Geneva Schools Adopt Open Source
April 4th, 2008 Benjamin HorstErwin Tenhumberg points to a German article announcing the migration of 9,000 school computers in the Swiss canton of Geneva to Linux and OpenOffice.org.
Erwin Tenhumberg points to a German article announcing the migration of 9,000 school computers in the Swiss canton of Geneva to Linux and OpenOffice.org.
MIT’s Technology Review discusses the largest project implementation to date: Peru rolls out 400,000 OLPC XOs to 6,000 schools.
“Success of OLPC now depends largely on frontline teachers and, of course, parents and kids. Peru’s effort, if successful, would be a model for other nations. In the training now under way, teachers must become versed not only in how to operate and maintain the laptops, but also in how to do their jobs within a newly laptop-centric educational model. The laptops will contain some 115 books, including textbooks, novels, and poetry, as well as art and music programs, cameras, and other goodies.”
The majority of sites will not have internet access, so teachers will update content the old-fashioned way.
“In these villages, any updated content will be delivered to the machines by what OLPC president Walter Bender calls “sneaker-net.” Each month, when the teachers visit regional education offices to pick up their paychecks, they will have the ability to tap Internet connections to load new content onto thumb drives and bring them back to their classrooms.”
What an exciting implementation this will be!
Okay, I missed it, even though I’d been part of an email conversation about the first annual Document Freedom Day, which took place on March 26.
Document Freedom Day is a global project to promote an open document format (the real one, ODF) and to help users adopt applications that support ODF.
“ODF leaves space for all present and future vendors to implement it and makes sure that end users won’t suffer from any sort of vendor lock-in. In contrast to earlier used binary formats which were cryptic and difficult to process, ODF’s use of XML makes accessing the document content simple.”
I’m looking forward to an even bigger Document Freedom Day next year!
Slashdot discusses the status of the MSOOXML ballot, and, unfortunately, the proposal may actually pass. Votes are to be revealed today, so we cannot be wholly sure of the outcome, but it looks bad. Irregularities, questionable tricks and strong-arm tactics have been alleged in a number of countries (hence Slashdot’s title for the story, “OOXML Will Pass Amid Massive Irregularities”).
The longterm damage to the ISO is hard to gauge–will it come to be seen as a mouthpiece for the company with the most cash and the least scruples?
The harm to companies that try to use MSOOXML, and to the marketplace in general, is sure to be large and tangled. MSOOXML could represent a decade of cleanup work, if its adoption becomes common in the software market (though I still have some hope that, even as a rubber-stamped ISO “standard,” it won’t be popular among users).
We await further news…
Update: Groklaw is keeping track of the controversy and countries with voting irregularities including:
OOo Ninja’s got a screenshot-full post on new features in OpenOffice.org 2.4, which was released yesterday.
See the official 2.4 feature notes at OpenOffice.org (check out more screenshots) and the Slashdot release announcement:
“The multiplatform, multilingual office suite OpenOffice.org has announced the release of version 2.4. New features include 5 PDF export enhancements, text to columns in Calc, rectangular selection in Writer, bug fixes, performance improvements, improvements supporting the growing library of extensions such as 3D OpenGL transitions in Impress, and much more. Downloads are available either direct or P2P. In September, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will add PDF import, Microsoft Office 2007 file format support, and ODF 1.2.”
Also, the OpenOffice website user interface was updated and it looks great.
OpenProj 1.0 has been released, and the software has now passed 350,000 downloads since inception.
It’s a Java-based project management application that works well for my purposes as a simple and occasional project management software user. I’d like to see the UI improved a bit (mostly the top bar of buttons and the menus), and perhaps consider a switch from its “CPAL” open source license (based on the Mozilla Public License, but I am not very familiar with CPAL itself) to LGPL or something less controversial within the open source community.
Another positive development is that OpenProj is being distributed bundled with StarOffice 8.0 in Europe which will provide it with good visibility, and strengthen the featureset available to StarOffice buyers as well.
