The situation looked to have improved in early May when it was revealed that
| Becta had issued an invitation to tender for a project to set up and run an
| open source schools project.
|
| As Glyn Moody reports, however, despite bids from the great and the good of
| open source in the UK (supported by the likes of Red Hat and Canonical) the
| contract was awarded to The AlphaPlus Consultancy, a company described as
| having “no known experience or track record in FOSS”.
`----
http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/06/13/a-learning-experience/
Becta schools deal stuns British open-istas
,----[ Quote ]
| He claimed that the decision to snub bidders that included Red Hat-backed
| Sirius and Canonical-backed The Learning Machine exposed Becta’s open
| source “posturings” as a “sham”.
|
| Becta, which in recent months has been a vocal critic of Microsoft’s
| monopolistic stranglehold on software, invited bidders to tender for
| its “Open Source Schools” project in May.
|
| At the time it said: “Becta wishes to ensure that schools are aware of and
| can access the wide variety of open source software in the marketplace. To
| achieve this it recognises that they must be supported in its awareness,
| adoption, deployment, use and ongoing development.”
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/becta_open_source_schools/
Becta, open source and education: Too little, too late?
,----[ Quote ]
| Slow adoption of open source and free software in UK schools can be
| attributed to the same kind of inertia that afflicts SMEs in the UK. It
| arises from a fear of the unknown, misapprehensions of the capabilities of
| the software, over-reliance on trusted suppliers, and general lack of
| awareness of the alternatives - but the major obstacle has been a lack of
| coordination, direction or understanding from the relevant authorities,
| exacerbated by a series of agreements with Microsoft at government level that
| have effectively tied the education system into Microsoft-only solutions.
`----
http://www.itpro.co.uk/603639/becta-open-source-and-education-too-little-too-late
Related:
Lawmaker blasts U.K. government on Microsoft policy
,----[ Quote ]
| "A member of Parliament of the United Kingdom has launched a stinging
| attack on the U.K. government's IT strategy, saying that it has given
| Microsoft too much control.
|
| John Pugh, who is a member of Parliament, or MP, for Southport and a
| member of the Public Accounts Committee, was speaking in an
| adjournment debate on Tuesday that he had called. The aim of the
| debate, he said, was to explore the alternatives to using Microsoft
| software, including open source."
|
| [...]
`----
http://www.news.com/Lawmaker-blasts-U.K.-government-on-Microsoft-policy/2100-1012_3-6212721.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ashm2
Becta's schools software scheme reported to EC
,----[ Quote ]
| An advisor to Becta, the education technology quango, has complained
| to the European Commission about its procurement process for firms
| to provide online learning platforms and content to British schools.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/08/becta_ec_complaint/
Becta under fire for procurement framework
,----[ Quote ]
| Nineteen MPs have accused a government agency of restricting the
| procurement of software in schools.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/29/becta_procurement_criticised/
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