Cross posting from eChalk list<br><br>Regards Roland<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Price, Ken</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ken.price@education.tas.gov.au">ken.price@education.tas.gov.au</a>></span><br>
Date: 2009/5/27<br>Subject: [echalk] Alternatives to "big-name" office software.<br>To: echalk email list <<a href="mailto:echalk@edna.edu.au">echalk@edna.edu.au</a>><br><br><a href="http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=52336" target="_blank">http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=52336</a><br>
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Interesting article about how the District of Columbia (as in, Washington DC) cut a $4,000,000 dollar software budget to 1/10 of that figure by replacing the productivity software collection (in this case Microsoft Office) with Google Apps, which includes e-mail (Gmail), calendar, documents & spreadsheets, wikis (Google Sites) and instant messaging<br>
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"When employees go home, they have access to more technology at home than they do at work," he says. "I said 'wait a minute, people have this access at home, how can I bring it to the government? It made a compelling reason for us to move that direction."<br>
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The decision wasn't solely for money-saving reasons, but also to reduce risks of data loss, on the basis that Google's server farms are far more extensive and geographically dispersed than any government servers.<br>
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The nearest I've seen to this in school education is NSW's outsourcing of education email to Google, but there will probably be more examples before too long...<br>
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More info<br>
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<a href="http://bink.nu/news/washington-dc-drops-microsoft-for-google.aspx" target="_blank">http://bink.nu/news/washington-dc-drops-microsoft-for-google.aspx</a><br>
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<a href="http://www.cio.com/article/450636/How_Vivek_Kundra_Fought_Government_Waste_One_Google_App_At_a_Time_" target="_blank">http://www.cio.com/article/450636/How_Vivek_Kundra_Fought_Government_Waste_One_Google_App_At_a_Time_</a><br>
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<a href="http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2008/10/washington-dc-latest-to-drop-microsoft-for-web-apps.ars" target="_blank">http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2008/10/washington-dc-latest-to-drop-microsoft-for-web-apps.ars</a><br>
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<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_apps_microsoft_dc.php" target="_blank">http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_apps_microsoft_dc.php</a><br>
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This information came from a recent Gartner Group session - these are well worth attending if you get a chance.<br>
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ken<br>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College<br><a href="http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au">http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au</a><br><br>"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead<br>