Open Source Software in Public Education:

What's the Holdup?

Samuel Coleman

Barriers and Ways Around Them

Discussion Points

18 wheelers and pickups No one gets fired for buying Macrohard Brand doesn't equal Need Follow the HERD Ignorance is costly Eating Out or Learning to Cook Remember Gulliver

18 wheelers and pickups

Small Organizations tend to be more nibble

Large Organizations tend to be less nibble

No one gets fired for buying Macrohard

IT professional are under pressure to provide “SAFE” (familiar) technology solutions.

Brand doesn't equal Need

Heinz Mc Donalds Disney Apple Nike Tiger Woods Michael Jordan

Ketchup Hamburgers Amusement Park Computers Shoes Golf Basketball

Follow the HERD

What does the following list have in common? Vi Emacs TeX/LaTeX The Electric Pencil Word Star Word Perfect Word

Ignorance is costly

Remember the DeLorean, VW bug, Yugo, Toyota

Eating Out or Learning to Cook

Proprietary Software – Requires a school system to adapt there needs to the functionality and licensing of the software.

FOSS – Allows a school system to adapt software to its unique needs: software and hardware upgrade cycles, variety of course offers, opportunities to collaborate with institutes of higher learning.

You have the choice to do either or based on the need

Remember Gulliver

There is strength in numbers

Open Source becomes more viable one application at a time

Time Horizons affect persective

Student Parent Teacher Principal District Staff IT Staff Board Member

13 years 13 years Tenured At Will Employee At Will Employee At Will Employee Until next election

Toehold Applications vs High Cost Alternatives

Open Office Suite GIMP Blender QCAD Scribus Portable Apps Kino

Microsoft Office Suite

Photoshop Adobe Illustrator CAD Microsoft Publisher ? iMovie