The talk given by Anders Kringstad at FSCONS 2009, Saturday the 14th of November. Focuses on Free Software within the Educational sector, status on projects around the world and the outlook ahead.

1. From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for
Education
FSCONS 2009
November 14.,
Anders Kringstad | akai@skolelinux.org
www.friprogramvareiskolen.no | www.skolelinux.org

2. ● About Anders:
- 28 years, from Trondheim, Norway, married, one
child, free software community idealist and keen on
seeing a new generation turn to free software for their
educational platforms..
- Currently leader of Free software in schools,
Norway / Fri programvare i skolen,
soon to pass the helm on..
- Working as Solutions Architect for Free Software at
ITsjefen AS, leader in Free Software solutions in the
middle region of Norway
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

3. ● Primary focus of Free Software in Education?
- Formerly: Platform-war-like (Linux/Windows)
- Present: Fast to market, easy to use solutions/
programs for large amounts of users and largely
platform independent.
● Education:
- Why do we care about the software used?
- How can we avoid churning out further “brand
educated” students?
- Living with diversity in schools and society
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

4. ● Do you believe we could have a toolbox for
both teacher and student for lower costs and
higher return on ownership? .. I do!
- School owners, teachers and parents need to
address the cost of technology choices.
- Stop the provider-driven spending in licensing and
get local government to focus on need instead of the
“bling-factor” of that new Office-suite.
- Teachers, parents and school owners lagging behind
in technology knowledge is one of the major obstacles
in all countries.
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

5. ● Current status in Norway:
- National awareness of Free Software due to massive
lobbying by Technology Warriors like Knut Yrvin,
Petter Reinholdtsen, Thomas Gramstad and the large
grass-root organizations like Norwegian Unix User
Group (NUUG), Elektronisk Forpost Norge (EFN), Fri
programvare i skolen (FRISK), and a crowd of more
than thousand individuals across Norway.
- National Center for Free Software created by the
government in 2007 to help the public sector in
understanding and using Free Software.
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

6. ● Current status in other European Countries:
- France: Lots of free software in all sectors; Among
them: The Police, some large city government,
educational programs in southern and eastern regions.
- Spain: Regionally government-funded projects in
Extremadura and other regions give efficient use of
EU-granted development funds and an average BGP
spending of only 67% of the EU norm for education
without compromising on quality or student access
(rather the opposite).
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

7. ● Current status in other European Countries:
- Germany: More than 500.000 students in the process
of migrating to Linux and Skolelinux in the region of
Rheinland-pfalz. Large city administrations already on
Linux (Munich, Hannover, etc). Pro-choice decisions in
regional government lead to development of new local
projects and participation in international Free
Software initiatives like the DebianEdu/Skolelinux
project.
- Sweden and Denmark?? We want to hear from you..!
(and please do not take this personally, just fix it :-) )
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

8. ● Current status in Brazil:
- 35 million students in schools are in the process of
migrating to “Linux Educational” - a locally tailored
version of Debian with KDE. Currently more than 7
million users have made the shift. Maximum number
of students that could be integrated is now more than
53 million if including higher education.
● Current status in Taiwan:
Local government-driven initiative for Free Software in
schools under way, some schools already operational.
Lots of local development.
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

9. ● Current drawbacks, globally:
- Diversity and incompatibilities: Like with all Linux
based systems, there are huge gaps between
solutions in different regions of the world.
- Provider-driven FUD, these days mostly due to lack
of knowledge of business-models that could benefit
from a heterogeneous educational sector.
- Many projects unaware of the presence of other
similar projects they could join up with!
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

10. ● Global connectivity and cooperation: how?
- Summoned up in one short line: “The Internet”.
- Long answer: Projects spread all over the world with
focus on Education spring up like banana flies but
need to get online and advertise their presence and
work with other projects with similar goals.
- We need a global focus on bringing the best of the
Free Software movement into education, not just
“chipping in some Linux here and there”.
- A Global Free Software Platform with tailoring?
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

11. ● What can we at FSCONS 2009 do (I) ?
- Talk about Free Software in Education!
- Remember that Free Software does not equal “Linux”
in all it's geeky glory with kernel builds, hardhats and
30 top different distributions..
- Try to build trust and understanding with easy and
mature “ready to use” programs like the Mozilla
programs Thunderbird and Firefox, OpenOffice.org,
GIMP, VLC, StopMotion and Gcompris. Do not put
Gentoo or ArchLinux at your local kindergarden!!
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

12. ● What can we at FSCONS 2009 do (II) ?
- Invite people to a local talk about Free Software and
Education in a context they feel familiar with –
Such as your local language, local examples and local
challenges solved – with standard tools!
- Join a Free Software project that focuses on
Education: You do not need to be in the same country
to make a huge difference!
- Talk to your local and national politicians about
policies for mandatory use of open formats and open
standards in Education to avoid vendor lock-in!
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009

13. That's about it for now..
QUESTIONS?
and remember the workshop..
HOW TO GET Free Software in Schools
@ 10:00 am Sunday morning
From Norway to Brazil:
Turning to Free Software for Education
November 14., FSCONS 2009