Invitation to tender School Open Source Project
dcarey121
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.q...@becta.org.uk
Best regards
David Carey
Becta Consultant
david...@becta.org.uk
Richard Rothwell
Who is interested in working on this (besides me)
R
--
Richard Rothwell, rich...@m6-it.org
Education Consultant http://m6-it.org
Web services * Back-ups * Support * Training & Certification * E-Mail
M6-IT CIC ``Software Freedom for the Education and Voluntary Sector''
M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee
Registered in England & Wales, Registration No: 6040154
11 St Marks Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY9 7DT
linuxgirlie
Simon Elliott
Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the Bolitho School. Unless expressly stated in the text, this email is not intended to form a binding contract. The Bolitho School does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure although due care has been taken to minimise any potential risk.
dcarey121
I've also uploaded the zip file containign tender documents to the
group area. If you ar eunable to access this eamiul
tender.q...@becta.org.uk and they will forward you a copy.
Regards
David Carey
Becta Consultant
> Best regards
>
> David Carey
>
> Becta Consultant
>
Richard Rothwell
> wow.
>
> The tender would have to include sufficient funding to cover staff for
> development time and for website development and hosting.
Will look at the docs now they're uploaded.
> Could the tender come from us as a whole group, perhaps with the INGOTs as
> one assessment focus?
Absolutely - I think an sf-uk tender would be best, we can decide on
the 'official company to front it in due course, and then employ
consultants :-)
Yes, using theINGOTS asn assessment focus is a good idea.
> I am certainly happy to join in as I already publish this sort of thing to
> www.thefreemac.com as my own effort. If we can include sections on
> courseware, training materials, etc. I think that this is a real
> possibility.
I hope everyone would see it that way.
> I will just have to get the Head to confirm that I can join in in school
> time and get back but definitely interested.
Good luck - assuming the contract is big enough, we can pay release
fees to the school - that is what Becta and the exam boards do.
rgds,
R
Steve Lee
> Wow!
> Who is interested in working on this (besides me)
Way hey hey! Thank's Becta.
If I can contribute as a freelance developer then I'm definitely
interested in getting involved. Even more so if there's an
accessibility angle (bound to be) or use of Mozilla tech. Happy to
develop and/or educate on OSS and web use/development for
sustainability.
--
Steve Lee
--
Open Source Assistive Technology Software
web: fullmeasure.co.uk
blog: eduspaces.net/stevelee/weblog
Steve Lee
> group area. >
In case you're not sure that's here:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/sf-uk-discuss/files
linuxgirlie
Jo
--
http://www.karoshi.org.uk
Steve Lee
> There are no files there?
Jo, there is something very strange, they are there, but sometimes not visible.
I can't get something reproducible to tell you. Try navigating up and
back or a good old ctrl+F5
Steve
Steve Lee
Tim Duckett
'page doesn't exist' error.
---
Tim Duckett
+44 (0) 7525 786 492
Richard Rothwell
R
Richard Rothwell
Just received it... three .docs :-)
ahh well, will try reposting to the group list.
R
Steve Lee
will send to some of you, others just give me a nod
Steve
On 02/05/2008, Richard Rothwell <ric...@caliban.org.uk> wrote:
>
Richard Rothwell
Steve Lee
I must have local problems with google docs, just sits there saying
'loading' :-(
Steve
On 02/05/2008, Richard Rothwell <ric...@caliban.org.uk> wrote:
>
John Ingleby
> Wow!
>
> Who is interested in working on this (besides me)
>
John
****
Ian Lynch
I've been out all day and got to go out again now but I'm in :-)
I need to read what details there are tomorrow. Two things.
Let's not assume we will automatically win it, we don't know who else
got it. We need to work out how to bid. OSC, SFUK, OSA and a number of
individual companies might decide to bide separately. That might or
might not be a good strategy. Just needs some thought.
Ian
--
New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications
www.theINGOTs.org
You have received this email from the following company: The Learning
Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79
8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales.
linuxgirlie
Has anyone here decided on anything community wise, I could bring up?
Thanks,
Jo
--
http://www.karoshi.org.uk
Ian Lynch
> I have been told that we are interested in going ahead with this
> tender, though I have no details till a meeting next week.
> Has anyone here decided on anything community wise, I could bring up?
When you say we do you mean Dover Boys Grammar or do you meant we as
part of SF-UK? Or the royal we :-)
I don't think there is anything wrong with DBG doing its own bid, it
would just be useful to know who is likely to submit a bid. And who are
potential partners.
