Re: [seul-edu] Beyond awareness... moving towards migration!

["Kevin Stiles" <kstiles@pasco.wednet.edu>]

I also was at this conference and saw/heard the same things and interpreted 
them the same.  My take on the outcome AFTER the Microsoft panel is also 
the same.  Microsoft finally realize that there were lines even they could 
not step over with retaliation.

A couple of good things should come from this.

First, Microsoft got its hands slapped by its very bread and butter.  They 
were informed that they had stepped too far and society was not going to 
stand for it.  Bear in mind, like Paul said, no one was in favor of 
pirating or using illegal software.  But in an open environment as Schools, 
who can really regulate everything?  In our district we have God control 
over our machines and dictate all hardware and network decisions, but even 
then have had to give some leeway on software installs for political 
issues.  If Microsoft works WITH not against its clientele, there may 
actually be progress towards decreasing piracy.

Second, awareness is out about the ramifications of illegal software and 
its impact on schools.  This should push Administrators towards policies 
forcing legal software use.  Of course legal software costs money, unless 
its Open Source :-)

Third, much talk was made about alternatives.  This talk will continue and 
spread as more districts/schools attempt to be more legal and avoid future 
confrontations with Microsoft.  As more adopt Open Source and alternative 
software, more commercial companies will get involved and provide 
alternatives to Microsoft platforms.

Of course all of us already know that or we would not be on this mailing 
list.

This may be the final straw that pushed to evaluate their stance, to think 
that Microsoft may have just slit their throat, and in their own 
backyard.  Of course it was humourus watching the Microsoft reps. kissing 
up by keeping the hosted bar open for hours after its scheduled 
shutdown.  As if we will forget that quick....

Kevin Stiles
Technology Department
Paso School District

At 10:27 AM 5/3/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello Folks,
>
>It's been a week since Eric and I went up to the ACPE conference. We
>spoke with tech coordinators from 25 large Oregon and Washington school
>districts being audited by Microsoft for software licensing compliance.
>It's time for an update and some reflection.