So, you want to help us pushing Free Software in education forward. Here are some pointers how to do so:

1. Join the edu-eu mailinglist.

2. if you come accross an interesting news entry or posting, post it on the mailing list
3. if you know about interesting news, but they are not published yet, publish it. Consider joining the osor platform for this
4. feed the wiki
5. talk to your friends, neigbours, students, teachers, administrations, political representatives
   • Arguments worth preparing for when talking to administrations:
     • Our Teachers won’t use FS. They are accustomed to the products they already use.
     • A migration is too expensive. We can’t afford to change everything!
     • Our teachers know only product X, we have no resources to teach them something else.
     • We once decided for product X, why should we change now?
     • There is no tech support for FS available.
     • FS is not as good as proprietary software.
     • But no one uses XYZ, our students and teachers will learn useless software.
     • There aren't any FS management or administrative products.
     • The stundents need to be trained on the Software they will face in their professional live, and that is likely to be proprietary software X

       • There is a nice blog post by Scot Rowed explaining why this is not true.

It might be useful to add certain dates for your home area into your calendar (like elections, season for hardware procurement in the public sector, distribution for EU funds) to remind you when it's time to get active.

See also:

• Reasons_for_schools_to_use_Free_Software

• Education/Edu-Distributions

• Education/Edu-Portals

Some tips how to get a migration started

Money is generally not a very good argument, but some people need to be told about the cost effectiveness to get them start listening. It's good to have some good examples where this already worked out (see wiki link list for examples) Pick a sample that matches your case the most and is prefereably close to you.

Don't hide the weaknesses. If you look like a fanboy, you are likely to lose your credibility.

Find allies within the organisation first. They can join the choir later or support your claims in case they are asked independently after you proposed the migration.

A step-by-step approach might be needed. First the browser, a wiki, ticket system, office suite, etc. So FS can proof that it is actually working.

You have to compete with proffessional vendors, so it is ok if you act like one as well. But don't gamble the credibility you've already got by being none of them. If possible/applicable, try the following:

• present a prototype solution, a institution that is already using FS or a sandbox
• use presentation material
• show the benefits of the flexibility that the solution can be tailored to your specific environment
• talk about community and support solutions
• stress the benefits of the freedoms FS provides and how this matches with your mission

other edu advocacy groups

• April Éducation (fr)

• FSuB e.V. (de)

• edulibre.info (es)

• WIOOWskole (pl)

• APRIL's list of other groups

Misc

There are some nice approaches in the Python wiki:

• http://wiki.python.org/moin/Advocacy

• http://wiki.python.org/moin/Advocacy/UniversityEducatorKit

• http://wiki.python.org/moin/Advocacy/HomeSchoolEducatorKit

• Animated video explaining Free Software (Portuguese)

Category/Education