On Tuesday 01 October 2002 22:16, Christopher Dawkins wrote:
What we need is a database of schools using Linux both to persuade people that there is a market out there, and also to be able to find schools who would be willing to trial new (Linux) products.
This is an existing lug.org.uk project, which a student is trying to finish before going back to University.
It was also a Fensystems project, a year or two ago under the osie (Open Systems in Education) banner. The problem lies in getting good info from schools, many of whom are beavering away in isolation. Maybe a further OSS push at BETT is the way forwards - a strong degree of co-ordination betwen the different OSS stands.
BETT is a very expensive waste of time for most small companies. You sell very little from a show like BETT, and marketing budgets are far better focussed on other things. The reason M$ and RM are at BETT is because they have to be for their corporate image. The only way OSS would get a big presence at BETT is if IBM, SUN or some other large corporate decided to take it on. If I had the 250,000 that the likes of RM blow on BETT I would spend it on software development and grass roots networking. Its far more important at this point in time.
None have yet made quite the same impression as the RM or Microsoft stands. (Thank goodness!). But if every stand featuring OSS could post the same map featuring all the other relevant stands - well, that might show how small mobile brainy flexible adaptable cooperative mammal-like creatures (Bother! Penguins aren't mammals!) can compete with huge lumbering dinosaurs.
How many OSS stands will be at BETT? I don't think many. We certainly couldn't justify it. But we will be at the TC Trust Conference which has greater focus and more people with purchasing power and influence. In my experience its mainly people with no purchasing power who attend BETT and the statistics of being able to make cold contact with someone significant who then buys enough off you to justify the planning time, the stand and following up a lot of duff leads simply isn't good business.
Like a radio telescope made from many small dishes spread out over a country. Each on its own is too small to be effective. But together, it is more than the sum of its parts, and visitors might suddenly appreciate the idea that the winds of change are blowing.
That principle is a good one but not for BETT, for people in positions of influence in government schemes who want to work together to promote OSS by getting systems into schools.
This needs to be co-ordinated by someone with a stand. Or a lug, to avoid overt bias to any one distro.
I did think at one point I had SUN on board but that fell through. Without someone with 10s of thousands to back it, a big show at BETT just won't happen - well not this year. Better to put the energy into things that can be won. Personally I think a mega presence at BETT is at least 3 years off. Regards, -- IanL