Open Source in Schools meeting on 7th June 2005 from 6pm to 8pm


The British Computer Society Open Source Specialist Group is pleased to announce Open Source in Schools meeting on 7th June 2005 from 6pm to 8pm. Meeting location details below. The speakers are John Osborne, Deputy Head Orwell High School, Felixstowe and Andy Trevor, Technical Director Cutter Project

John OsborneDeployment of Open Source at Orwell High School
The new Orwell IT system has been featured on the Working Lunch program, and in the Times Education Supplement. Orwell High School has been invited to join the Specialist Groups’s ICT Register to advise schools thinking of making similar changes.

John commented:

“As part of the reorganisation of our computer systems we have made a switch to an Open Source platform. This will allow us to make significant savings on our software licensing bill without compromising on the quality of the software available to our students.” “Instead of using Microsoft Windows and Office systems we have switched to a Linux and Star Office platform. Many organisations and businesses have already made this change.” “Students now have secure individual user accounts, email addresses and can access their mail and work from home.” “Security has improved tremendously, and we are able to run our computers for longer before they need replacing.”

Andy TrevorOpen Source technology in education
commented:

Cutter is a low-cost low-maintenance desktop software environment intended for schools, academic institutions and other organisations wishing to use reliable, low-cost desktop software for office automation and other tasks. “Cutter’s goal is to simplify the process of selecting and installing software that works well and to ensure that there is commercial support for its users. The judicious use of Open Source components with full commercial support is at the core of Cutter’s approach.” “Cutter draws from tried and trusted sources to provide a framework that is easy to install and maintain, has good reference sites and is known to work. Cost of ownership and simplicity of management is essential. Cutter doesn’t just work well locally: the fully integrated remote access facilities are a boon to those working from home or maintaining Cutter systems.” “Cutter is predominantly based on Open Source software such as Linux whilst maintaining excellent support for applications that will only run on Microsoft Windows. Dramatic savings in hardware, licensing and administration costs are only one of the reasons for selecting Cutter: peace of mind and high levels of immunity to viruses and security threats may be just as important.”Registration details of this meeting are available at our events section

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