There is plenty of media interest in this story right now. I have received many calls and there is also a lot of blogging going on. Unfortunately the way the NZOSS is participating in Standards New Zealand's OOXML Advisory Committee is occasionally misunderstood or misreported.

It has been far too long since the last NZOSS newsletter went out.

Attached to this article is the pretty PDF version.

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

An interesting take on evangelism posted on Groklaw. The gist of it is from one of the many US anti trust cases. Gives some background to the mentality of some players.

Good to see we are on a roll here... Another Open Source article in Computerworld NZ covering Matthew Cruickshank and his Docvert project.

My favourite quote? "The software was written in response to the publishing needs of people who care about standards..."

Docvert is used by the State Services Commission and can be downloaded from here.

This has been noted before but there is now an article in Computerworld NZ about it. A couple of soundbytes from Don Christie plus some extracts from the paper itself.

The article mentions a total cost of ownership tool that may be used as part of a business case. The website is http://www.tcotool.org/index_en.html if you want to check it out.

It's always nice to see NZOSS members mentioned in the media, especially over something as important as this. Sam Varghese over on iTWire has this article outlining the latest in a long list of unresolved issues we face with this inappropriate standard.

Yes folks, it is getting worse.

Another superb LinuxConf is over. Once again delegates were enlightened and entertained by quality speakers from all over the world at the University of Melbourne. Most of the conference sessions were recorded and the Ogg/speex files are available here.

It is always a buzz to attend events like this where you get to meet the people who are making a difference in the world today. Check out the OLPC slides from Jim Gettys to get a feel for some of the challenges people face. And speaking of the OLPC a number were given out at random during the conference with the request to "do something wonderful". I know that a number made it to New Zealand so here is hoping we can.

LinuxConf 2009 will be held in Hobart in Tasmania so start planning now.

Barry Polley has kindly sent me a revised verion of the MoJ open source discussion paper.

Some changes reflect further consultation, others reflect feedback from the NZOSS list and website.

A summary of changes is as follows:

- Added TCO policy (#11)
- Updated references to OSS adoption within public sector (global and NZ)
- Corrections to version and documentation policies
- Wording changes based on additional feedback from readers.

You can't fit that much detail into an Op-Ed piece but at least the authors have a go here.

Their conclusion? Education is very teacher centric at present and current computer use in classrooms tends to reinforce that view. There are historical reasons for that however they opine that for the future the 'classroom' must become child or student centric i.e. change from a monolithic teaching structure to modular learning structure. Linux is used as both the example and the means to do this.

Of course we see the benfits of this here in New Zealand with the results from the use of Moodle by the Telford Rural Polytechnic. The case studies from Telford and other NZ academic institutions using Moodle can be found here.

Over the last few years the NZOSS has been able to participate in the training portion of IBM New Zealand's Kidsmart deployment. As part of that training we have provided copies of Open Source software CD's based around The OpenCD and now The OpenDisc to every Kindergarten and Childcare Centre that has received a KidSmart unit. The training is hands on and includes tutorials and demonstrations of the power of Open Source tools. Feedback from the training sessions has been universally positive especially as the Open Source philosophy is closely aligned with how many parents and teachers expect learning to happen.

We have written up a short description of what Open Source software we recommend the Kindergartens and Childcare Centres should use and why here.

We would encourage you as parents to use this information as guide for what may be acheived in your own childs education.