Introduction

Nearly all Universities are using Open Source Software extensively but often only the technical support staff are aware of it. Its driving most of the websites and networks within the university.

Because most proprietary software suppliers give big discounts on licences to students and academic institutions there is less incentive for you to consider using alternative free OSS. Thus you miss out on the other advantages of OSS:

• it is often more reliable, secure and functionally relevant than its proprietary equivalents, and sometimes its the market leader.

• It usually runs on lower specification hardware which costs less (or nothing if recycled) and thus has a lower environmental impact.

If you are a student you should consider switching to OSS if you

• can't afford a new laptop – now Vista has arrived much higher spec. more expensive PCs are required than before. Its quite hard to buy a PC with Linux pre-installed from the major retailers but if you have an old laptop you could contact your local Linux User group www.lug.org.uk where members will be pleased to advise you and install a suitable version of Linux. .....................

• You want a better web browser – download Firefox from www.mozilla.org

• You want to create .pdf documents – OpenOffice www.openoffice.org generates these for free as well as saving in Microsoft (e.g. .doc) and ISO standard formats (e.g. .odt)

• You need special software for part of your course. There is nearly always a free OSS equivalent if you can find it and because you can access the source code you will be able to modify it to suit your needs. To find it ask your friends or tutors for advice and go to www.sourceforge.org which may be a little daunting – for a guide written by academics for academics see www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/sfintro.xml Also take a look at Edubuntu, www.edubuntu.org the schools version of Ubuntu which has 7000 free education applications – there may not be many for the average student but very many if you are planning to be a teacher.

If you are the IT manager in an academic institution you are probably already running Linux servers and you probably already know that with Open Source Software.

• You can achieve more reliable systems that cost less: you spend less on software, less on hardware and less on maintenance.

• The systems will have less environmental impact because you can recycle old PCs and install networks of thin client systems which use less energy.

You can provide all the main office applications for your academic and administrative staff using Open Source versions and they run on Windows or Linux – email, browsing, word processing, spread sheets, presentation and data base and they can all produce files in international standard formats or in Microsoft Formats(which you will still need for external communications). And in addition they can produce PDF format documents for free.

There may be a few applications that you use that only run on Windows but you will usually find there is an open source equivalent for things like Customer Relationship Management, Website development, accounting, desktop publishing, artwork, content management, document management and Virtual Learning Environment. In fact Moodle www.moodle.org is now the most popular VLE in the UK and many parts of the world..

The problem, as always with change, is deciding when to extend your use of Open Source because it will take some effort and will cause some disruption and user resistance. The answer is to do it when you are making changes for other reasons. So you should consider switching some or all of your systems to Open Source Software if

• you are rebuilding your website

• you are rebuilding your network to client server

• you are about to throw away some old PCs

• you are out to tender for new systems – ask for quotes to include OSS components – they should be cheaper as your supplier will be getting them for free.

• you are planning a move to Vista – it requires more memory and power so more expensive PC and more impact on the environment. Its also different so you will have to retrain your techies and your users. And BECTA have said there is nothing it it for Schools.

• you have run out of IT budget

• you want to avoid lock-in – that is finding there is a high cost to switching supplier and software products in the future.

If you are an academic

If you are teaching ICT then shame on you if you are not introducing you students to the Open Source world.

If you are using computer software to teach or research a discipline then you may find some helpful software at www.sourceforge.net or you may be able to start up an new open source project by suggesting a topic and get others to help you develop your software – choose the relevant software category on the home page and click on help to find out how to do this.

If you are teaching scripting then Linuxgym is a new interactive online learning system which presents real-world problems to assist in the development and assessment of coding skills. The learner purchases online exercise books or "EBooks" which consist of a set of questions categorized by topic. The code they develop in reply is analysed by the Linuxgym system which provides them with a "Formative assessment".  When Linuxgym is used in an educational institution, it is shown that students benefit from accurate and virtually instant assessment of their work and tutors benefit from reduced work load and more targeted delivery in the classroom, See Press Release

Other organisations helping you adopt Open Source.

OSS Watch www.oss-watch.ac.uk promotes awareness and understanding of the legal, social, technical and economic issues that arise when educational institutions engage with free and open source software. It does this by providing unbiased advice and guidance to UK higher and further education. To find out what OSS is being used by Universities go to www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/softwareexamples.xml#body.1_div.2

Your local Linux User Group (LUG) can be found at www.lug.org.uk

Case studies:

• Portsmouth University tba

• Oxford University tba

SchoolForge www.schoolforge.net is the US equivalent of SchoolForgeUK Its members advocate the use of open source and free software, open texts and lessons, and open curricula for the advancement of education and the betterment of humankind and there is an interesting set of 10 success stories showing how US universities are using openness at http://oedb.org/library/features/how-the-open-source-movement-has-changed-education-10-success-stories