Re: [OS:N:] OSS where I work/learn

Patrick Cable II wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
>     A while ago i asked about exchange replacements. Well, they ended up
> going with exchange. So, by the end of summer, my qmail/vpopmail server goes
> to the bitbucket :-\ But the web will stay on the machine I set up.
>     I tried to get them to use Asterisk for the VoIP but they're spending
> big bucks on Cisco stuff.
>     Usually when I suggest OSS stuff i get "You and your Open Source
> stuff... it's so much easier when you can just blame a software company when
> it doesnt work." I get the impression that the person I work with doesn't
> take it too seriously.

Dear Patrick,

	I spent most of the saturday morning of last 4/5 years trying to "push" 
FS/OSS software and technologies within a local High-School, here in 
Italy. I'll not bother you with my experience but.... it has been 
difficult, _VERY_ difficult, incredibly _very_ difficult to (try to) 
convince various teachers to "adopt" OSS not only troughout the school 
(as a web server, mail server, file server, etc.), but also as a 
"teaching tool" for their students (moving from teaching Visual**, 
Access, etc. to WebProgramming with PHP, Perl, Python, *SQL, etc.).

	I had very few successes. Probably the most important ones comes 
directly from the students (...and not from the teachers) but, at least 
for me, this is enough. And this alone still give me the "energy" needed 
to continue my "dissemination" process.

	Your position should be very different: you're "playing" on a totally 
different field as, contrary to me, you're a teacher and, so, you "play" 
from the inside of the school. Your voice, even if at the moment seem to 
be not listened, is much more powerful then mine (I act as an ex student 
and I'm not a teacher...).

	I think that you only need to "know your enemy". For example, you can 
study this resolution:

http://orange.math.buffalo.edu/csc/resolution2_april2003_approved.html

and get, from it, some very nice arguments to put on the table when your 
collegue will argue that "M$ is better...".

	You can also study a bit of history here:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/raymond.html
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html

	The web is plently of documents like these. You can also find other 
arguments when speaking about costs (just google aroung with "linux 
TCO"). There are also lot of other interesting things here:
	http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html

	Anyway, again, be prepared: it will be a very hard battle! (...but you 
can win, at least in a school!)

Cheers,
Damiano

-- 
Damiano Verzulli
e-mail: [email protected]
---
possible?ok:while(!possible){open_mindedness++}
---
"...Science, after all, is ultimately an Open Source enterprise..."
'Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution' - Introduction
[http://www.openresources.com/documents/open-sources/main.html]


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