Open Source UK attacks schools quango

BIDDERS FOR THE UK's pioneering Schools Open Source Project have ganged up against Becta, the quango that commissioned the work, because they say it bodged the tender.

Three of the UK's Open Source leaders, who tendered for the work, are furious at being turned down for a consultancy unknown in their community. They have called foul on Becta's procurement, even though the Schools Open Source Project was a sign the quango had at last warmed to the unconventional Open Source business model and was serious about loosening its ties with convicted monopolist Microsoft, the software supplier which dominates the education sector.

Ian Lynch, director of business development at The Learning Machine, who bid for the work, said: "I'm making a formal complaint to [Becta CEO] Stephen Crown. " Lynch said he was making the complaint on the basis that Alphaplus, which won the bid, had an unfair advantage over the Open Source bidders: "I think the actual tender was flawed because the detail of how the [bid assessment] marks were awarded was not given to all bidders. The three Open Source bidders have not bid for Becta contracts before, so they wouldn't have had that information" .

Mark Taylor, president of the UK's Open Source Consortium, launched a stinging attack on Becta, calling on schools and Open Source developers alike to boycott the quango. "If you are a member of the Open Source community or industry not yet touched by this scandal, boycott the project and refuse to have anything to do with it," said Taylor in a written statement. "If you are a school, ignore Becta's project, ignore Becta, and seek advice from the people who are able to give it," he said. "Becta awarded their 'Open Source Schools' project to establishment insiders and cronies," said Taylor, who also bid for the work as chief executive of Open Source consultancy Sirius.

The Schools Open Source Project had been intended to encourage the use of Open Source software in schools, for education and infrastructure, and it so far seems to have achieved the feat of uniting the Open Source community, but against it.

The Open Source bidders had backing from global heavyweights and in keeping with the collaborative nature of their business model, were all planning to get behind whichever of them won the bid. But Alphaplus has landed like a cat amongst the pigeons.

John Winkley, operations director of Alphaplus, told the INQUIRER that Becta had decided to choose an education specialist over the technology specialists. He refused to say what links Alphaplus had with the Open Source community or how his bid had proposed to run the Open Source project.

He has, however, been calling round the Open Source security to garner their support. Lynch challenged Alphaplus to publish its winning bid, after publishing his own. Lynch also published the marks Becta gave Learning Tree for its bid. He said he was baffled in particular by the low mark he got for value for money and ability to meet timescales.

"We can already deliver their objectives before we have started," he said. Lynch's bid was backed by Ingots, a schools Open Source education programme that has 2,000 users, and Schools Forge, an Open Source software project for schools that has a thousand subscribers. The bidders said this was a classic example of the mismatch that results when the Open Source business model meets conventional procurement networks.

Had they bid as one, they might even have won. By bidding as three, they emulated the commercial competition favoured by the rules, but they would always have teamed up behind whichever of them won the work. Now Becta has given the work to an establishment consulting firm, they will have no choice (assuming the award is not overturned) but to get behind Alphaplus.

They will not be giving up without a fight. µ