Not quite as bad as it seems
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| Author | Content |
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| Alcibiades Mar 15, 2006 6:49 AM EDT |
Yes, the article is right about their failure, so far, on the applications. However, on another front they are making progress gradually. The draft Technical Infrastructure standard specifies that educational institutions shall use apps that are capable of saving in open formats. In the case of databases this is odb and csv. Now, this may not seem like much, but it will turn out to be a lot, and with a lot less fuss than in Mass. Because what will happen is that the public sector will turn out to be unable to use software that locks them in. Vendors will be unable to sell it to them. Once you have odf and other interchangeable formats universally available, it is going to be a simple matter to mandate their use. It is this that is the great evil in the public sector today in the UK. I know of two databases in some use in the UK public sector - and there are almost certainly many more - which deliberately do not support data export. One comes locked, and with no password supplied, and its only supplied after negotiation. Another simply does not support export, and a fee of several hundred is demanded in exchange for an "upgrade". I know of a case in which a very naive user requesting compliance with the draft standard was advised to get hold of Saxon and do an xml transform on an xml file. Would this take an afternoon, or should I allow a weekend for that? Good luck! My interpretation is: BECTA will put a stop to this, and when it has done so, will move on to the next one. Give it some time, and you will see. Application change in the end will come from user pressure. BECTA is making sure it will be possible and is tackling the most pressing UK issue first. This is quite smart, and we should respect it. |
| salparadise Mar 15, 2006 9:47 AM EDT |
I hope you're right. |
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