Re: [school-discuss] SlashDot asks how to promote FOSS EduWare

[Tom Adelstein <adelste@netscape.net>]

leon@brooks.fdns.net wrote:
>     http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/12/171259
>
> <quote>
> We've put together a distance learning system for a college and the 
> system is being released under an open source license. Given the budget 
> we had, it was a decent sized system with enough features to go 
> toe-to-toe with Blackboard in many situations. The biggest problem 
> we're having right now is trying to find the appropriate people at 
> colleges/universities. How do you go about reaching decision makers on 
> something like this when the primary benefits of it is its open source 
> nature? Cost/freedom are great, but many schools wouldn't be getting 
> anything they don't already have, and would also have to go through the 
> pain of migration. In a perfect world this becomes something that other 
> schools could contribute to and build on, but getting that kind of 
> buy-in seems relatively difficult. What types of academic positions 
> would Slashdot readers recommend approaching (Deans? Presidents? 
> Webmasters? Teachers? IT People?) What types of approaches might work 
> best? Better yet, what's worked with -your- school to get them to adopt 
> an Open Source Education System?
> </quote>
>
> Go ahead, make their day. (-:
>
> Cheers; Leon
Two areas exist: Library Sciences and on-line education. University 
libraries have the highest degree of acceptance to open source. 
Microsoft seems to own the distance learning area.