Letter2gillard

From OpenEducationWiki

Table of contents
1 Intro
2 Draft Letter
3 Briefing Document
4 Signatories
5 Relevant Media Articles
6 Supporting References

6.1 Policy and Gov PR
6.2 TCO Literature
6.3 Free and Open Source Software references

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Intro

The Fed gov Computers in Schools program is a stunning opportunity to put open source on the radar for schools in Aus. A number of people have approached me about 'doing something' to fly the flag - and the current debate about total cost of ownership of the machines is a gift.

So this is a draft letter to Gillard as the Deputy PM, Min for Ed.

Could also send it to Dr Evan Arthur, Chair of the Australian ICT in Education Committee. 

Evan Arthur 
Group Manager
Schools Teaching, Students and Digital Education Revolution Group
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
GPO Box 9880 Canberra ACT 2601 evan.arthur@deewr.gov.au

The aim of the letter itself is quite short. Get Gillard to insert "Consider Open Source Software" in her messaging to schools for implementation to save costs, and make the funding go further. This will be an enormous injection of credibility for our cause. Yes we must be prepared to follow up with a range of supporting material - but the letter needs to be short, to the point.

We are merely opening a door with luck there'll be time for more detailed discussion afterwards.

- Donna

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Draft Letter

The Hon. Julia Gillard, MP

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

and Minister for Education


Dear Deputy Prime Minister Gillard,

As leaders in the ICT industry we're excited by the government's commitment toward making a revolutionary improvement in Australia’s education and training to world-leading standards. We're ready to "join the barricades" to assist in the interests of raising Australia's ICT capabilities in the global economy.

We urge you to consider the cost-saving implications of advocating the use of free and open source software in schools to further the aims of the digital education revolution and maximise the impact of this critical investment in the future.

Over the past two years we have seen a dramatic drop in price for basic computing hardware. Free and open source software represents a real opportunity for further cost savings, which would allow schools to use the $1000 per unit investment more flexibly and effectively.

Schools (and associated education authorities) concerned about the additional cost of ancillary services and infrastructure associated with the delivery of the NCSSF should be encouraged to explore open source software.

Research consistently shows the total cost of ownership of free and open source software is equivalent, or lower, than for conventional proprietary applications. [*]

The time is right for schools to seriously adopt free and open source software and for the federal government to encourage a greater proportion of the $1000 to be made available for effective use of ICT and improved learning outcomes.

Please do not hesitate to contact Open Source Industry Australia or Linux Australia if you require more information about the use of free and open source software in Australia's education sector.

Signed...

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Briefing Document


Free and Open Source Software benefits schools in three critical areas.

  • Infrastructure - Schools can supplement and enhance existing services that maximise learning and teaching resources in a way that is scalable and cost effective. Choosing FOSS saves on up-front licensing costs and promotes interoperability through the use of Open Standards.
  • For learning - Every learning domain can benefit from exploring the use of Free Software. The Free Software Catalog produced by Open Source Victoria introduces software for learning for everything from Maths and Science, to Art and Languages.
  • For teaching quality ICT skills - ICT professionals rely on Free Software Tools. These same tools can be used to teach ICT skills and competencies in schools for no additional software licensing costs, and has the added benefit that these tools can also be freely used by students on home computers. And, they will be the same tools used by industry, not cut-down demo versions with licensing restrictions. Open source software invites students to go beyond using software and participate in it's ongoing improvement and development. Google's Summer of Code and Highly Open Participation programs are examples of how to engage students to reach beyond the consumer approach to technology. The "Free" refers to Freedom. Freedom to learn, to change and develop the software, and ultimately to innovate and produce something new.

FOSS also enables students across the socio-economic spectrum to access licenced software to use at home. FOSS does not lock them into an on-going financial commitment to keep up to date with legal proprietary software. Whilst schools can access bulk licensing deals, home users generally can not, or are given the option to buy restricted licenses at lower costs that prevent the software being used for commercial work. For example, a talented graphic design student might create digital artwork with which she could start her own small business, but with a home license of the proprietary software, she would not legally be able to commercialise her work. With open source tools, she would not face that restriction, and could use the same tools at home, at school, and for business.

Further Government initiatives could:

  • Support development of an education program to better inform schools about implementing Open Source alternatives for teaching, learning and administration. Schools can extend the educational benefit of this funding by choosing to purchase ultra-mobile machines (such as the linux based eeepc) and redeploy the extra funds into infrastructure (power and networking) or use it to cross-subsidise higher end machines for specialised computing tasks.
  • Invest in existing education focussed open source projects would be an investment in the public good. Products such as edubuntu, skolelinux, and the OpenEducationDisc for Windows make open source highly accessible to the school sector. Moodle is an Australian developed open source project providing an accessible, teacher friendly Virtual Learning Environment being used around the world. There is a global community of Educators and Software Developers working together to improve the software, and generate business around the product.
  • Encourage and resource schools to consider thin client solutions referred to in the hardware mix on NCSSF guidelines. This is a concrete way to spread the hardware investment dollar by further utilising open standards and open source software.
  • Mandate open standards for interoperability and data storage. (See Interoperability Standards Report.pdf (http://www.aictec.edu.au/aictec/webdav/site/standardssite/shared/Interoperability%20Standards%20Report.pdf)).
  • Direct Government funded development and acquisition of coursework into an open access framework. See Brendan Scott Economic Impact of Open Access (http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/houghton-and-sheehan-on-economic-impact-of-open-access/)

The UK BECTA OSS spectrum report outlines the Hardware costs per PC for schools using Open Source Software as a proportion of cost for non-OSS schools:

  • Primary: OSS = 47% of non-OSS
  • Secondary: OSS = 68% of non-OSS

This equates to 47% more PCs for a secondary school with the same capital outlay.

These figures were released in May 2005. Since then FOSS systems have become inordinately easier to manage whilst proprietary systems have not significantly changed.

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Signatories

  • Brendan Scott - Chairman, Open Source Industry Australia Limited.
  • Pia Waugh - Director, OLPC Australia.
  • Stewart Smith - President, Linux Australia.
  • Donna Benjamin - Education Spokesperson, Open Source Victoria.
  • Andrew Chalmers - President, Linux Users of Victoria.
  • Sridhar Dhanapalan - President, Sydney Linux User Group.
  • Max McLaren - General Manager, Red Hat Australia.
  • Karen Koomen - Government Affairs, IBM Australia.
  • Rusty Russell - Linux Kernel Developer.
  • Dr Andrew Tridgell - Samba Developer.
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Relevant Media Articles

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Supporting References

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Policy and Gov PR

http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au/

In particular

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TCO Literature

British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA)

Open source software in schools:

  • A study of the spectrum of use and related ICT infrastructure costs (http://publications.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=25907) May 2005 - Evaluates use of open source software (OSS) and related infrastructure costs within schools.
  • Case study report (http://publications.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=25908) May 2005 - Examines eight case studies of the schools included in Becta's open source software (OSS) in schools project.

Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)

Gartner

Professor Kathryn Moyle

Con Zymaris

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Free and Open Source Software references

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