At least three British companies specialising in Open Source software have submitted tenders for a 270,000 GBP (340,000 euro) project to support a sustainable and significant community of schools using and developing Open Source.
The project, titled 'Schools Open Source Project' was launched earlier this month by the British educational IT agency Becta. "We wish to ensure that schools are aware of and can access the wide variety of Open Source software in the marketplace." To achieve this, Becta says, it must organise support in adoption, deployment, use and ongoing development. The IT organisation wants this project to result in a sustainable and significant community of schools that use and develop open source products.
The deadline for submitting tenders closed last Wednesday.
According to the IT news website The Inquirer at least three companies submitted tenders, Sirius open source consultancy, The Learning Machine and Open Source Software Watch, though it could not get them to confirm this.
"Becta are at last taking practical steps to open up the market", Inquirer quotes Mark Taylor of Sirius. "We will have Open Source companies being official suppliers to education for the first time."
Becta earlier this week published another Open Source tender, to create a new agreement for educational software licences. This project is organised together with OGC.bying solutions, part of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in the British Treasury. From the tender document: "We are particularly seeking suppliers who can provide a comprehensive choice of software solutions including appropriate Open Source and free-to-use alternatives and advise users on best value licensing."
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