Evans et al,
1. It is my belief that Microsoft will not offer everything for free. <<snip>> But public money needs to be spent on whatever product that gives the best value.
I once listened to a former cabinet minister saying that the government is in the business of spending money and not saving money. With that in mind, the best value for money for a government whose business is to spend money without a view in savings becomes a very remote idea. In addition, in an area where value has not been clearly defined, knowing what the best value for money is very difficult. Before the right definition is done, there will be so many 'offers' some of which will be regrettable and extremely costly. I therefore strongly support the stakeholder engagement happening at Strath. Probably a paper I co-authored could form some interesting background reading for the consultation (available here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00910.x/abstract)
2. The strategy for Microsoft as Dr. Ndemo clearly put it is to lock in the market. <<Snip>>The result is that they continue minting money out of our economy. <<snip>>
This is an open secret. This is a strategy well document and perfected initially by Apple before the PC revolution. Even without looking at the long term lock down, every parent assisting a child with his or her homework will need to use or be familiar with the technologies the kids are using in school. For the middle-class families, this will translate to one or two extra gadgets purchased (and not subsidised) and expensive license fees paid. Do the maths.
3. Are we doing anything as an open source community or we are just a talk shop? Yes we are. <<snip>>
I agree with you Evans, the FLOSS has a lot of great and interesting activities going on. However, I think we fail miserably in marketing and lobbying. Perhaps it still has to do with the arrogance historically shown by the earlier pioneers of the open source movement (or maybe we were are too ethical to be compromised into connections that are not free and open). I think the one of the greatest challenge we have is communication. For instance, how many people on this list would have known before today of your engagements in Camara Educational Foundation (and RACHEL)? I am sure there are many more open source based initiatives and products that have been tried and tested but not well communicated about. On number 4 below, I am therefore sure the president would have an idea of what Microsoft is, but highly doubt he would know about Edubuntu.
4. Unfortunately, the President may not know that there is anything else in the world apart from Microsoft. But the people who should be advising him do. These are the people who look down on us and call us dreamers.
I look forward to the meeting at Strathmore where I will present my position paper on this.
Please remember to share the position paper. --James