I concur with Norman and Sully,
The education section is too big and there are more powerful players stacked
against us, but on the more local level we may have better chances
Do know that educational have:
- K12 License (most are free or really cheap vs business) and grants so
tough sell there.
- Some even get grants/sponsorship donations just cos they work with
MS or google to the yearly funding - again tough sell there...
There are countries that have opted for hybrid or outright OSS (I belive
Germany, Estonia and Poland lead in this) in the case of Malta, I can say that
come local councils use a hybrid of propriety and open source software. There
was a time when the government tech entity MITA had made a white paper for OSS
in governance, but having worked with them and seen the actual results of its
implementation it's not as one would of dreamed to be but at least it’s a foot
in the door as this leaves it be a hybrid model of most end points (end users)
are MS based for Operating system and Office, the OSS side is more server/IT
dept side...
it’s a challenge but some places like the Malta local councils association, I
have had negotiations and demonstrations for OSS, and this has been implemented
in public free "use" assets in library's, civic centers and such so that
funding may be put into more Quality of life programs, when placing in an AD
Domain there is a whole can of worms to deal with and the major part is
OSWAP/cyber secuirty and Support.
Another options Is knowledge sharing base for MSP/Tech support providers, as
means to please their tighter budgeted clients who are cost cutting and want to
be free from licensing but still want the support (SLA Agreements) and marking
it towards startups, SOHO, SME's, VO's as this will allows us to network more
and grow prior to going for K12 users
also a lot of places are integrating into MS office due to Teams, SharePoint
and Outlook being under one hat, the same applies for google with meet, Gdrive
and workspace and their native support in their respected operating systems...
which makes me also want to highlight what other projects play nice with
integrations to achieve the same if not be a "stand out point" (maybe I am
going down the rabbit hole, but each field needs to be seem for their current
needs, where they can grow and the Quality of life it offers)
I have been at this since 2006 when I founded ossmalta and was a member of
OpenOffice Mar-Con team prior to the oracle forcing the community to form
LibreOffice, and when dealing with public offices and officials I have learnt
that things will be slow if it's not beneficial for them 😉 in terms of funding,
public optics and the right connections sadly...
Regards,
Warren Camilleri
-----Original Message-----
From: Norman Rides <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2024 5:31 PM
To: Sully Sullivan <[email protected]>; marketing
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Marketing campaign/infographic idea:
Freeing schools from proprietary software
I was surprised to find in Ireland that the reliance on the ECDL meant that OS
applications are regarded as a bit odd. Fortunately my employer flew the flag
for LibreOffice, although some new employees did grumble at first. My employer
was a co-operative and viewed OpenSource as being in line with co-operative
values. Indeed the ICA Guidance on co-operative values and principles makes
direct reference to OpenSource software. a few years ago there was a massive
data breach in the Health Services Authority which appeared to have been caused
by some units in the Health Service still using patched-up Windows 7 systems.
In the UK OS is a little bit more established in the voluntary and co-operative
sector and I think that this would be a good marketing target. It is in fact
the reason I joined this group. There used to be a group in Cambridge called (I
think) Net Riders, which provided training and support to Third Sector OS
users. I believe that Norfolk County Council is OpenSource but this may have
changed. It got started by renovating obsolete hardware, stripping out the
Windows OS, installing OS, and selling them cheaply to individuals and small
organisations.
This turned Microsoft's obsolescence strategy against it.
The Co-operative Movement and the wider Third Sector (Charities and Social
Enterprises) are a fruitful field for increasing market penetration. A mapping
of the sector to identify target organisations in each country would be a start.
Happy to help,
Norman Rides
On 26/03/2024 16:10, Sully Sullivan wrote:
> I think this underscores the need to market ourselves effectively to
> local-level governments. But perhaps think a little smaller than the school
> systems. Education is not the low-hanging fruit on that branch. I'll explain.
>
>
>
> A part of the problem I see here is that public school curricula need several
> layers of approval and that even a small school department is a very complex
> hive. The ecosystem around large proprietary user bases and huge educational
> publishers is one chokepoint. It's not just MSOffice that crowds this space.
> Google, for instance, has large resources devoted to getting US schools to
> purchase ChromeBooks for their students and faculty, to use the Google
> Classroom suite of educational management apps, and to teach using Workplace
> system that is our competitor. Cf. https://edu.google.com/ You'll see that
> there are sales teams, trainers, developers, etc. devoted just to the schools
> market.
