You can start going to open source a little at a time, without hiring a new IT staff. For instance, you can save that 50-75K by running open office on existing windows systems. Open source software is nice enough now to start running certain applications, without diving in head first. dan On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, Randy Clarksean wrote: > I recall that there is a school out east that made a conscious decision to > go towards the use of Linux. Maybe this is one of the classic examples you > mention - if so ... my apologies for mentioning it in the group. I did a > quick search on the web .. but did not find it immediately. I suggest you > contact them to see if they would be willing to comment on their situation. > > The other portion of the equation is the ability to hire qualified people to > run and maintain systems. School Districts typically pay below market value > for their tech support people because they are on a fixed budget. At > present, it is much easier to hire someone for the Windows environment than > it is for existing open source environments (Linux). > > I think that in the long run, it is a good way to go for schools ... lower > cost, etc. I would be very interested in your paper when you finish it up. > > Randy > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tim Wilson" <wilson at visi.com> > To: "TCLUG" <tclug-list at mn-linux.org> > Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 10:05 AM > Subject: [TCLUG] open protocols and open source > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > I'm beginning work on project for one of my classes at the U. and I hope > > to publish the results in one of the educational technology journals. > > My goal is to write a piece advocating for open standards, protocols, > > and open source as a hedge against schools being trapped by their > > reliance on the non-open versions. Case in point: my district is looking > > at spending $50-75k over the next year or so up upgrade all the MS > > Office licenses we have. > > > > My initial searches of the educational literature indicate that very > > little has been written on this topic. My article is going to be > > directed toward non-Geek educational leaders who are concerned about the > > costs, security, etc. of their current technology systems. > > > > Does anyone have an interesting article, book, etc. that you think would > > be relevant here? There are some classics obviously (e.g., Cathedral and > > the Bazaar), but I'm looking for other less well known ones. I promise > > to remember all of you when I'm a big shot professor doling out wisdom > > from my ivory tower. :-) > > > > -Tim > > > > -- > > Tim Wilson | Visit Sibley online: | Check out: > > Henry Sibley HS | http://www.isd197.org | http://www.zope.com > > W. St. Paul, MN | | http://slashdot.org > > wilson at visi.com | <dtml-var pithy_quote> | http://linux.com > > _______________________________________________ > > Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, > Minnesota > > http://www.mn-linux.org > > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >