Life with the Thin Client

Week one into my test with a thin client. From a work perspective, I can easily accomplish all of my tasks in this operating scenario. We have had a few hiccups here and there, but for the most part running M$FT applications on a Debian thin client has been very painless. I am using all of the M$FT Office 2007 applications including Project and Visio. For my test, I am using all of the big three web browsers and a couple of open source applications, namely a Jabber server client and an app called ColorPick. My only annoyance is ColorPick as I cannot figure out to shut it off with a keyboard shortcut. But I will get that resolved in the next few days.

So, at this point, I am very content with the pilot. I have also been using the thin client software from home across a VPN on my wireless network. The performance is almost exactly what is on the corporate network and all of my applications work flawlessly. As this is my first experience using thin clients,I am surprised at how well it works. I can't imagine why many companies wouldn't take this approach, especially those that deal with sensitive data. The security of a thin client and the ability to lock it down at the server level are very appealing.

All in all, a very satisfying experience and with the growing presence of available broadband, I ma quite content moving forward computing in the cloud.

Metrics of Open Source Success

Dana Blankenhorn and Paula Rooney's blog at ZDNet has a posting today about the metrics of success for open source. It succinctly describes why many of us pursue open source solutions and being providers of open source applications to needy industries. That is why I started Open Solutions for Education, to serve an education community that is under many different pressures.

Most of us chasing this path will never be rich and many of us write our own personal checks to get our business started, keep it floating and many times to avoid shutting the doors completely. While open source is a great movement, the reality is that products quickly become complex and require an organization to provide long term support to ensure that the market penetration occurs where widespread benefits can be realized.

So the next time you download that "free" application, consider that someone has likely spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours getting that product to a point where you can use it. So give back to the originators. Click on their Google ads, donate some money, send them some code, help them get some customers, etc. It is all about community and if you truly like the product and consider yourself to be a community member, then contribute! Altruism and philanthropy are noble pursuits.

Walking the Talk on Thin Clients

This week sees the beginning of my one month pilot to completely use a thin client in a pilot project for my company. The thin client software comes from an education thin client provider in Georiga, ACS, and is very affordable. For the cost of the client software and a decent thin client, Aleutia as an example, I can compute for under $500 at the desktop running Linux and using M$FT Windows applications off of the server.

My current setup includes a 4 year old Dell laptop, Ubuntu 8.10 and the IDS native Linux client. My server profile includes all of the M$FT Office 2007 suite, IE 7.0, Firefox 3.04, Pandion Instant Messaging, Adobe, etc. The pilot server is an old Dell desktop that is about 4 years old as well. It is all running on a 10/100 network and streaming audio and video are not considered.

So far so good. I will keep updates coming as I go through the test. With this approach, schools could literally use computers until they completely failed while still allowing the students and staff to use the latest and greatest SW. There is a huge cost savings aside from the initial HW purchase in that the thin client SW only sends outputs from different devices and then recombines them onto the client. Thus, you do not have to have a M$FT client access license and you can "share" applications in the sense that 2,000 users could use only 500 licenses for M$FT Office. Pretty cool stuff.

More updates to come.

openSIS Version 4.2 Released

My little startup, OS4ed, released our latest version of our open source SIS, openSIS, on November 12th. You can read about it here. This release marks a real milestone for us as we are confident that we have a very stable version out there that is ready for schools to depend upon day in and day out. It also marks our commitment to the community in that it is now deployed at Eduforge.org and no registration is required for download.

We hope to continue providing new functionality and new solutions in the coming years that will serve education. Take a look and join the community. Also please send us suggestions for improvements and we will do our best to get them into the product. Thanks for the continued support.

Computing in the Cloud or is Google Apps Ready for Prime Time?

Chris Dawson at ZDNet had a recent post on the thought that he might switch his users over to Google Apps. His basic question was: Is there anything teachers or students need that Google Apps can’t do? I think a better question would be: Is there anything we do that is too complicated for Google Apps or Open Office or Star Office?

I am a member of the camp that thinks the majority of us can easily replicate our current functions and daily activities inside a number of free offerings available today that have longevity, maturity and good support. The real obstacle in many organizations is resistance to change and a desire to stay in a current comfort zone. Granted this is an oversimplification, but in many cases it is very true.

At the core, I don't really think that the average user uses any advanced features in the M$FT Office Suite. And at the end of the day, we could all stand to be without whiz bang PPT slide shows with the latest SmartArt features and animations. So as I evangelize open source in my organization and to my clients, I ask them to explain to me what they do that is so complicated? Often times, they simply can't answer as they haven't really thought about it.

TCO is an important point that people always talk about it. Paul Murphy (pseudonym) had a post today about recession favoring open source and gave an example business case of TCO savings. It has some very good points in it about how small business might be more willing to look to open source as all costs have to be examined.

So, how complicated are your Office documents?

School Improvement - A Tough Road

I was speaking with a professor form LSU recently about efforts to reform schools where students were not making advancement.  We both agreed that the institution of education in America is essentialy broken in many ways.  And while our disucssion was great and heartfelt, I came away from it with no real new ideas about how to fix a broken bureaucratic institution.  There are so many obstacles that I surrender to defeat very time I think about ways that can be adopted to achieve widespread school improvement.

