Early Day Motion No 179 - Software in Education
John Ingleby
entitled Software in Education, number 179. Please write to, or email,
your MP within the next week with a request that he or she add their
name to this motion.
"That this House congratulates the Open University and other schools,
colleges and universities for utilising free and open source software to
deliver cost-effective educational benefit not just for their own
institutions but also the wider community; and expresses concern that
Becta and the Department for Education and Skills, through the use of
outdated purchasing frameworks, are effectively denying schools the
option of benefiting from both free and open source and the value and
experience small and medium ICT companies could bring to the schools
market."
This is a huge opportunity to put FLOSS on our politicians agenda, and
the issue is precisely where we want the DfES to take action. Please let
Ian Roberts <ian.r...@opensourceconsortium.org> know about your
letters. Iain is co-ordinating this effort on behalf of the Open Schools
Alliance www.openschoolsalliance.org
Don't delay. I'm happy to forward anyone a copy of my letter if you
email me individually.
Let's make this one really fly!
John
****
Chris Puttick
Chris
--
Ian Lynch
> My MP is David Cameron - anyone know the new Tory position on open source?
I doubt they have one but they are actively seeking views on how
education needs to be changed. Tactically it might be good for everyone
to copy their E-mail to their MP to David Cameron to show him there is
an opportunity to gain a political advantage
Ian
--
www.theINGOTS.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
www.opendocumentfellowship.org
Aidan McGuire
secretary to Michael Howard, his immediate predecessor as Tory
leader, is European head of communications for the search-engine
company she is also godmother to David Cameron's first child.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,,1930030,00.html
Google employ many well know floss people - those i know about are:
(Python, Guido van Rossum http://www.python.org/~guido/ )
(Plone Alexander Limi - http://plone.org/news/google-hires-plone-founder
I suspect there are many others.
Aidan
Ian Lynch
> Mr Cameron has links with Google. Rachel Whetstone, former political
> secretary to Michael Howard, his immediate predecessor as Tory
> leader, is European head of communications for the search-engine
> company she is also godmother to David Cameron's first child.
> http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,,1930030,00.html
>
> Google employ many well know floss people - those i know about are:
> (Python, Guido van Rossum http://www.python.org/~guido/ )
> (Plone Alexander Limi - http://plone.org/news/google-hires-plone-founder
Zaheda Bhorat who used to manage the OOo project at Sun is now
responsible for open source community support at Google. I met with her
in the summer.
Russ Phillips
<SNIP>
>
> Don't delay. I'm happy to forward anyone a copy of my letter if you
> email me individually.
>
> Let's make this one really fly!
In case anyone doesn't know about it, WriteToThem is superb for this
sort of thing:
http://www.writetothem.com/
However, please note the first item in their Guidelines for campaining:
"Do not give people text to paste into their messages."
In other words, spamming MPs doesn't work :-) So, if you do get a copy
of the letter John offered above, by all means use it for inspiration,
but don't just copy it verbatim.
Also, I would suggest that CC'ing e-mails to David Cameron may not be a
good plan (I suspect they'll get ignored/deleted at best, and harm our
case at worst - nobody likes a spammer). If you happen to have a
Conservative MP, he'll probably find out anyway. Alternatively, send a
separate e-mail to the Conservative Party, after finding the relevant
e-mail address to send it to. That's more work, but it will probably
have more impact.
Russ
linuxgirlie
I will be sending one, and our MP is conservative - Damien Green, he is very good, I did faxyourmp before and he wrote a letter back (amazing quickly) and seemed to know a bit about open source etc, saying that on school visits that is does meation it, it definetly wasn't a copy and paste job, which made it feel special.
I'll try and draft something today.
Jo
John Ingleby
> In case anyone doesn't know about it, WriteToThem is superb for this
> sort of thing:
> http://www.writetothem.com/
>
> However, please note the first item in their Guidelines for campaining:
> "Do not give people text to paste into their messages."
> In other words, spamming MPs doesn't work :-) So, if you do get a copy
> of the letter John offered above, by all means use it for inspiration,
> but don't just copy it verbatim.
Absolutely! I was once told that if an MP gets 10 letters on the same
topic, it goes to the very top of their agenda.
John
****
GrumbleDook
"Dear Alex Knight,
Thanks for your message. Yes I have seen John Pugh's EDM and agree with
much
of its thrust. But I have, I'm afraid, a fundamental objection to
EDM's.....there is NEVER an "early day" so the only function EDMs
perform is
to garner support and waste Parliamentary paper.
May I therefore suggest whjat could be a more fruitful approach. You
obviously feel strongly about this issue. I dare say other
educationalists
do. I would be happy to apply for an Adjournment Debate in either
Westminster Hall or the main Chamber in order that these matters could
be
debated and a Ministerial reply received. There is no guarantee of
obtianing
such a debate, but I have managed to secure five of them in the past
year.
If you would like me try please let me know.
With best wishes
Ian Liddell-Grainger"
Has this response been received by anyone else and is this the next
stage?
Tony Sheppard
Ian Lynch
> One of the EduGeek irregulars had this reply from his local MP.
>
> "Dear Alex Knight,
>
> Thanks for your message. Yes I have seen John Pugh's EDM and agree with
> much
> of its thrust. But I have, I'm afraid, a fundamental objection to
> EDM's.....there is NEVER an "early day" so the only function EDMs
> perform is
> to garner support and waste Parliamentary paper.
>
> May I therefore suggest whjat could be a more fruitful approach. You
> obviously feel strongly about this issue. I dare say other
> educationalists
> do. I would be happy to apply for an Adjournment Debate in either
> Westminster Hall or the main Chamber in order that these matters could
> be
> debated and a Ministerial reply received. There is no guarantee of
> obtianing
> such a debate, but I have managed to secure five of them in the past
> year.
>
> If you would like me try please let me know.
It would definitely be worth trying this. Really we want to raise the
profile so any debates etc are a good idea.
>
> With best wishes
>
> Ian Liddell-Grainger"
>
> Has this response been received by anyone else and is this the next
> stage?
>
> Tony Sheppard
>
>
> >
Aidan McGuire
MP who very kindly has raised this issue for us in the house and then
let him approach
Tony Sheppard MP directly to see can they jointly progress in a
coordinated manner.
I think this probably is the best way forward.
Aidan
GrumbleDook
Aidan McGuire wrote:
Hey Ian .. I've been upgrade to an MP now :-)
Ian Liddell-Grainger is the MP you should contact about this ... I am a
lowly geek
Tony Sheppard
Aidan McGuire
mistake... :)
aidan
Iain Roberts
MPs from six parties. This is fantasic for a subject that isn't
automatically going to get MPs excited and achieved in under two weeks.
Many thanks to everyone who's already contacted their MP. If you
haven't, please do so in the next week and let's see if we can get even
more MPs supporting FLOSS.
If your MP's already signed, why not write a quick note thanking them -
it reminds them that it's an issue lots of people care about.
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=31752&SESSION=885
More info at http://www.openschoolsalliance.org
Iain,.
linuxgirlie
Thank you for your e-mail about software in schools.
I believe that head teachers and principals should be able to make decisions about the goods and services that best suit the needs of their institution. It is important, then, that they have the option to choose from free and open source software.
I also agree that by allowing free and open source products to compete in the market, not only will choice be improved, but also the standard of material available. This is crucial in an era where competent information technology skills are paramount in the workplace.
This is an important issue that will affect every educational institution. I am very happy to support this campaign.
Yours Sincerely,
Damien Green.