Schools warned off Microsoft deal

Have a look at this article on BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7063716.stm

Schools warned off Microsoft deal
The UK computer agency Becta is advising schools not to sign licensing agreements with Microsoft because of alleged anti-competitive practices.

About time we see some concrete advise on this issue. Here is the original press release from Becta.

Bibliographics

I came across this blogpost (http://netapps.muohio.edu/blogs/darcusb/darcusb/). It's a discussion about bibliographic applications, here Zotero versus RefWorks.

I am using Zotero my self. Zotero is licensed as open source and works as extensions to other application (Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice.org).
RefWorks is what I would call proprietary software going towards freeware. The software is in some context free (as in free beer, not as in freedom).
The discussion in the above mentioned blogpost is very much a comparison of free software and proprietary software. Why some librarians can recommend students and scientist to use a non-free application. In my mind there is nothing wrong with proprietary software. I am using proprietary and commercial software every day together with free and open source software. I choose from a various of parameters. To mention a few: Functions and features, robust data storage, openness in data format, price versus value.

As I see the problem is, that both applications in the comparison, as well as any other bibliographic application, stores data in closed binary databases. None of the two applications are actually open in the way data is stored. I chose Zotero, because I find the connection between my Internet browser (Firefox) and my text editor (OpenOffice.org Writer) convenient.

The basic problem here, as in many other situations, is that we don't have an open standard for storing bibliographic data. If the providers of bibliographic applications could agree on one common way of storing the data, any student, teacher or librarian could use an application of his or her own choise. Data can be published, exchanged and searched in.

Should this be a part of the ODF standard ?
I don't know.
I am one of the people speaking the ODF case in Denmark.
It would be natural to extend ODF to contain bibliographical data as meta data (Rob Weir about the Semamtic Web: http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/10/odf-enters-semantic-web.html)

On the other hand we must be careful not to think that we can put everything into one standard. ODF is developed in OASIS and approved by ISO. ODF is implemented in OpenOffice.org, Kword and many other applications. A new version of ODF will be a hard work to get through the two organizations and the implementation will be delayed several years. The more different aspects the format contains, the more difficult versioning and implementation will become.

My favorite extensions

The extension mechanism was introduced in OpenOffice.org 2.04 but even before that, you could install so called UNO-packages. But the extension framework has been developed over several versions and we haven't seen the end yet. In the future we will see support for multi language extensions and automatic update.

If you would like to know more about extension, just tune in on http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/

This is how extensions are described on the OpenOffice.org homepage:

OpenOffice.org offers a complete framework allowing it to be enriched. You'll find here entry points for the various aspects of creating and distributing these extensions. An extension is a third party tool that brings OOo new functions. This can be done through addons, addins, deployed by UNO packages. Extensions also covers templates, galleries.

Here is my favorite extensions:

SVG Import
This extension makes it possible for OpenOffice.org to consume SVG files (scalable vector graphics). I use SVG files from http://www.openclipart.org/ in almost all occasions where I need to show drawings in my documents. A project in OpenOffice.org is about to implement a native filter for inport/export, but until then, you need this extension
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/svgimport

Lorem Ipsum generator
He-he, I made this my self. As I'm often writing training material, I need to produce a lot of 'dummy documents' for both OpenOffice.org and Lotus Notes. This extension gives you the opportunity to generate any amount of Lorem Ipsum you like.
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/Lorem_ipsum_generator

OOoWikipedia
This extension is not an OXT file, so you must open the extension manager and import the extension from there. OXT files can be activated by clicking the icon or directly from your internet browser.
This extension makes any word in your writer document 'active', because you can just click the icon and a Wikipedia search will be submitted immediately.
http://www.indesko.com/telechargements/ooowikipedia

Zotero
Zotero is actually a bibliography plug-in for Firefox, but in conjunctions with an extension for Openoffice.org, you get a very comprehensive tools. Read this article by Dimitri Popov http://www.linux.com/feature/119419. The extension is well documented on the website http://www.zotero.org/documentation/
http://www.zotero.org/documentation/openoffice_integration

