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* Posts by Ian Lynch

3 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2007

Becta schools deal stuns British open-istas

Ian Lynch

Look at some evidence?

If you go to http://theingots.org/community/node/3769

You can look at a page summarising BECTA's required outputs for the project and the SF-UK/TLM provision for the *starting* point. Given that this far surpassess the targets set it's difficult to see how the bid then scored badly on value for money and ability to deliver. The bidder already surpassed the targets without any public money. The full bid is available at http://theingots.org/community/node/3768

We don't really know what the others actually submitted but invite them to attach their bids so everything is open and transparent. Strong bids have nothing to fear.

The fact that the guidance for assessment was not made available to all bidders at the time of submission is in my view a serious flaw in the entire process no matter which bid is stronger on paper.

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Ian Lynch

Education credentials

I would just like to point out that there were bids from people with both solid FOSS *and* education credentials. OOo schools project lead, an assessor of the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers with a Masters in Education Management, Chief Assessor with an OFQual Accredited Awarding Body and another who is a Fellow of the Institute of Education Assessors. The winners were not the only ones with strong professional qualifications and experience.

If you look at the assessment method employed, it gives just about zero weight to FOSS experience. It was a generic document clearly used previously for a research tender. The assessment details were not given in the tender but it would clearly put any bidders who had seen the guidance from feedback in other BECTA tenders in the past at a significant advantage over any that had not, especially as any advantage of being FOSS experienced was effectively eliminated. It's a typical government cock up where the over focus on clueless procedure results in a weird outcome no-one actually questions until it's too late. Bit like the doctor that said the operation went well because the procedures went like clockwork. But what of the outcome? Oh the patient died ;-)

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Becta reports Microsoft to OFT

Ian Lynch

OFT already have this on file

I made a complaint about exactly this issue to the OFT about 4 years ago. There was a full investigation and the OFT left it on file - the irony was collecting the right sort of evidence is difficult when no-one complains because they think theree is no alternative. Now BECTA has had time to research this properly (They have more resources than I did) There must be a reasonable chance of success. Its really a bit of a no brainer that Schools Agreement is illegal. Schools have to pay a fee for computers by the processor not the operating system so they pay MS a license fee for running Linux. Its outrageous. If it's illegal here, it will be throughout the EU because our competition law is based on EU law. A billion fine would not be too little for another offence so soon after the last one methinks :-)

Add to this that the Specialist Schools unit also give MS preferential treatment in providing sponsorship to schools to lock them into Schools agreement and the government is also implicated in illegal state aid.

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