So far OSS Watch have declared they will bid on a non-advocacy ticket.
Richard, as Chair of SF-UK do you propose a SF-UK bid? What about M6-IT?
We could do a TLM bid and I know Axiomtec are interested but probably my
preferred route would be to partner TLM and INGOTs with SF-UK and other
education focused private sector companies (Including CICs like M6). A
genuine public/private/third sector consortium bid I think would be
politically attractive.
Basically such a bid would focus on SF-UK and its web site with a
community manager and say bounties or competitions with prizes to
incentivise schools to contribute open source resources and learning
content. 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) This would be
complemented by resources such as a free open source managed learning
platform (Moodle) and Web 2.0 community environment (Drupal) from the
INGOT web site that is supervised and teaches learners how to use social
networking safely as well as FOSS apps. All contributes to the
e-strategy. We already have 20,000 + learners on the certification site
and about 2000 actively using Blogs etc and it's all on free software/CC
licensed content. We could move or link the resources section from there
to the SF-UK site. In terms of educating people about FOSS, we already
have QCA accredited certificates to do just that and we also support
staff development with links to the Teacher Learning Academy of the
General Teaching Council. We can put out tenders to the OSC companies on
behalf of schools that want to install FOSS infrastructure and provide
consultancy on development planning to move progressively to FOSS from
current circumstances. The publicity from the BECTA involvement is
probably as valuable in getting confidence and the message out as the
money. If as a result we make more money from services to schools and eg
INGOT academies we'll be able to develop more resources for the web
sites so BECTA (tax payer) gets value added beyond the original
investment and we demonstrate sustainability fo when the finance comes
to an end.
Steve Lee
> We could do a TLM bid and I know Axiomtec are interested but probably my
> preferred route would be to partner TLM and INGOTs with SF-UK and other
> education focused private sector companies (Including CICs like M6). A
> genuine public/private/third sector consortium bid I think would be
> politically attractive.
I like it but would need to factor in the larger admin costs.
> 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?
> We already have 20,000 + learners on the certification site
> and about 2000 actively using Blogs etc
Impressive
> In terms of educating people about FOSS, we already
> have QCA accredited certificates to do just that
With out checking the certificates again I wonder if that is at levels
above primary student's ability or too time intensive for staff and so
may need some work?
> The publicity from the BECTA involvement is
> probably as valuable in getting confidence and the message out as the
> money.
plus the BETT seminar and public workshop would do no harm ;-)
> If as a result we make more money from services to schools and eg
> INGOT academies we'll be able to develop more resources for the web
> sites so BECTA (tax payer) gets value added beyond the original
> investment and we demonstrate sustainability fo when the finance comes
> to an end.
Good point for the tender
I think that is a good starting point Ian.
We should at least consider MIS/Admin even if we decide it is a little
immature at this point in time (though there very useful tools in the
various projects). Perhaps we just provide info and otherwise treat
like infrastructure?
linuxgirlie
Jo
--
http://www.karoshi.org.uk
Ian Lynch
> 2008/5/3 Ian Lynch <ian....@zmsl.com>:
>
>
> > We could do a TLM bid and I know Axiomtec are interested but probably my
> > preferred route would be to partner TLM and INGOTs with SF-UK and other
> > education focused private sector companies (Including CICs like M6). A
> > genuine public/private/third sector consortium bid I think would be
> > politically attractive.
>
> I like it but would need to factor in the larger admin costs.
I'd see it more that the supporting companies benefit from association
with the project and might even donate time and effort because of that.
All such a project needs is a full time community manager and a budget
for that person to incentivise participation and to promote any
consultancy services such as migration support, tendering support, IT
health check and strategy for migration etc. They then put the work out
to the the partner companies to do. The idea would be to achieve a
self-sustaining income so that in future the project was not dependent
on BECTA handouts although BECTA/DfES might still fund specific
strategic projects. We definitely don't want to absorb funding with
admin and bureaucracy. A paid community manager with volunteer project
leads works in OpenOffice.org although I have to say it could be much
more effective than it is. If there is a budget of 130k, say 50k for web
hosting, paying the community manager and expenses then leaves 80k for
promoting services and providing incentives for participation.
