>  Dear all
>  I felt this may be of interest to members of this list as a potential
>  opprotunity or future benefit.

>  Notification of invitation to tender for School Open Source Project

>  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.  In order to aid
>  this we are commissioning a project to:

>  1.  Support a sustainable and significant community of schools who use
>  and develop open source products by April 2010; and

>  2. Provide schools specific content development on open source
>  implementations.

>  The intended timetable for project award will be:

>  2nd May
>   Invitation to Tender issued

>  By 12 noon 9th May
>   Tenderers submit questions and comments regarding tender documents.
>  (see 1.6 above)

>  13th May
>   Becta responds to questions and comments via email to all tenderers

>  By 12 noon 20th May
>   Bidders submit tender (see 1.8 above)

>  3rd June
>   Please endeavour to keep free as a shortlist of bidders may be
>  invited to Becta to discuss their tender submission, after which a
>  final decision will be made on awarding the Contract. (see 1.3 above)

>  12th June
>   Contract Award

>  Please address all correspondence or requests for tender documents  to
>  tender.questi...@becta.org.uk

>  Best regards

>  David Carey

>  Becta Consultant

>  david.ca...@becta.org.uk