[Air-l] OSS Watch report released - Open Source Software use in Higher Education (UK)

[E.J.Helsper at lse.ac.uk]

For all those interested in Open Source Software use: OSS Watch published a report last week about software use in higher education (UK institutions). 

The key findings are detailed below.

Best wishes,

Ellen J. Helsper 

Department of Media and Communications

London School of Economics and Political Science

Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE

T: 020 7955 6106

>> Apologies for crossposting

In February and March of 2006, OSS Watch conducted a survey of ICT
Directors at colleges and universities across the UK. We are delighted
to announce that the report from that survey is now published.

Key findings include:

* 77% of colleges and universities report that they regularly explore
open source options in procurement exercises, yet only 25% of
institutions report mention of 'open source' in their institutional policies

* 56% of further education colleges reported use of Moodle, an open
source course management system

* 100% of institutions provide Internet Explorer on their Windows
desktop PCs, yet 68% now also provide Mozilla Firefox

* there is no clear leader amongst Content Management Systems (CMS) with
more than 29 different solutions being used by respondents

* cost continues to be the principal driver in reasons for considering OSS

The full report and executive summary are available at

http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/studies/survey2006/


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Randy Metcalfe            Research Technologies Service        
OSS Watch                 University of Oxford