> > 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. Simple programming and providing exemplars
of how to join in. These are in Java script but Python or similar could
be used. We can offer secondary schools services for migration
strategies. They have more money than primary schools for paying for
consultancy etc. That gives a chance of generating a sustainable
business beyond the initial funding. we have to get a balance. I'd be in
favour of initially targeting things that can generate revenue so we
have the means to achieve more in the longer term but we also need to do
things like an audit of existing FOSS resources and work out how to make
them accessible to schools. Maybe grade them eg Inkscape, OOo, Audacity
grade 1, Ubuntu live grade 2, setting up Firefox on the network grade 3,
Migrating servers to Linux grade 4 etc.
> > We already have 20,000 + learners on the certification site
> > and about 2000 actively using Blogs etc
>
> Impressive
>
> > In terms of educating people about FOSS, we already
> > have QCA accredited certificates to do just that
>
> With out checking the certificates again I wonder if that is at levels
> above primary student's ability or too time intensive for staff and so
> may need some work?
Not really, I designed the INGOTs for progression. The certificates are
carefully planned to support progression from young children in primary
schools/special needs to self-sufficiency in using free resources. This
is based on the QCA foundation Tier research, functional skills and the
Lietch report. They have to start with some key generic skills and
knowledge but the Bronze 3 is specifically targeted on Year 6 as a
bridge for cross phase progression to Silver in Y7. We already have
primary schools saying that they can get Silver down in to KS2. Take a
look at the Moodle pages below (Log in as a guest or make an account,
it's free)
Bronze
http://theingots.org/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=136
Silver
http://theingots.org/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=275
Gold
http://theingots.org/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=252
Note the progression to build concepts and ideas of increasing
sophistication. The goal is learning how to learn through understanding
of key transferrable knowledge and skills.
If anyone can add and improve these courses please do. I have already
made them available for download so people can put them in their own
Moodles, it's all CC licensed generally using CC resources.
> > The publicity from the BECTA involvement is
> > probably as valuable in getting confidence and the message out as the
> > money.
>
> plus the BETT seminar and public workshop would do no harm ;-)
We would need to work out where the cost-benefit is greatest in spending
on promotion. Alliance with other government agencies such as SSAT and
e-skills would probably be a good idea.
> > If as a result we make more money from services to schools and eg
> > INGOT academies we'll be able to develop more resources for the web
> > sites so BECTA (tax payer) gets value added beyond the original
> > investment and we demonstrate sustainability for when the finance comes
> > to an end.
>
> Good point for the tender
>
> I think that is a good starting point Ian.
> We should at least consider MIS/Admin even if we decide it is a little
> immature at this point in time (though there very useful tools in the
> various projects). Perhaps we just provide info and otherwise treat
> like infrastructure?
MIS and admin can certainly be covered in consultancy services on
lock-in etc. I doubt there is sufficient money initially to make much of
a dent on providing a full open source MIS system to replace SIMS
although, Skegness might tell me differently :-). We could certainly
start a community project to start that process. At least find out what
people would consider the core essential applications and compare those
to what already exists. The difficulty for a school is that it needs a
complete admin system, not just part of it so it's sort of an all or
nothing situation, and they need confidence that it will work and that
the relevant support is available.
Richard Rothwell
>
> On Sun, 2008-05-04 at 06:15 +0100, Steve Lee wrote:
> > 2008/5/3 Ian Lynch <ian....@zmsl.com>:
> >
> >
> > > We could do a TLM bid and I know Axiomtec are interested but probably my
> > > preferred route would be to partner TLM and INGOTs with SF-UK and other
> > > education focused private sector companies (Including CICs like M6). A
> > > genuine public/private/third sector consortium bid I think would be
> > > politically attractive.
> >
> > I like it but would need to factor in the larger admin costs.
>
>
> I'd see it more that the supporting companies benefit from association
> with the project and might even donate time and effort because of that.
I feel that people have put enough effort into this on a voluntary
basis - I'm sure people and companies will be willing to work on a
low-cost basis.
> All such a project needs is a full time community manager and a budget
> for that person to incentivise participation and to promote any
> consultancy services such as migration support, tendering support, IT
> health check and strategy for migration etc. They then put the work out
> to the the partner companies to do. The idea would be to achieve a
> self-sustaining income so that in future the project was not dependent
> on BECTA handouts although BECTA/DfES might still fund specific
> strategic projects.
Agreed.
> We definitely don't want to absorb funding with
> admin and bureaucracy. A paid community manager with volunteer project
> leads works in OpenOffice.org although I have to say it could be much
> more effective than it is. If there is a budget of 130k, say 50k for web
> hosting paying the community manager and expenses
I pretty much agree with this figuring - does it makes sense if the
community manager can handle the research component as well?
