[Year 12 Its] Re: [Yr11 Information Technology]ProgrammingAwards2006: PD Registrations

[Con Zymaris]

On Tue, Jun 06, 2006 at 11:43:23AM +1000, Kevork Krozian wrote:
> Hi Con,
> 
>    The three obvious question are:
> 

Thanks for your thoughtful questions, Kevork.

>     1. Are you aware of any efforts to initiate other programming 
> competitions through DET that have been blocked ? if not , why not offer 
> to promote and initiate a broader programming competition for schools 
> rather than call it non-Morosoft ? 

You bet. 

Several years ago, we approached DET to help push Wide Open Code, a
programming competition focussed on open source tools and platforms.  
After many months of discussions, we acheived little in getting their
assistance. We ran the competition anyway, but without broad DET support,
we cannot hope to reach most schools and therefore most students.

Remember, we don't have Microsoft's marketing muscle nor their deep
pockets - we are all volunteers with a community focus. We need DET
assistance to disseminate information and to publicise events more than
Microsoft does.

> 
>     2. What efforts have been made to offer other, non Microsoft 
> software to DET and where have these efforts led ?

For over 4 years now, Open Source Victoria has made a concerted effort to
get DET to look at alternatives to Microsoft platforms on the desktop.  
We've had meetings, emails, phone calls - nothing has happened in that
time. Nothing looks like it's happening in the mid-term future.

In addition, several years ago, the Ministerial Council on Education,
Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (www.mceetya.edu.au) asked the
state DETs to prepare guidelines for the adoption of open source software.
Nothing came of that. 

More information? Whenever DET puts out a tender to supply software for
desktop OSes and productivity software, the open source industry is not
invited to bid for any of that business.

Software refresh cycle after software refresh cycle, Microsoft is awarded
the business without real competition. The last cycle gave Microsoft $23
million:

 http://www.tenders.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/eTenders/etdrPublishing.nsf/ContractsAll/693020B2BDD8448BCA256E2B00077E25?OpenDocument

The reality is that the state Departments of Education are the most
pro-Microsoft agencies in the country.

> 
>     3. What industry and tertiary education uptake is there for 
> Microsoft and non Microsoft software ? If 95% of industry uses Microsoft 
> products, schools and DET would be negligent in not exposing students to 
> this community mainstream would they not ?

For industry, 20% of the server industry is now Linux and open source. 70%
of the web-development market is Linux and open source. 10% of office 
suites are now open source as are 10% of web browsers. All these segments 
are growing 300% faster than industry average. It's also worth reading 
this:

 http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2006060202826OPMRDV

As for universities, almost all Australian universities focus a major 
portion of their IT courses on Linux and open source software. If you care 
for references, I can point you to the lecturers themselves.

Exposing students to Microsoft is not the problem. Feeding them a diet of 
almost nothing but Microsoft platforms, web-browsers, dev tools, office 
suites etc is the problem.

> 
> 
>    Over to you

Thanks again for the opportunity.


Cheers,

Con Zymaris

- CEO, Cybersource Pty. Ltd.
- Director, Open Source Industry Australia, Limited.
- Convenor, Open Source Victoria (A Government-funded industry cluster.)

-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia 
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
Web: http://www.cyber.com.au/  Phone: 03 9621 2377   Fax: 03 9621 2477