Selling Edubuntu/LTSP to school administration

[hsweet]

Hi all;

I've set up an ltsp classroom for 2 of my web design classes in a mixed hardware lab, mostly 6 or 7 yr old ibm's, Dell's a couple of oddballs. Works great. So great that I really don't want new computers. My old junk works better than a lab full of stand alones ever could. (I used to support the whole school, I know).

I'm going to show the thing off to the district admins, tech folks, technology comittee's teachers, and anyone else I can get into the room in a week or 2. So I have a few different audiences each with different points of view.

So, the question is how to sell the system.

The admins I think they figured out how much less $ the thing could cost. What else is compelling to them?

There is also the district network guy to convince. $ is not his issue. He was concerned about the dhcp screwing up the rest of the network (never did). He would have to spend time learning Linux and what about support? What would convert him?

The teachers on the tech comittee have never seen linux I think but most of them have got some sort of instructional tech masters degree (perhaps of dubious quality, like my masters) and so are comfortable with WinX stuff at least. They don't pay for the stuff so why is it in their interest to do this?

And finally, why would a regular classroom teacher want to waste her precious time learning openoffice?

[DoctorMO]

You need to convert them one by one, the virtues of the free software world is the principled approach to education.

But humans are humans and you need to get the techy on your side. you can't try and teach him because he'll feel like your telling him how to do his job; so tactics are required here, maybe you need to bring in an outside techy type to get friendly with him, someone that can teach without making him feel like an ***.

As for the teachers, if principles aren't enough then you may need the stability argument. a reduction in costs will only help the school board it won't help with teachers. you may also have to fall back to accusing opponents of ego and ignorance in the face of doing the right thing but lets hope you don't have to go that far.

[Tomosaur]

For the tech-heads, the usual stuff:

Interoperability - open standards mean you can do more with what you have, and you don't have to worry about being confined to one vendor, one piece of software etc. All of the work done is migratable (and if it isn't right now, it is easy to MAKE it migratable).

Customisability - if a piece of software doesn't quite suit your needs, you can tweak it yourself to make it function how you like it. Then there's the usual aesthetic stuff, but I don't suppose that counts for much with businessmen :P

Low cost (as you're already aware).

Old machines will work faster, for longer. You are unlikely to need to upgrade anything anytime soon.

Consistency - the repository system means all machines are updated as and when the updates become available (you can give them a spiel here about how this improves security etc etc blah blah blah).

Linux is DESIGNED for networking, unlike Windows, which has networking tacked on as an afterthough. Virtually everything you could ever want to do with a network, Linux does it better (excepting MS specific stuff, obviously, but there are alternatives which are just as viable, or superior).

One time training. Although the admins and such will need to re-train for Linux, their knowledge will not be outdated in the next upgrade. That, and the vast amount of Linux information on the web means they can train themselves in no time at all, for free.

[Babbage]

I agree with the previous comments. Here's my suggestions:

I'd be emphasizing to the teachers and other end-users how little training they'll need to get going. Let's face it OpenOffice has a very similar interface to the proprietary office software. I've had virtually no formal training on OpenOffice but can use it productively, I'd say the same is true for the vast majority of users. Yet it's probably the most popular open source software available, mainly because it's easy to use and helps people be productive.

It might be handy to have a few copies of OpenOffice available to hand out, and even some Ubuntu Live CDs. The OpenCD (http://www.theopencd.org/) package is perfect, because it also comes bundled with lots of other great apps that work on Windows. Not sure about you, but when I was a Windows user, I loved to get free software.:D (I still do, but as Linux users I think we sometimes take it for granted.) When it comes to software, using and seeing, are believing.

I think a lot of the fear of new software, especially in a teaching context is being embarrassed about being asked how to do something, and not knowing how to do it. If you've already used the OpenOffice software with the OpenCD, or tried the Ubuntu interface on the Live CD then that concern is virtually eliminated. Don't forget to mention that "killer function" in OpenOffice, export to PDF at the click of a button, how cool is that?

There's no substitute for experience; is there any other school or educational institute in your area who have Edubuntu installed? Getting them in for a day/afternoon/evening to talk about their (hopefully successful) experience would be a huge boost. Even a local business, charity, voluntary group who made the switch to Linux would be influential. Maybe your nearest LUG (Linux Users Group) could help you with that.

For the technical people I'd mention the big "wins" Linux has had recently, and Ubuntu in particular. For example Dell pre-installing Ubuntu, many governments in Europe and US have switched to Open Source from Linux to OpenOffice. Linux and open source is the biggest trend in computing today; it's a huge wave from blogging, web applications to social networking, and using open source software on personal computers, and eventually mobile devices and media players. Like every trend in technology it's irreversible, unstoppable and it's a paradigm shift in how society uses technology.

But unlike any technological change before it's also inevitable because it's the first "bottom up" change. It's computer users who are creating the demand for more secure, stable, interoperable and compatible systems. Systems that allow them to communicate instantly, share information seamlessly and be productive easily, everywhere, at anytime. Being part of the change, being on "the inside edge", and "in the loop" are important for technical people. The thing is this is really what's happening; in my view, the choice is to join the open source movement and learn, or stand still and be left behind.

Good luck with the project, it sounds very exciting and worthwhile. I admire your creativity, persistence and determination to overcome the obstacles.

[Alterax]

I can definitely appreciate the situation that you are in; it is quite similar to my own. I work for a company with a reasonable-sized production floor and several office stations. When I began working with them a year ago, the Linux material on my resume was pretty much glossed over.

A year has passed, and now we are getting ready for a major change in our network: Linux (Ubuntu!)-based thin clients. This change didn't come easily.

The first step was to get them comfortable with the idea by giving them something to look at. I secured permission to virtualize my original WinXP system and run it on a Linux box. That assured them I would have everything I needed. They noticed over time that I never really needed it after that.

During the past year, I gained the IT and management team's support for the ideas slowly. I put together a CD full of Windows ports of OpenOffice, GIMP, and a few other Open-source programs as a morale kit for our employees. They loved it, and then they started realizing that (surprise) it runs on linux too.

This led to several workstations getting put in. My supervisor noticed that software upgrades were easy, the systems were incredibly low-maintenance, and that there always seemed to be a linux/open-source equivalent of everything we had on the windows systems.

I guess to make a long story short, getting the IT guy on your side is going to be the biggest obstacle, but it will also have the biggest payoff. Most businesses tend to rely heavily on their IT staff, so it's important to bring them into the picture. Schools seem to be no different.

Once you get him in on the game, then you can focus on the other good things about thin clients/terminals: Reduced overhead costs, easier administration, and a much longer hardware life cycle are all good reasons that the administration will look forward to. But if the IT guy isn't with you on this, or if he keeps dropping hints that this-and-that won't work (despite lack of experience in the matters), administration will take his word for it.

The funny part is that now that this is going on, where I work, administration isn't reluctant in the least. Excited is more the part; they keep telling me that their old IT staff always told them that every idea they wanted was either not cost effective or simply could not be done.