> then leaves 80k for
> promoting services and providing incentives for participation.
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...
I expect that if you look around you will find the most government
agencies have just released similar tenders, all designed to counter
the spin doctors' expectation of the Tory manifesto.
> > plus the BETT seminar and public workshop would do no harm ;-)
the BETT stuff is good news - I presume it will be in 2010? January? .....
>
> We would need to work out where the cost-benefit is greatest in spending
> on promotion. Alliance with other government agencies such as SSAT and
> e-skills would probably be a good idea.
>
>
> > > If as a result we make more money from services to schools and eg
> > > INGOT academies we'll be able to develop more resources for the web
> > > sites so BECTA (tax payer) gets value added beyond the original
>
> > > investment and we demonstrate sustainability for when the finance comes
>
> > > to an end.
> >
> > Good point for the tender
> >
> > I think that is a good starting point Ian.
> > We should at least consider MIS/Admin even if we decide it is a little
> > immature at this point in time (though there very useful tools in the
> > various projects). Perhaps we just provide info and otherwise treat
> > like infrastructure?
>
>
> MIS and admin can certainly be covered in consultancy services on
> lock-in etc. I doubt there is sufficient money initially to make much of
> a dent on providing a full open source MIS system to replace SIMS
> although, Skegness might tell me differently :-). We could certainly
> start a community project to start that process. At least find out what
> people would consider the core essential applications and compare those
> to what already exists. The difficulty for a school is that it needs a
> complete admin system, not just part of it so it's sort of an all or
> nothing situation, and they need confidence that it will work and that
> the relevant support is available.
>
Yes, the targeting of the limited development funding is important.
I'm not sure this needs to be decided now - the tender could propose
that the first stage of the development project was to determine the
most efficient deployment of limited resources between projects, such
as MIS, CAD, simulation, datalogging, other TLAs and some things I
haven't mentioned :-)
Anyway, it's good news.
R
Ian Lynch
> 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.
John Ingleby
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
****
Ian Lynch
Now I have had a chance to look at the tender I think that BECTA is
looking for a Prime Contractor who will be held accountable for the
deliverables. I will bid with TLM as the Prime contractor but I need
community members that are willing to go on a consultant's list to
e-mail me with a short CV.
Include: Name, Qualifications, FOSS experience and any specific areas of
expertise. if you are a member of SFUK or another Open Source community
include that too.
Thanks,
Ian Lynch
> On Sun, 2008-05-04 at 14:47 +0100, Ian Lynch wrote:
>
> > Now I have had a chance to look at the tender I think that BECTA is
> > looking for a Prime Contractor who will be held accountable for the
> > deliverables. I will bid with TLM as the Prime contractor but I need
> > community members that are willing to go on a consultant's list to
> > e-mail me with a short CV.
> >
> > Include: Name, Qualifications, FOSS experience and any specific areas of
> > expertise. if you are a member of SFUK or another Open Source community
> > include that too.
>
>
> Attached is a summary of my FLOSS and other experience. Please let me
> know if you need any help with your bid
Thanks will do.
Steve Lee
> Now I have had a chance to look at the tender I think that BECTA is
> looking for a Prime Contractor who will be held accountable for the
> deliverables. I will bid with TLM as the Prime contractor
Ian, thanks for stepping forward to drive this for us.
John Ingleby
John
****
On Sun, 2008-05-04 at 21:21 +0100, John Ingleby wrote:
> On Sun, 2008-05-04 at 14:47 +0100, Ian Lynch wrote:
>
> > looking for a Prime Contractor who will be held accountable for the
> > deliverables. I will bid with TLM as the Prime contractor but I need
> > community members that are willing to go on a consultant's list to
> > e-mail me with a short CV.
> >
> > Include: Name, Qualifications, FOSS experience and any specific areas of
> > expertise. if you are a member of SFUK or another Open Source community
> > include that too.
>
>
> Attached is a summary of my FLOSS and other experience. Please let me
>
> Best wishes,
>
> John
> ****
>
> >
Ian Lynch
> Oops! This was meant to go direct to Ian. Please disregard.
Too much excitement :-)
How would people feel about a rebranding/revamp of the existing SF-UK
web site under the name SOSCLEP (Schools Open Source Community Learning
Project)?
With supported by BECTA, SF-UK, OSA, OSC, TLM etc. on the front page.