The key element in every idea that I have is people.  Good qualified people who are willing to be held accountable for providing a safe, nurturing learning environment where students can succeed and realize their potential.  How do you get great people to work for miserable pay levels often times in very poor conditions inside of a seemingly backwards bureaucratic institution?  I have no clue.  I only know that it is not working.

I don't think that anyone can argue that our best natural resource in this country is our people.  And right now, we are not investing in our children who will very soon become the next generation of our best natural resource.  I read news stories every day of children who can't read, teachers engaging in social promotion and school leaders cheating and falsifying data to meet NCLB requirements.  When does all of this madness stop?

The Cost of Registration

Somebody commented on one of my blogs today that having to register for free SW applications and solutions was not open and it was just plain wrong.  Why?  In registration, you are asked to provide some information.  Why?  So the people who are working hard to GIVE you your free application can communicate with you, can get feedback and can inform of you new developments.

And at the end of the day, what is the cost of that reservation?  And what did you gain from that registration?  In many cases, open solutions result in fairly significant cost savings or allow you to get something you may not have been able to afford.  What are those savings?  What is the ROI on the newly gained functionality?  What price can you place on the free and open solution?  

A registration process in many cases.  Small price to pay.

Last question:  When is the last time that you, avid user of free software, gave back to the creators in some way?  Giveback takes many forms and often can be as simple as a thank you email.  Most of us are in this because we have a dream that we are following.  And you have nothing if you don't have dreams.

LinkedIn - Discovering the Value of Community

Like many people, I have a profile on Linkedin.com and I have a few recommendations.  I didn't full understand LinkedIN and the potential it had for me until I learned about the groups.  LinkedIN groups offer individuals the ability to join a larger body of people interested in the same subjects as you.  You can start discussion in your groups, email members, etc.  

It is really the discussions that interest me most as I have the ability to introduce a topic and get a ton of community feedback.  Feedback from both business and potential clients that gives me better insight into the market from both sides.  My first discussion post resulted in over 30 thoughtful replies and the feedback and knowledge gained will certainly enter my business and strategy.

I highly recommend joining some groups on LinkedIn and creating your own.  I have joined the Internation Society for Technology in Eduation (ISTE), Technology in Education,  K12 Tech and EdNet.   Obviously some groups are better than others and you willrealize that as you start to participate.

Another great feature of LinkedIn is the abiity to ask questions of the general population and get answers.  It is very simply getting free help and consulting, often time from experts.  Great stuff.  Check it out.

openSIS Arrives

Open Solutions for Education (OS4Ed) has released their new open source SIS, openSIS. This release abandons the inclusion of Centre in the name and marks the end of their relationship with the Miller Group, who was an original partner in OS4Ed.

This release brings AJAX into the interface with sliding menus and fast page load times. Other important features include field level validation and the removal of HTMLDoc, which required specific settings for different OS's. openSIS also includes an automated installer for Windows, which is very nice and helps the beginning user to get up and running quickly.

You can check it out at http://os4ed.com/opensis

Open Source has to be Easy

I was reading Chris Dawson's education blog on ZDNet as I do often. he had a recent post about Linux and meeting all of one's needs. This is very true and more than anything adds credence to my title. In order for any us to get people to switch to open source alternatives, we have to make it very easy. Much like Apple computers, it just has to simply work.

At OS4Ed, we are doing our best to emulate this practice. That is the reason we created an automated installation process so that non technical users could easily try our software. Eliminating upfront license fees, lowering total cost of ownership, 100% web-based, built on all free open source software doesn't mean anything if it is not easy.

How do we successfully move people over to open source? Make it so easy and so affordable that the decision is no brainer.

Intel Classmate PC - China, but not the US?

Intel has announced the release of its second generation Classmate PC at an event in China. We have closing schools, declining budgets and a well known gap between students and available technology in schools, yet our companies are selling low cost PC's everywhere else. Why isn't there a stronger push to get these low cost PC's into US schools? My guess is that profit is a motive.

But in the long run, the more students get exposed to technology, the more they become technology enthusiasts creating lifetime clients for the industry as well as future employees. M$FT is smart about this selling their software to education for next to nothing in many cases, thereby creating lifelong users at an early age.

Education has to push industry and ask for these things. Come on educators, you are smarter than this! Control your vendors, not vice versa.

Catholic Schools Closing at a Record Rate

A recent EdWeek article talks about the crisis facing Catholic schools and the closing of 1,300 schools since 1990. Budget issues are cited and I truly think that open source can play a major factor in all education as a way to replace costly commercial software that continues to eat away at instructional budgets. Where education is often a laggard in technology, this is an area where they need to be a leader and show others that open source alternatives are viable and force change among the traditional software vendors.

Education, stand up and flex your muscles! In many cities, you are often the largest employer with the largest budgets. You have the ability to enact change in the software market. You also have the ability to be leaders in helping open source companies like mine develop true alternatives to costly proprietary systems. Step up to the plate and help us give money back and sustain small faith based and independent schools that are doing great jobs in educating our children.