garrysaddington

Begs the question "Why is the tool's functionality not integrated with the CTF import utility?"

According to the CTF file standard both of the above are valid formats for address. Perhaps SIMS has decided to deprecate the addressline format before the other suppliers or is not mapping them correctly to the BS7666 format?

Have a look at http://scholarpack.com. At the moment we are working with a further ed. college in Texas on an implementation similar to what you have specified.

No, you could just take out/disable other things until you may need them. Set up is no more difficult than any other app. Benefit is: try it for free, use it for free forever if you want to, uninstall if you don't like it. Documentation on report setup available on our website. Reporting system has been in use at a UK school for 5 years prior to release and includes an online grammar checker - any of the paid for alternatives do that? It can even be customised quickly if it doesn't do what you want. For instance we are customising the reports for a group of schools in Kenya at the moment.

Wouldn't there be a case therefore for the software to be far more user friendly in its set up, so that not only the 'experts' can get it right. Software that needs the services of 'experts' to set up and maintain and costs as much as SIMS is not in my estimation good software, and that goes for any software not just that used in schools. If ERP software in the business environment generated as many problems as SIMS seems to do then it would not survive very long!

I'll just answer this one. The development was started when there were no others around, I believe I started at around the same time as Freemis,Class and Schooltool . If you take your logic to the extreme then we would have no more new open source projects. If we release an open source project then of course anyone is able to pick it up and fork it. It is a risk you take in the open source world, but without risk the world would be a boring place don't you feel?

I can understand all the suspicion that may exist around such a project. So why don't we suspend the discussion until ScholarPack is released as open source in the next few weeks. So you can have a full open source MIS for free if you want. If you don't want then nobody is going to force you.

I don't think you have read the thread completely. I know that, but why would you start from something that is far from useable when I am starting from something that can be used now.

Because this is a finished project. I am only guaging interest level from the people with the most likely ability to get involved.

What, we are talking UK MIS. Schooltool can not be used as a replacement for the proprietary MIS's in use in UK schools.

Yep, cloud based is the direction we are heading in. Thanks for your offer.

I'll use your numbers to answer. 1/About a day would be needed for adaptation. We have supplier log ins to the collect system for testing. 2/We will be providing support and other services, which will hopefully fund further maintenance and development by the in house team. 3/That's what open source is all about - you can see the code. However, have you or anyone else ever seen the SIMS code? 4/Gracefully. The data is cleaned and tested before it goes in, and validated against the XSD schemas provided by the *old* DCSF for common transfer files. All government defined formats are used, however everything may change with a new government, but being open and web based we are agile enough to respond to any changes.

It's web based and apart from other things built using Python,Zope,Postgres,Apache amongst others and is supported on Windows server 2008/2003. As far as the development effort goes, it is a finished product that will obviously need maintenance and customisation to fit varying needs. The development team is backed by a multi million pound company from the Midlands.

Do I detect a note of disbelief here?

The developers.

No they are both licenses approved by the Free Software foundation and the Open Source Initiative. The we in this context is the organisation formed to provide support services around the release of an Open Source MIS. Before someone gets the wrong idea, could I stress that the software will be totally open source, totally free (as in speech and as in beer!) and not some cut down version devised to get schools to upgrade to an 'enterprise' version.

We already have two schools using it and it was trialled in another for 4 years. It will be released under the Open Software license V3 or the GNU Affero license.

Do you have a source for this assertion, as it may help in our decisions. As an aside, why are UK educational institutions which are in fact multi million pound businesses and supposedly run by intelligent people so far behind in their IT use. Real businesses are embracing open source technology with open arms and are profiting by it.

I know it's not a new idea, but no one has ever released anything that can replace SIMS/SERCO et al. and do all the government returns. I am talking about the release of a complete, ready to use MIS, not a pie in the sky project.

If an Open Source MIS existed that met all of the necessary government standards, who on this list would actively contribute to such a project and who would support it? Please be honest because your responses could result in the release of a MIS that is indeed open source and free.

Extra purchase?

I know this is not ideal, but you could get the sample CTF file from Teachernet: Teachernet, CTF9 and compare the file you have to it and amend the said file if it's structure or in particular the headers are wrong. A fudge, I know but may get you through while waiting for a formal solution.

If that is the case why is there so much discussion on here about using spreadsheets. I only base my comments on the content of these forums.

I fail to see the relevance of this statement to what I am trying to say. I think you misunderstand too. There are a series of guidelines laid down by government bodies that give recommendations on what a MIS should do, not what is there already. If the MIS market was sound then we would not need all these add on products that add extra complexity and financial burdens on schools. In my opinion a healthy desire for further data tools means that tax payer's money is being wasted in the first instance on tools that are not doing the job they purport to do. There should be no need for choice in this market.

I think you may have missed my point. If the MIS conformed to DCSF/BECTA guidelines, all this talk of export to Excel would be superfluous because the MIS would do all the data analysis for you.