Archive for the ‘ICT’ Category

• Is it illegally anticompetitive for Google to give schools Google Apps for free?

  Date: 2012.02.02 | Category: google, ICT, open source, Primary School, Primary School ICT | Response: 1

  Today a French court ruled that Google has broken the law by providing the Google Maps API for free. While this may seem like an extreme ruling it is based on the fact that Google used to offer the service for free then began charging once all of their competition had been beaten into submission. I wonder if Google are trying to do the same with schools and Google Apps?

  Microsoft and Google have been caught out doing predatory pricing on quite a few occasions in the past. Essentially predatory pricing is where you provide a service for free then after a period of time (Usually once all of your competitors have been destroyed) you start charging for this service. Companies accomplish this “scam” by providing propriety software, propriety software is basically software that can only be provided by one company. I am constantly warning the schools of the risks of investing in propriety standards and I’m sure that nearly all of my readers are tired of me beating on this drum… In this case I think the court actually got it wrong.

  Google Docs doesn’t thwart our ability to develop PrimaryPad, PrimaryBlogger or SchoolEmail further, it’s obviously that Google Docs does affect our bottom line but we develop PrimaryPad because we believe in our products and in we know that our contributions towards Etherpad and an open standard for collaborative writing on the web will ultimately be the winner of the war. Remember folks.. Good customer service and open standards always win.

• Our technology is not advanced enough to make us human again

  Date: 2012.01.22 | Category: ICT | Response: 0

  Really think this guy hits a nerve for anyone that’s sat in front of a screen 8+ hours a day

• Memoirs of an ex-pirate turned CEO

  Date: 2012.01.19 | Category: ICT | Response: 0

  Over the years I have filled many roles online, some have some questionable legal issues tied to them.  Nowadays I run an organization and write open source software and some propriety software and I’m paid to do this and I’m 99.9% sure everything I do is completely legal.  Throughout my years online I have watched the piracy battle. I remember in the early years when site admins would disappear and be locked up for years and I have watched how an international war against piracy has been won by the pirates with the popularization of the torrents & file sharing websites. Warez is what Warez was, it’s organized, way more organized than the FBI/CIA or any government funded organization..

  So today has been a huge day in the Pirates Vs Legislation..  Correction.. People Vs Government..  It’s pretty clear that Government is representing the minority of the population.  It’s clear that Joe Blogs (in his current form) is being threatened..  It’s also pretty clear that Joe Blogs enjoys the fruits of Piracy and with the media companies still turning huge profits it’s pretty clear that greed is the underlying factor here.

  So what just happened?

  It turns out a major record producer is a CEO of a megaupload (file sharing website).  Now I have only ever downloaded legal content from megaupload or maybe the odd download that has questionable legality.  It’s clear the FBI don’t get the hint about the whole stop SOPA thing and just do what they want..  Consider the FBI like the bully who hits a kid, gets told off by their teacher then completely ignores what the teacher says and goes and hits the kid again.  Ignorant American government organizations?  Really?  Say it aint so!

  What is questionable legality?

  Say I own a copy of Civilization 2(Game) and I want to mod it, well I can only mod it if I replace the civ2.exe binary with a modified binary..  This is potentially illegal and in the eyes of the law is illegal..

  Today megaupload was hit hard, shut down in fact..  Millions of legal files have been removed from the internet..  The reason it was shut down is because megaupload was storing illegal files..  Ironic though that a record producer who has made millions from selling beats may now find himself sued by the same mechanism put in place to protect him.

  Why does this matter to you?

  Well Google, Dropbox, Spideroak, Microsoft etc. all store illegal files..  In fact so does the organizations that are fighting online piracy.. The FBI hit megaupload this time, a site that is legitimate. Absolutely nothing is stopping them from hitting Dropbox or Spideroak, in fact a lot of people think Dropbox is the next target..

  Why the government will never win this fight

  Just like the war on Terror or Drugs their is a reason the opposition is so successful. It’s simple. Passion. Passionate people work all hours of the day to solve a problem. The more the government push the more they are creating hatrid, just like Iraq..  Many software developers will free up a few hours to help debug a problem on a website that opposes this fight.  They won’t contribute to piracy directly but may provide a free module or piece of code to the site administrator.  In Iran a man was recently sentenced to death for the same type of thing.  The people of the Internet are fighting oppression.

  What is the light at the end of the tunnel?

  Pirates are now CEO’s. Yep, and the CEO’s are out to destroy UMG, sony etc. Young CEOs are being passionate about providing a DRM free experience and removing customer lock in because they believe in the future of the Internet as a medium for open conversation. If you are a CEO that doesn’t get why an open Internet is important then please, I beg you, step down or your company will be lose and your employees will find themselves out of a job.

  What can you do to speed things up

  It’s pretty evident that the FBI are working the likes of UMG and other old, complacent media organizations. If you work at one of these organizations or you have a contract with them please organize a meeting to specifically discuss the organizations stance on the war against piracy. You may un-earth some uncomfortable truths. Do remember if you license music or you buy an internet connection that comes with a free audio clip service (Many schools have this bundled with their net connectivity) you are fueling this fire. You are fueling a fire that is ripping the Internet apart. Act now.

• What a difference a door makes…

  Date: 2012.01.19 | Category: ICT, Primary School, Primary School ICT | Response: 0

  Yet another burglary last night in a Bradford Primary School. Yet again the thiefs target is the technology. PrimaryT is the maintainer and provider of this technology so it is somewhat concerning that the schools ICT budget will be spending more of their budget on insurance premiums next year instead of new kid for the kids to use.. But wait.. Not at this school because a recently installed security door thwarted the thieves..

  In my opinion you can’t get much lower than stealing from resources primary school kids use to learn with.   I realize that anyone reading this is  already in that school of thought.  I guess I’m completely biased though and blind to the other social subtleties at play in the surrounding area.

  The school is going to need to replace some parts of that door though if not the whole thing.. It’s not all bad news at least as the kids can still continue to learn with technology

• Blowing our own trumpet.

  Date: 2011.12.01 | Category: ICT, primary schools, primary schools ict, primary technology, primaryblogger, primarypad | Response: 0

  Sometimes we get email that really make all of the hard work we put in worthwhile. Here is one of those emails:

  Just a note to say thank you for the excellent two packages I have used today. As you are no doubt aware that today was a strike day and unfortunately our school decided to close. Without politics being discussed I decided not to strike and used the Internet and two of your packages to host my lessons – run from the classroom, but with children in their homes. The technology worked seamlessly. My only issue was not having names on primary paint.  The software was quality all over and made my interactive lessons almost as they would be in the classroom. Thanks again.

  So not only did we get some positive, quality feedback we also got a bug report Thanks to the sender!