[Technical] Interestingcomputers-in-education

[Stephen Digby DEET]

Remember Microbee ?? 
I think an Australian OS developed for the education market and linked to HW.
Got quite a foothold in WA and a few other places until it was overwhelmed.

Amazing to think what could happen if Australian Governement thought of all government expenditures as part of an industry
development fund.....


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Stephen Digby, Learning Technology Manager
digby.stephen.p at edumail.vic.gov.au
Cheltenham Secondary College
www.cheltsec.vic.edu.au
Ph: 613 955 55 955  Fx: 9555 8617
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To you I am an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition. - Woody Allen

-----Original Message-----
From: tech-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:tech-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Con Zymaris
Sent: Sunday, 7 August 2005 8:42 AM
To: Technical Discussion in Schools Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Technical] Interestingcomputers-in-education

On Sat, Aug 06, 2005 at 09:40:31PM +1000, Stephen Digby DEET wrote:
> Agree that such large purchases should definitely go to tender. Amazed 
> that it didn't.  Just thought that microsoft won !

Most people think very much along these lines. 

Most people think that Microsoft just won the tender. There was no tender in the first place. The only tender was in deciding which
Microsoft reseller would get the nod to distribute the software.

In fact, none of the major government purchases of Microsoft software, in every state, and not just in Education, are done this way.
We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars for every software refresh cycle, merely handed to Microsoft, with no opportunity for
competition.

Now you know why we are taking this to the ACCC. The fact that no other firm has done this yet, not even any of the huge players, is
an indication of how much Microsoft is feared in the industry.

You will find that Microsoft is feared just as much by the Department of Education. Which is why they are too scared to push out
copies of OpenOffice.org and many other Windows-based open source applications to the public schools - "As it might annoy
Microsoft..."

It's also probably one of the reasons why Microsoft's student programming competition, looking to push VB.Net down as many students'
throats as possible, is supported by the Department of Education. Meanwhile OSV's Wide Open Code open source competition, was not.
Even after valiant efforts by some DE&T staffers, and many months effort on our part.

One more thing. Several years ago, at one of the national MCEETYA
(http://www.mceetya.edu.au/) meetings, there was a directive adopted that the states' education minsitries would go forth and
prepare plans and consider options for deploying future environemts on both Microsoft and open source platforms by the next years'
meeting. Come next year, all the states' Departments of Education came back to their Ministers with Microsoft options only.

_This_ is the environment and culture we're working to change. Luckily we like a challenge ;-)

___________________________________________________________________________
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
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