[ILUG] Typical - Schools / vendor lockin.

[Luke Ashe-Browne]

Diarmuid Bourke wrote:
> I would say it's a case of the school not having a clue. (ie, He has 
> publisher, it works on his computer when he tests it) Have you tried 
> contacting them about it? Maybe they can put it online in a different 
> format.
>
> Diarmuid.
>
> Cathal Ferris wrote:
>> I find this type of thing all across the teaching spectrum in Ireland:
>> Registration forms and other documentation in obscure formats 
>> readable only in expensive programs.
>>
>> Case in point: The registration form for a teacher's association 
>> meeting is in MS Publisher format. Even those places with enterprise 
>> licenses for MS products wouldn't have MS Publisher. Not many schools 
>> would have licenses for this.
>>
>> http://www.ista.ie/Letterkenny1.html
>>
>> How can this be remedied in the long run?
>>
>> Cathal.
>>
>> -- 
>> Cathal Ferris
>> pio at csn.ul.ie            http://www.swibble.com
>
The only long term answer is the promotion of free and open standards, 
ODF and the like. Write to them ask them to try publishing their 
documents in OOo, even linking to the download site from the files page 
itself, having the knock on affect of promoting its use amonst users of 
the site (parents). There's little you can achieve quickly, but with 
continuing efforts maybe the world can be made aware. I still find it 
hilarious, and saddening, that budget strapped schools system don't 
outright embrace the use of free operating systems and productivity 
software. I mean they can't even pay the teachers salaries as it is. So 
they'll just keep unneccessarily hemoraging away their budgets on 
propriatary software, that could otherwise be used to aleviate the lack 
of positions for teaching staff, unless the like of us do something 
about it.

</rant>

mmmm, nice warm post-ranting glow.