Meeting
From Schoolforge-UK
Meeting at BETT on 13th January
The meeting was attended by a number of members and interested parties. Several apologies were received.
The following topics were covered:
Membership
It was agreed that we needed to clarify our current membership and John Ingleby (Secretary) suggested they should be a) people registered on this wiki who have given b) their real name and c) their email address. He agreed to track members. We also agreed that membership should remain free and open to individuals and organisations who were prepared to support our principles.
Owing to unwanted attentions from spammers, members must now login to edit pages.
Progress with Becta et al
The Becta FLOSS TCO report is currently being discussed prior to its publication - for example by Becta and the former Secretary of State for Education & Skills in the recent Guardian article. Becta has also indicated its intention to hold seminars for suppliers planning to have FLOSS offerings for schools. It was agreed that Schoolforge UK should work to ensure we are involved in this process. It was noted that the current Secretary of State for Education & Skills mentioned FLOSS in her opening speech at BETT. (If you don't want to read it all, see the 3rd paragraph from the end).
Reports on discussions with manufacturers, software houses, etc
Richard Rothwell (Chairman) and Ian Lynch (Treasurer) are currently negotiating with a number of companies and bodies to release an open letter inviting interested parties to a meeting in Coventry at the end of February. A (very) Draft Open Letter is available on this site. Comments and alterations are requested - either edit the document or contact Richard Rothwell richard (at) caliban (dot) org (dot) uk. We have the backing of several companies and organisations for this letter, which aims to make Schoolforge-UK the key contact for Government etc. It is planned to invite Becta to comment on this letter before official publication and ask them to host the meeting. Failing that a neighbour have offered facilities. All present agreed to use their contacts to expand the number of companies and organisations involved.
Strategic Planning
In order to allow the February meeting to focus on business rather than housekeeping, it was agreed that Schoolforge-UK needed to regularise its Constitution before the meeting. John has agreed to work on this. It is likely that the basis of a Constitution will be taken from the [Http://www.x.org X.org Foundation]. It was also agreed that all interested organisations should be encouraged to affiliate to Schoolforge-UK.
FLOSSIE Conference - an update
As a result of these developments and other issues, it has been decided to delay the FLOSSIE 2005 Conference to later in the year.
Richard Rothwell 20:01, 13 Jan 2005
