John Ingleby <j...@coronet.co.uk>

I've been involved in this type of bidding before and it took a lot of
resources and effort. It's very time-consuming, and in the end it may
not succeed... Certainly it's out of the question for my own company,
CoroNet.

The fact is that since 2003 we in Schoolforge-UK, collectively, have
been doing much of what Becta now seems to be looking for. Even so,
Schoolforge-UK doesn't have the organisational resources to bid for this
work: we've never really needed an office, or paid staff, or an order
book, otherwise I'm sure these things would all be in place by now.

I'm all for putting our collective weight behind one or at most two bids
from SF-UK members who have the best chance of success. I believe Ian's
company, The Learning Machine, is in a very strong position, given that
they already have an extensive track record as a business, and moreover,
a business that is contributing to OpenOffice.org and developing the
INGOTs curriculum, and not least, they have been a strong supporter of
SF-UK throughout, including organising our FLOSSIE events.

But of course, I'll be happy to send a brief CV to anyone else who is
bidding!

John
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