[ale] A Real Sad Loss for Open Source in the Atlanta Area

[Rich DeMARS]

Having worked for the government myself in the past, I can see and conclude that same point stated below as being one of the issues here.  Which also leads me to consider just how committed the County was truly to success of the switch.  I just wonder why there was not more training involved and why open source groups (like the ALE) where not engaged for assistance.
But the other issue that really shines out to me here is the power of document formats and many of their closed nature.  As much as open source is important, so is open formats.  And I see the lack of open and inter-changeable formats in environments today being a great reason as to the failure of such endeavorers.

Rich DeMARS
IT Manager



-----Original Message-----
From: "Lightner, Jeff" <jlightner at water.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:25pm
To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!" <ale at ale.org>
Subject: Re: [ale] A Real Sad Loss for Open Source in the Atlanta Area

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In a former life I was an accountant in Hotels that probably have
budgets not better than schools.  I became a spreadsheet power user
simply because we didn't have programmers - you'd be amazed what you can
do with macros in built in HAL programming in Lotus 123.   Since I made
the move to full time IT before M$ had started giving away Excel I'm not
sure how good it is in this regard but I'd be surprised if it didn't do
as much (now).   My guess is there ARE power users in schools simply
because they had to be to get anything done without 50 committees and a
session before the school board.

 

Not saying this wasn't a stupid decision - just arguing the power user
point.

 

________________________________

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Jim
Kinney
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:03 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
Subject: Re: [ale] A Real Sad Loss for Open Source in the Atlanta Area

 

You're probably right. For some people that's "HTML" but it's not.

I find it hard to believe there are "power users" of excel in any school
system.

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Brian Stanaland <brian at stanaland.org>
wrote:

The article doesn't say but I'd put dollars to donuts that "learning
management system" has a Sharepoint back end. Ensuring continued use
of Microsoft's crap.

--Brian

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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in
chains.
 
Proud partner. Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
 
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