>
>
>
>
> If we can get much smaller entities of municipal government to forego
> expensive proprietary software licenses--the public works office, the library
> system, the town clerk--as a discretionary choice so that their funding can
> go to other programs, then there are inroads to the bigger budgets within
> government.
>
>
> Best,
>
>
> Sully
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---- On Tue, 26 Mar 2024 11:42:32 -0400 <[email protected]>
> wrote ---
>
>
>
> Good evening all
>
> To clarify that the uk and most of the eu educational institutions
> follow the ECDL curriculum which is MS based sadly, LO is featured
> with linux under the ICDL and woth todays generations computer users
> like us are seen as power users as many are more adjusted to using
> thier phones and tablets for everything these days through an app,
> some dont know what a folder/directory means
>
> Do keep it in mind that most educational curriculum is centered around
> moulding the young for the workforce and not for life and the many
> options it tosses at them
>
> I may be out of line to say that this is a Paradox for OSS vs
> proprietary in the educational feild as it is mosty following what the
> market’s & government strengths are..
>
> Regards
> Warren
>
> - ossmalta.eu / mt.libreoffice.org
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 26 Mar 2024, at 14:14, mailto:[email protected] wrote:
>>
>> Hi Mike
>>
>> This is indicative of a widescale problem. At my daughter's school the
>> "Information Technology" classes were not generic e.g how to use a
>> spreadsheet, database or word processing/presentation application. It was
>> specifically how to use Microsoft Office - nothing else.
>>
>> At one parents' meeting I took the IT head of department to task over this,
>> asking why no reference was ever made to free/open source software. He
>> seemed to know roughly what "open source" means but had not the slightest
>> clue about the concept of free software and no interest in open standards or
>> open formats.
>>
>> All the while this is indicative of the level to which our children
>> are being taught the only scope for the adoption of FLOSS applications by
>> the general public is going to be limited to nerds and other "self
>> starters". This suggests to me that the emphasis - in the UK at least -
>> needs to be on business, where staff use whatever applications are mandated
>> by their organisation. In my early days of using computers I tended to use
>> at home whatever applications I'd grown used to using 40 hours a week at
>> work. Perhaps that same principle might eventually apply and the wider use
>> of applications like LO could ripple out from the workplace.
>>
>> All the best
>>
>> Nige
>>
>> LibreOffice - Free and open source office suite: LibreOffice
>> Website<https://www.libreoffice.org/>
>> Respects your privacy, and gives you back control over your data
>> ________________________________
>> From: Mike Saunders <mailto:[email protected]>
>> Sent: 26 March 2024 10:07
>> To: Marketing list <mailto:[email protected]>
>> Subject: [libreoffice-marketing] Marketing campaign/infographic idea:
>> Freeing schools from proprietary software
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> On Twitter (I mean, "X") someone posted about their school requiring
>> students to use Microsoft Office. Even worse, the school has a quiz
>> for new students where they are asked what software they can use, and
>> LibreOffice is an option, but the "correct" answer is Microsoft Office.
>> Here's the thread:
>>
>> https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftw
>> itter.com%2FWarlockN1ck%2Fstatus%2F1771748533038911601&data=05%7C02%7
>> C%7Cc93f52042af64f05947908dc4d7cd659%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaa
>> aa%7C1%7C0%7C638470445774235987%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wL
>> jAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sd
>> ata=Hk513vhDtuym8vzJecPi1uhXZbPdkPV%2FNSKnWJ10O3k%3D&reserved=0<https
>> ://twitter.com/WarlockN1ck/status/1771748533038911601>
>>
>> And for those who don't want to use "X", a screenshot:
>>
>> https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.
>> imgur.com%2FnvxTvAm.png&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cc93f52042af64f05947908dc4d7
>> cd659%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638470445774244181
>> %7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6
>> Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BCvwMKgE6IoHOQn6KLxZuMl2J
>> ce1v1XJt7pEOdeZDX4%3D&reserved=0<https://i.imgur.com/nvxTvAm.png>
>>
>> So what can we do about this? My idea is a short infographic that we
>> can post in response to such things, pointing out the benefits of
>> FOSS (especially with regards to data privacy) and how it's important
>> for students to have choice in the tools they use, and the value of
>> learning other tools.
>>
>> Ideas and mockups very welcome :-)
>>
>> --
>> Mike Saunders, Marketing and Community Coordinator Deputy Member of
>> the Board of Directors The Document Foundation
>>
>> --
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