On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 18:58 +0100, Robert Jones wrote:
there is clearly a gap in the market for a quality, comprehensive FLOSS alternative to the commercial MIS's, I want to make sure that FreeMIS gets it right.
I've been having a similar off-list exchange this past week with Miles Berry (a regular contributor around here, I think). It is astounding that the proprietary IMS solutions so consistently miss the mark. But then I remind myself, by reading something like Democratizing Innovation by Eric von Hippel [1], that the reasons why are no mystery. They are why a Free solution should be able to do this better, and not just cheaper.
Is there anyone out there who's got experience in the UK MIS field and would be willing to help me with this? I'm thinking about compliance with Government standards, security of data, exporting/importing to/from Edexcel/ ScotXed etc.
I think the government compliance issue is the real big brick wall when it comes to implementing one of the Free solutions in a UK state school. Which is why I've chosen to take my own project, ClaSS [2], to International English Curriculum schools first. Management have none of the outside demands from LEA or DfES to worry about, and so are completely grateful for the improvements ClaSS can offer without worrying 'But will it generate x, y, and z reports exactly like our current solution?'. A fully functioning IMS that drops in to place to take over the job in a UK state school isn't going to happen over night. It needs a testing ground to grow first. As Robert points out, it also needs the knowledge and input of those who deal with the details of IMS, and these are (in my experience) the least likely in schools to be getting there hands dirty contributing to a software project. If there are such people on this list then please do prove me wrong.
If we can get it right, we will be plugging one the the big remaining gaps in the package for schools to move entirely to FLOSS.
I just read that BECTA report [3] and they state this clearly: "Senior staff and administrators were less receptive to the use of OSS for administration and management purposes, due to lack of compatibility and interoperability with existing packages." A FLOSS IMS solution is needed and those like Robert and myself could do with some input to make it happen sooner rather than later. My idea right now is perhaps to find a space or a forum for IMS on the soon to be revamped schoolforge site? Somewhere for potential users and innnovators to focus. Thanks, stuart [1]http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ.htm [2]http://www.laex.org/class/ [3]http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/documents/BEC5606_Information... -- S T Johnson stj@laex.org http://www.laex.org/stuart/