Northxsouth, a small company of web developers with offices in San Francisco and Sao Paulo, Brazil, represents a new global archetype that has shaped, and been shaped by, the methods of open source software.
In their own words, “Many of us are also involved in open source and free software projects. We were using online collaboration tools as a part of our day-to-day work for open source projects where no two people involved lived in the same city. Being accustomed to secure messaging, voice-over-ip and groupware, we gained a unique edge. Our network of opportunities and trusted talent expanded beyond the Bay Area and we started working on free software projects in Latin America as open source gained momentum there.”
The Northxsouth blog has kept track of interesting developments in the world of Free Software, including a recent survey titled “Free Software Becoming Entrenched in Brazil,” where they report “As time goes on, free software is becoming institutionalized within Latin American businesses, public sector systems, non-profits and NGOs.”
There had been much press a few years ago during the announcements of migration plans to open source, but not a lot of news since. This indicates that much has been happening during this time. (The FOSS adoption survey itself is here.)
Contrary to what was recorded in September, Cuba also intends to reject MSOOXML, announces Groklaw.
“The Cuban National Bureau of Standards has reportedly sent an email to the three names NBs are supposed to notify at ISO, Toshiko Kimura, Keith Brannon, and Martine Gaillen, reporting that Cuba votes to disapprove OOXML.
“But the startling news is that the email claims that Cuba voted no in September but that its vote was miscounted.”
If true, this is an example of an extraordinary abuse of the process. Hopefully Cuba can record the vote they feel is right before the final tally is recorded.
India’s rejection of Microsoft OOXML is definite and consistent with its previous ballot, Groklaw announces:
“I’m very happy to report that despite all the pressure to get India to change its vote, India has stalwartly voted No once again to OOXML. That will, I hope, encourage others to vote what they truly believe is right.”
An even more positive development is that Poland appears prepared to reject MSOOXML in its bid to become an ISO standard, a reversal from its original vote. (The only qualifier here is that a bewildering array of new rules have suddenly been implemented, and cautious observers are concerned a technicality could be used to disqualify Poland’s change of vote.)
“There is a report by Borys Musielak of PolishLinux.org that Poland met to vote on OOXML on Thursday. Of 45 members of the committee eligible to vote, 24 showed up to vote, and it split almost down the middle, with 12 for, 10 against and 2 abstaining. This is extraordinary, since Poland voted yes in September, despite the technical committee being opposed. I call that progress.”
Note that consensus is required, not a simple majority vote, hence the rejection.
For the past few years, Malaysia has been on the forefront of the ODF-MSOOXML struggle as well as the OpenOffice.org-Microsoft Office competition. However, bit by bit they have been moving in the direction of the open source camp.
A recent press release informs us that a Malaysian government agency has chosen to migrate to OpenOffice, in “MAMPU Migrates to OpenOffice.org.”
Quoting the entire short press release:
“The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), today officially adopts a policy to migrate to the OpenOffice.org open source productivity suite. This is in line with the Malaysian Public Sector Open Source Master Plan, which calls for government agencies to reduce costs, increase freedom of choice and interoperability.
“From April 1st, MAMPU will start adopting the OpenDocument Format (ODF), standard for all new documents created. ODF, the ISO open standard for electronic documents, is also the default format for OpenOffice.org. The agency will also uninstall all copies of Microsoft Office by the end of 2008.
“To ensure a smooth migration, presently over 80 agency staff have been trained by the Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC). Additional staff will then be trained internally by the IT department, which will also provide support for OpenOffice.org.”
Combined with a strong presence in Singapore and the Philippines, and a recent 20,000-seat government migration in Vietnam, it appears that Southeast Asia is quickly becoming a major stronghold of the OpenDocument Format and OpenOffice.org itself.
Edit: The Open Malaysia blog covers this story with greater detail.