Invitation to tender School Open Source Project - Schoolforge-UK Discussions

Message from discussion Invitation to tender School Open Source Project
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Subject: Re: [sf-uk-discuss] Re: Invitation to tender School Open Source
	Project
From: Ian Lynch <ian.ly...@zmsl.com>
To: sf-uk-discuss@googlegroups.com
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Date: Sun, 04 May 2008 12:56:17 +0100
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> Looking at the tender,

I had better read it :-)

>  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.

Yes, the services I was outlining are all things that need consultant
with a track record in FOSS eg

Yourself as SF-UK chair and the work you have done in M6-IT related to
environment, social inclusion with Nottingham schools.

Me with school development planning, migration strategy and installing
and maintaining infrastructure.

etc.. Just need short CVs from supporting companies and players. 

Research methods is something else that I can support through a Masters
in Education Management etc. Remember SF-UK presented a research paper
in 2006 to BECTA linking FOSS to government projects. Probably there are
others with at least some research background. I could co-opt Birmingham
Uni Comp Science department as I still have some contacts there.
Possibly the OpenAdvantage people as they came from UCE.

Maybe if anyone on the list that has an interest in being listed as a
consultant or researcher e-mails me a short CV focussed on
qualifications and open source knowledge/experience I can put a
consultants list together.

> >  > > 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.

See below. The main issue for primary is to get some new open source
resources into schools quickly. In the end it's about pupils and
learning so symbolically we need something quick.

> >  > >  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...

Agreed, there is certainly a political dimension here. Also makes life
easier for BECTA if we are working together rather than against each
other.

Ian
-- 
New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications
www.theINGOTs.org

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