OOoLilypond
Lilypond is a stand alone application for music notation. OOoLilyPond is a macro for OpenOffice.org that simplifies the integration of music notation in OpenOffice.org Writer, Impress and Draw. It can be used to write a book on music theory or to write down exercises for music instruments or voices which need to be commented with lots of text.


http://ooolilypond.sourceforge.net/

Dmath
This is a very comprehensive application for mathematical notation and even graphs. For students, teachers and engineers.
http://www.dmaths.org

BasicAddonBuilder
BasicAddonBuilder is an OpenOffice.org extension that allow you to export a StarBasic library in the OpenOffice.org extension format, ready for deployment.
http://www.paolo-mantovani.org/downloads/BasicAddonBuilder/BasicAddonBuilder.oxt

Sun Report Builder
Create with the Sun Report Builder stylish, smart-looking database reports. The flexible report editor can define group and page headers as well as group and page footers and even calculation fields are available to accomplish complex database reports.
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/reportdesign

Grammatik
This is a Danish extension that provides young students with a grammatical tool for analyzing sentences. Inserts grammatical symbols below each word.
http://www.hj-gym.dk/~hj/gramsym/grammatik-var.oxt

Open source is not about cutting down expenses

The general discussion about the use of open source software like OpenOffice.org very often comes around talking about money. And most people expect that cheap (in this case very cheap) software is poor software. In some cases this is actually true, but not in all cases. There are lots of software projects that serves high quality applications for you.

Open source is not about cutting down expenses but about spending money where you get value.

Lets take a look at one of the most popular open source projects, OpenOffice.org. Compared to Microsoft Office, this project is a little bit less feature rich. But what's the difference, when your employees haven't learned how to use the application that you bought so expensive ? Nothing. A much more valuable choice could be to implement OpenOffice.org and I say implement. Not just install it, but actually make sure that everybody who needs to know, will know. Teach them how to use it. And you will find that the actual result will be, that OpenOffice.org will increase productivity, because the number of usable features is higher. You have gained more value.

Another thing to consider is, to begin thinking about collaborative software. Take the Office thought a little bit further. How about spending money on collaboration instead of fancy features in desktop applications. Features that we use because they are there - not because we need them. If you implement OpenOffice.org and spend the license fee to buy good and solid software like Software from IBM Lotus, you will see your employees work together and find them think as a team instead of individual pieces. The jigsaw will soon show a very pretty picture: Pieces will come together.

Open source software is not about cutting down, but about spending differently.

Support

I receive about 3 -5 direct mails on a daily basis, asking questions about OpenOffice.org. Please respect me, when I reply, that I can't answer all these mails individually. I have a full time job and spends several hours every day working for OpenOffice.org in Denmark.

Support questions can be posted here:
Danish: http://www.oooforum.dk . I will, together with many others, try to answer all questions here.
International: http://www.oooforum.org

Further more, you can find manuals and documentation here:
Danish: http://doc.oooforum.org
International: http://documentation.openoffice.org/

I can also recommend this blog (Solveig Haugland): http://openoffice.blogs.com/

Most questions I get is about two issues: Installing the Danish spellchecker and reading docx files.

Regarding the Danish spellchecker:
I expect the Danish spellchecker to be pre-installed with OpenOffice.org 2.4. There are several discussions about installation on the Danish support forum about this. And yes: there are still some problems.

Regarding handling docx documents:
Ask the sender to use an international acknowledged file format like ODF. And subscribe to the Danish Newsletter (mailto:nyhedsbrev-subscribe@da.openoffice.org?subject=Tilmeldingen%20sker%20ved%20at%20sende%20denne%20besked).
I'm trying to keep up with the latest news every month (Read older issues: http://da.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?listName=nyhedsbrev)