Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Marketing campaign/infographic idea: Freeing schools from proprietary software

In order to work out how to address this problem we need, perhaps, to put ourselves in the postion 
of a teacher or another lower level employee receiving an email or flyer from somebody they don't 
know about the benefits of LibreOffice.

Imagine, you've been working only with Microsoft Office for your entire career. You use it at  home 
as well. How can there be anything wrong with it? What is "open source" anyway? Somebody is trying 
to pursuade you of an advantage you don't even understand. The term "proprietary software" really 
doesn't mean much more to you than "open source". Are you likely to go to your boss and suggest 
that their purchasing decisions are wrong, especially when you're not even clear in your own mind 
what is wrong with MS Office? I suggest that you wouldn't.

I've distributed several hundred LO flyers to schools, colleges and my local university campus over 
the last few years. I like think that it has not been wasted effort, especially amongst some 
students who will have seen the flyers and been attrracted by the concept  of a free office suite - 
but mainly in the sense of "gratis". I am not optimistic that they have had any impact at the 
organisational level, because "ground up" pressure tends not to work in publicly funded 
institutions, if it exists at all. I really am coming round to the view that the push needs to be 
at the top level, where spending decisions are made, and also upon people who can have influence on 
those decision makers - local councillors and other elected representatives who can ask questions 
about how public funds are spent.

All the best

Nige

LibreOffice - Free and open source office suite: LibreOffice Website<https://www.libreoffice.org/>
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________________________________
From: Mike Saunders <mike.saunders@documentfoundation.org>
Sent: 12 April 2024 11:25
To: András Rigler <riglerandras@gmail.com>; Marc Paré <marc@marcpare.com>
Cc: marketing@global.libreoffice.org <marketing@global.libreoffice.org>
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Marketing campaign/infographic idea: Freeing schools from 
proprietary software

Hi András, everyone,

On 12/04/2024 11:44, András Rigler wrote:
> As long as the school provides
> free Windows and Office licence to the students, no one is at disadvantage.

Well, it could be argued that training students on closed, proprietary
software from a single vendor puts them at a disadvantage, as they'll
get locked-in to that software and eventually have to pay for it. "The
first hit is free" etc. :-)

> A teacher can't be prepared to a situation
> where all students use the software of their own choice in the classroom,
> so it must be accepted that the teacher chooses one specific software to be
> used by all students at school.

Agreed. But we're on the marketing list for the LibreOffice project, and
all (presumably) big advocates of free and open source software, so of
course we'd like to encourage teachers and schools to use
freedom-respecting software, rather than locking students in :-)

Cheers,
Mike

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