[school-discuss] Schoolforge questions for IEEE open source article

[Les Richardson <les@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Benjamin,

I would like to address your fifth question: Why use open source?

There are a couple of reasons that spring to mind:

1) Control - an organization can control their own activities via 
software that they use. It can be adapted to better suit the workflow and 
things that are important to the organization.

I'm mainly talking about school administration software which I write. 
Organizations below a certain size do not normally do much with software 
changes since they don't have the resources or interests to do so.

This leads to ...

2) Fosters a community approach to software development and use.

Users and developers, once a critical mass is reached, push development in 
directions they are interested in. This is also affected by institutional 
needs particularly if they are paid developers for the institutions 
involved.

This gives a new dynamic to software development. As opposed to 
traditional software vendors with shrinkwrap apps and expensive 
customization options.


Les Richardson
Open Admin for Schools.