> Looking at the tender,

>  the key factor is the quality of the
> consultants, followed by the research methodology.  The other 40% is
> probably noise.  If you are reading services as consultants and
> development then I agree.

> >  > > My first thoughts are to concentrate on Web based resources to
> >  > >  support primary schools. (This would solve a lot of technical support
> >  > >  issues and make migration from proprietary to FOSS easier)

> >  > Primary schools have perhaps the most to gain from cost savings and community.
> >  > Would the lack of secondary emphasis compromise a tender?

> > You have to start somewhere. I'm not saying we ignore secondary schools,
> >  just that if we want some tangible learning resources quickly to show
> >  that the project has an immediate impact in the classroom it's probably
> >  easier to do something on the lines of the Ottos_club type resources.
> >  www.theingots.org/Ottos_club.

> TheINGOTS are very important to this bid, but I feel we should not
> neglect the secondary sector - especially in the tender.  Use of words
> is very important - if we make our KPIs mainly from the primary
> sector, then fine, but the bid should cover the whole sector.

> >  > >  The publicity from the BECTA involvement is
> >  > >  probably as valuable in getting confidence and the message out as the
> >  > >  money.

> Hmmm.... please following this timeline covering the past 6-8 weeks...

> 1) The Tory party received a briefing paper on FOSS.
> 2) Cameron makes his speech - timed to prevent the Labour party
> responding rapidly, because of the rules about making announcements
> before elections.
> 3) The day _after_ the local elections, this tender is published.
> 4) The period of the project is set to run until just after the
> expected date for the general election.

> There is a win-win potential here...