Re: Major interview

["Jose C. Lacal" <jose.lacal@openclassroom.org>]

I have been quiet so far, so let me throw my US$0.02 here:

Roman makes a great point below: how much money does a software company
really need to charge for its products in order to pay decent salaries
to its employees, and make a reasonable profit for its investors? This
might be a tangential issue to the topic at hand ("Major interview"),
but it bothers me personally.

I believe that the greatest damage Microsoft has done to the educational
sector is that its ever-escalating fees, and its ever-growing hardware
requirements, force schools to waste _very_scarce_ resources just trying
to keep up with the latest bloated Windows release.

Also, Microsoft has been very successful in _convincing_ millions of
people (educators included) that they _need_ to upgrade to the latest
and greatest Microsoft OS, _whether their existing OS still gets the job
done or not_ I mean, I take my hat off to Sir Bill for his Marketing
skills. But, do schools really need to scramble for funds to buy new
Pentium IIIs with 128 MB RAM just to tun Windows 2000 when a 386 with
Win 3.x does 99% of the same job at NO extra cost to the school?

I know I am rehashing what everybody on this list knows, but this is my
point:

- I am of the opinion that the OpenSource movement will NOT succeed in
the educational arena unless and until we all embark on a Public
Relations campaign to convince educators that the OSS movement can
safely get them off their Microsoft-induced "upgrade or perish" drug
habit. Private enterprises are starting to question the Redmond Wisdom
when it comes to permanent upgrades (see all the business press and the
IT analysts warning businesses NOT to upgrade to Windows 2000 when it
first comes out). Educators are so busy teaching that they do not have
time to stay up-to-date with IT issues. The OpenSource community, I
believe, has a great opportunity to turn itself into the educational
sector's trustworthy IT advisor. We have no monetary interest in pushing
them in any direction (what we sell is free, after all), and we are all
committed to the future of education.

So the question is, how can we become such advisors? One thing is that
we all get together (through seul-edu, among other means) to talk among
ourselves. How can we take our conversations outside of our own
community, to the greater educational community? I do not have the
answer, but maybe all together can find a couple of good ones.

On a philosophical point, I will argue that OpenSource developers should
consider applying their demonstrated skills towards the betterment of
schools worldwide. The point? A lot of OSS hackers have kids now (I do),
so I am personally committed to making sure my boy has a better
education that then one I received. That is, personal comment here, why
I joined Brendon in launching OpenClassroom.

Anyway, enough said. Best regards, everyone.

malonowa wrote:

[snip]

> I'd like to point out here that in England the ed. system has a long
> history of licensing on a district level as well. This can result in 
> much greater cost savings often making the cost per seat almost
> negligible. These companies are usually only interested in educating
> children and not going broke - not huge profits - hence are very
> flexible when it comes to pricing on this sort of thing. I'd hate to
> think that any of you might put a company like Topologika in the same
> league as Micro$oft. It's not at all about capitalism - more ensuring
> that everyone involved has something to live on.
> 
> Roman.

-- 

Jose C. Lacal, Chief Vision Officer

jose.lacal@openclassroom.org
http://www.openclassroom.org

OpenClassroom: bringing the power of OpenSource to Education.