It's a sort of re-branding but acknowledging the key contributors. This
re-branding can be a work package so we can pay someone to lead and
manage the web site development (might be one lead with a budget to pay
others rather than simply a single person). The advantage is we can
build on the existing work already done.
We can then have sections on the web site for further work packages such
as a marketing project to "sell" the FOSS concept to schools, a
curriculum project to develop learning resources to support focussed
areas of the NC. That could be say a Junior Wikipedia project and say
Moodle for courses. Then we have a migration project that supports
transition from proprietary to Open Source infrastructure.
I envisage me and TLM simply coordinating this and providing an office
address and telephone that will be manned in office hours to deal with
any correspondence not on the mailing lists. It gives schools somewhere
physical to contact. I will also ensure that the customer (BECTA) gets
good value for money. It's in all our interests to wow them because then
we are more likely to get further funding :-) I'll also do things like
corporate relations (perhaps co-opt someone like Merlin John the former
TES On-line editor to help with PR. The project will get international
interest which will be good for the politicians.) We'll delegate work
through the work packages to the people with the best
experience/qualifications to lead and manage them and expect delivery or
we'll switch to another provider. We'll be focussed on outcomes and
accountability. We can link to other organisations - NAACE for example
to proliferate the message. P4Schools, SSAT, e-skills etc. Building
networks and relationships will be important.
The devil is in the detail so I'll get on with that, this is just so
everyone knows what I'm thinking and can raise any issues before we go
too far down any particular route.
Richard Rothwell
>
> On Mon, 2008-05-05 at 09:34 +0100, John Ingleby wrote:
> > Oops! This was meant to go direct to Ian. Please disregard.
>
>
> Too much excitement :-)
>
>
> How would people feel about a rebranding/revamp of the existing SF-UK
> web site under the name SOSCLEP (Schools Open Source Community Learning
> Project)?
>
> With supported by BECTA, SF-UK, OSA, OSC, TLM etc. on the front page.
Good idea - in that we might want to separate 'activism' from
'practice'. Not sure about the acronym though...
SOS? :-)
OSSEP?
CEFOS(S)?
I believe Becta.org might be available :-)
Otherwise sounds sensible.
Steve Lee
> Too much excitement :-)
That's having a rather different effect on me ;-)
> How would people feel about a rebranding/revamp of the existing SF-UK
> web site under the name SOSCLEP (Schools Open Source Community Learning
> Project)?
My gut reaction is that it isn't very clear what 'SOSCLELP' is/does
and is a touch ugly (a bit too close to cyclops) ;-)
However the full names is good, though it does miss out the
infrastructure bit. I have no real objection. The principle of rebrand
is fine with me. I don't believe we have any ties to the parent SF and
have had so liitle to do with them over the years that it makes little
difference to either parties.
> With supported by BECTA, SF-UK, OSA, OSC, TLM etc. on the front page.
Good. We could later see if projects like Mozilla and Ubuntu might
like to add their name as sponsors (I could ask moz once we are more
settled)
> It's a sort of re-branding but acknowledging the key contributors. This
> re-branding can be a work package so we can pay someone to lead and
> manage the web site development (might be one lead with a budget to pay
> others rather than simply a single person). The advantage is we can
> build on the existing work already done.
plus a going concern and active community with experience andgood will
should be attractive.
> We can then have sections on the web site for further work packages such
> as a marketing project to "sell" the FOSS concept to schools, a
> curriculum project to develop learning resources to support focussed
> areas of the NC. That could be say a Junior Wikipedia project and say
> Moodle for courses. Then we have a migration project that supports
> transition from proprietary to Open Source infrastructure.
All good ideas, and we we can link other technologies to the wiki all
under thae same umbrella identity.
> I envisage me and TLM simply coordinating this and providing an office
> address and telephone that will be manned in office hours to deal with
> any correspondence not on the mailing lists. It gives schools somewhere
> physical to contact.
Good idea
> I will also ensure that the customer (BECTA) gets
> good value for money. It's in all our interests to wow them because then
> we are more likely to get further funding :-)
Excellent point
> I'll also do things like
> corporate relations (perhaps co-opt someone like Merlin John the former
> TES On-line editor to help with PR. The project will get international
> interest which will be good for the politicians.) We'll delegate work
> through the work packages to the people with the best
> experience/qualifications to lead and manage them and expect delivery or
> we'll switch to another provider. We'll be focussed on outcomes and
> accountability. We can link to other organisations - NAACE for example
> to proliferate the message. P4Schools, SSAT, e-skills etc.
