garrysaddington

Plone would be a good bet - free and with complete Windows installers: Plone CMS: Open Source Content Management

Software can be released under any license the developer cares to use and he can change that license on any newly released software whether it was previously released as open source or not. It is correct that you cannot revoke the license of previously released open source software, and indeed we have not sought to do so. Any of our released downloads that are still in existence and we had over 1000 , still carry the GNU Affero license and the owners are freely available to do as they please with the software including making it available for download/sale etc.. However, the GNU Affero requires that any changes to the code are passed back to the original copyright owner and that is the company I now work for. ScholarPack is not now released in any form and is only available as S.A.A.S. hosted by Histon House Ltd., the company that now owns the copyright to ScholarPack. The decision not to release as open source any more was purely a commercial one dictated by the private investors that have allowed us to continue to develop ScholarPack into the product it has now become. The long quote above is with reference to our business model and has nothing to do with the open source or other nature of our software. Interestingly enough since we moved to a paid for model we have generated far more interest from schools, local authorities and resellers.

That's true, ScholarPack has a fully integrated parent portal, but we are now a fair way along with the development of an integrated VLE. We hope to have a RC out in a couple of months. Thanks for all the kind mentions of ScholarPack on this thread.

I know you asked about SIMS, but ScholarPack is a full, completely cloud based MIS, accessed solely through a web browser.

Perhaps if you could write your comments so that there are no inuendos and opprtunities for mis-reading then I would understand what you are talking about. And I'm sorry, but I didn't read anywhere in your posts that you were laughing at ScholarPack's sponsorhip of this forum. Your suggestion that this frum be sponsored by a non-MIS supplier can be extrapolated so that every other forum is sponsored by a company with no real interest in getting any advetising out of their invested money. That is totally bonkers!

What on earth would a sponsor get out of such sponsorship if they were not an MIS company? ROI etc. etc. Would be good for Capita to sponsor this forum as they get a great deal of extra technical support from it?

Perhaps you ought to stop using web based facilities that are served by open source projects then, or are you laughing at the notion that Capita could be philanthropic?

It would be interesting to see these requirements, any chance you can post/link to them?

If a school decides to move away from SIMS can't they reclaim the money the LEA have spent on their behalf in buying in SIMS, that would seem fair to me?

If the idea is to give teachers/parents 24/7 access to the data then hosting on site or off has the same security issues. Data centres are meant to mitigate those issues, and I hope Serco are registered with the Data Commissioner.

I don't think that was said. There is a clear difference betwen 'the market' and an individual supplier's offering in that market.

Sivadam, Ofsted reports are in the public domain and freely available, please don't imply any wrong doing here. I really fail to understand why you must resort to personal attacks when every one else is trying to have a reasoned argument. I don't think so. I think the point was to initiate the above mentioned reasoned argument about the state of assessment monitoring in the classroom, which again you take as an attack on SIMS, which it clearly is not. In a previous life I too was a science teacher and during that time a symbol like != would have probably confused me, but apparently it's common place now.

Phil - This is not an assumption, just our experience at the moment and we are aware that extra work will be necessary to move other data, although to say 'huge' amount may be an over-estimation. It would be interesting to know the proportion of schools that utilise their MIS to the full though?

Exams management, along with several other modules are not part of the open source version, and the documentation online is mostly relevant to that version. Schools that sign up with us get everything we do for free, including all documentation.

I think you ought to withdraw that insinuation as it is both offensive to our company and (I presume) to Edugeek.

Can I take it that you do not regard any MIS other than (insert your preferred MIS here) to be best value then? What would you have done if say SERCO had sponsored the forum and not a young 'upstart' company like ScholarPack.

The forums are impartial, the advertising supports the existence of the forums and all the other things that Edugeek does for you/us. Other forums have sponsors and they manage to remain impartial. Perhaps your own lack of impartiality is clouding your judgement.

Are you the same Toby Belfield that was deputy director of Capita, only 3 years ago?

Likewise, my colleague got lambasted for merely posting about a useful paper that happened to have our name mentioned once in the whole document. I can't see where Capita have sponsored this forum? I personally have ceased to get involved in any discussion for fear of the backlash I get when people realise which product I am involved with!

There is an excellent open source timetable program called FET which will output to csv for input to other software. FET - Free Timetabling Software

For a start we can use a full Common Transfer File. For anything else we can do custom exports and mappings, depending on what the school needs to move. ScholarPack was initially developed as a full replacement for another commercial MIS in a secondary school. So I guess the real answer is that we do it the way any other (commercial) MIS would do it.

The part that is open and libre will remain so because of the part that isn't, and that part is 'free as in beer' to schools anyway. So why the dig?

I think you may find that our Open Source MIS - ScholarPack, does in fact include the functionality that school's need, take a look at our website and demo. Schools that sign up with us get a ton of other things too.

Er Yes! When I introduced a full Linux network install in my previous school, no training was either needed or given. The students took to it easily and the teachers did too. So don't start waiving the old training FUD about please.

I think it's probably historical (although Phil would probably be able to put us right on this), where the original version years ago was the addresslines. The DFES wanted to change to BS7666 but suppliers have been slow to change. So both are still allowed.