I was reading Dana Blankenhorn's blog on ZDNet about control being the real advantage of open source software. You can read the blog here. Dana does a great job of really putting it into simple terms: control over your applications and your budget. Simply put, do you want to be in control of your code and your costs?
In previous blogs, I talk about software vendors and their true motivation: selling more software licenses. I often tell people that Microsoft is a great alternative if you are an all Microsoft shop, but you had better plan on living within a well defined strategy that pulls you in and makes you prisoner to a well defined revenue generating upgrade path. I have always marveled at the Microsoft upgrade machine and how it pulls you down the path. Check out this timeline of the Windows OS only. It is simply amazing since pretty much every point on that timeline represents a software license bought by millions.
So when is K-12 education willing to take control? There are applications out there now that bear scrutiny for production use. A search on Sourceforge with the keyword education yields 267 education related projects. SchoolForge compiles lists of open source software and links to other sites that maintain lists. There are probably another 50 software titles in all of these sites. Point is, there are plenty of foundations out there now that a district can take and build out further.
Like I ask many districts, why aren't you trying open source? It is time to take control of your software and associated costs.
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