Excellent Ian
> Building
> networks and relationships will be important.
agreed
> The devil is in the detail so I'll get on with that, this is just so
> everyone knows what I'm thinking and can raise any issues before we go
> too far down any particular route.
Thanks very much Ian, I've no doubt you are the man for the job ;-)
I'm at SightCity in Frankfurt this week, helping to man the Mozilla
booth but will be checking emails excitedly
Steve Lee
Steve Lee
but not much luck
Open Schools Project
Open Ed community
SusEd
Sustainable Schools
Steve
2008/5/5 Richard Rothwell <rich...@m6-it.org>:
--
Ian Lynch
> Just been trying to brainstorm a good name that is not an acronymn,
> but not much luck
Let's not worry too much about a name. We can all be thinking about it
and BECTA might have a view. We do want to have learning in there
somewhere. That is what it's all about.
Simply FLOSSIE might work. Let's just thing about it for a bit.
BOSSIE - Becta Open Source Software in Education
FOSSIL - Free Open Source Software in Learning
TOSSPOTS - The Open Source Software Project on Teaching in Schools
But enough of this levity and back to work :-)
John Ingleby
> On Mon, 2008-05-05 at 09:34 +0100, John Ingleby wrote:
> > Oops! This was meant to go direct to Ian. Please disregard.
>
> Too much excitement :-)
>
>
> How would people feel about a rebranding/revamp of the existing SF-UK
> web site under the name SOSCLEP (Schools Open Source Community Learning
> Project)?
>
about Schools Open Source Project? If Becta don't mind us adapting their
project title, that is!
> With supported by BECTA, SF-UK, OSA, OSC, TLM etc. on the front page.
>
> It's a sort of re-branding but acknowledging the key contributors. This
> re-branding can be a work package so we can pay someone to lead and
> manage the web site development (might be one lead with a budget to pay
> others rather than simply a single person). The advantage is we can
> build on the existing work already done.
... and continuing to be done, such as the growing body of Open
Courseware, and school MIS initiatives.
>
> We can then have sections on the web site for further work packages such
> as a marketing project to "sell" the FOSS concept to schools, a
> curriculum project to develop learning resources to support focussed
> areas of the NC. That could be say a Junior Wikipedia project and say
> Moodle for courses. Then we have a migration project that supports
> transition from proprietary to Open Source infrastructure.
>
> I envisage me and TLM simply coordinating this and providing an office
> address and telephone that will be manned in office hours to deal with
> any correspondence not on the mailing lists. It gives schools somewhere
> physical to contact. I will also ensure that the customer (BECTA) gets
> good value for money. It's in all our interests to wow them because then
> we are more likely to get further funding :-) I'll also do things like
> corporate relations (perhaps co-opt someone like Merlin John the former
> TES On-line editor to help with PR. The project will get international
> interest which will be good for the politicians.) We'll delegate work
> through the work packages to the people with the best
> experience/qualifications to lead and manage them and expect delivery or
> we'll switch to another provider. We'll be focussed on outcomes and
> accountability. We can link to other organisations - NAACE for example
> to proliferate the message. P4Schools, SSAT, e-skills etc. Building
> networks and relationships will be important.
>
> The devil is in the detail so I'll get on with that, this is just so
> everyone knows what I'm thinking and can raise any issues before we go
> too far down any particular route.
Great ideas, Ian. The SF-UK wiki has survived with volunteer support
from lots of people, but I've felt increasingly that it's heyday might
be past, and wondering how it could be made more relevant to today's
needs (whatever they are...). For a tiny example, is anyone using eeePCs
for curriculum work?
What you're suggesting is a good way to build on the excellent work
already done by many people.
John
****
>
> Ian
Steve Lee
Peter Kemp
This all sounds rather exciting. I would love to get involved or help
out in any way I can. I currently maintain the openeducationdisc and
we have had some success in getting schools to adopt FOSS.
Thanks
Pete
On 5 May, 17:59, "Steve Lee" <st...@fullmeasure.co.uk> wrote:
> Now we're getting close ;-)
>
> Steve
>
Ian Lynch
> Hi All,
>
> This all sounds rather exciting. I would love to get involved or help
> out in any way I can. I currently maintain the openeducationdisc and
> we have had some success in getting schools to adopt FOSS.
We'll find out on the 12th June and I'll announce the result on the list
then anyone who has not expressed an interest and wants to join in can.
The money available is not huge so if successful the scope for financial
support to any particular individual/project is going to be limited but
of course we want to encourage as much community activity as possible.