AZ students,MS office. Help me!

[Digital Wokan]

That's so messed up!  How/when do we get to vote out the people who made
this practically backroom deal?  I'd like to think that in a couple more
years I'm going to be kept more in the loop as to what's being planned
for my child's development.

Alan Dayley wrote:
> 
> It is a *done* deal.  They did it quietly, minimizing public comment and
> knowledge and have released the "pat-themselves-on-the-back" press release
> now that the ASP contract has been awarded.  I assume that there would be
> penalties to the state if the contract is cancelled.  I also assume that
> there would be a way out of the deal of the service is not provided reliably.
> 
> All these ideas and mobilization is good.  No, great!  But, we are on the
> up-hill side of getting the public schools out of the deal because the ink is
> dry, as far as I know.
> 
> So, what do we do?
> -Financial analysis on cost of this deal vs. open source.  Send to elected
> reps and SFB.
> -Research and document open source solutions that are working now
> -Protest against wasted money
> -Write Letters
> -Educate your neighbors
> -etc.
> 
> But I think we really need to do now is concentrate on creating wider,
> successful examples of open source in schools.  We still have charter schools
> that would love the help.  Why not help Brian there at Sequoia?  There are
> some charter schools that have multiple campuses.  Hook on the campuses up on
> a WAN or VPN with "old" PCs that are "too slow" and watch them be useful for
> pennies per student.
> 
> If (or when?) the ASP deal turns into a pain for the system, or a disaster of
> budget over-runs, we must be ready with real success examples, research and
> public opinion on our side.  At the very least, the contract is up in 4 years
> and if the experience was only acceptable, they might be looking around for
> better ideas for less money.
> 
> Alan
> 
> On Thursday 30 August 2001 02:59 pm, you wrote:
> > Now the next question is:
> >
> > Is the MS ASP thing a *done* deal.
> >
> > If AZ is committed then there is probably little reason to waste money
> > trying to back out of the deal.
> >
> >
> > However, even if the door is closed on Arizona, there are 49 other states
> > watching what happens here.  The case study would be important for
> > not-Microsoft solution vendors in lobbying for those lucrative contracts.
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
> > > [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Gary
> > > Nichols
> > > Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 2:38 PM
> > > To: PLUG List
> > > Subject: RE: AZ students,MS office. Help me!
> > >
> > >
> > > Ok guys, I just talked with Sun Corporate  and gave them the story.
> > > There is some interest!  They had me leave a long voice mail for the
> > > corp affairs people and they are going to call me back.  Stay Tuned!!!
> > >
> > > ~ Gary
> > >
> > > On Thu, 2001-08-30 at 14:16, Trent Shipley wrote:
> > > > I think an important source of support in this would be the folks at
> > > > Sun/Star.
> > > >
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
> > > > > [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of
> > > > > Brian Cluff
> > > > > Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 12:44 PM
> > > > > To: plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
> > > > > Subject: Re: AZ students,MS office. Help me!
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I think the letter really needs a list of govt agencies and
> > >
> > > other large
> > >
> > > > > entities that are currently using StarOffice with great success.
> > > > > Otherwise
> > > > > these politican type with just say... what the hell is
> > > > > staroffice... it must
> > > > > be crap
> > > > >
> > > > > Probably also need to stress a little more that it's prefectly
> > > > > legal to give
> > > > > every kid in the school a copy of it to use at home, since that
> > > > > seems to be
> > > > > a large part of the problem, and that it's also multiplatform
> > >
> > > so they wont
> > >
> > > > > have a bunch of computers unable to run it either.
> > > > >
> > > > > Brian Cluff