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Hello all I'm relatively new to the VLE game, working in a secondary school just getting going on the subjetc. When I first heard about open source products I couldn't believe my eyes. We all know that open source doesn't mean free - far from it - but at least there are no shareholders looking for their cut, no directors on six figure salaries, no development constraints other than the actual skills of the developers themselves, no salesmen doing the hard sell and taking a hefty cut of the profit. More importantly, we, as educators, are able to take ownership of what we are doing, making the necessary decisions that benefit our learners. Coming from the secondary school sector, there's nothing more important than fostering a sense of ownership in what our students, and this is exactly what open source VLEs do for us. All that remains is the development of an extensive network of like minded individuals all working together collaboratively towards meeting the same ends. I've had my say! Time for a drink. Andy. -----Original Message----- From: Virtual Learning Environments on behalf of Mira Vogel Sent: Fri 14/10/2005 17:39 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: open source, open standards, free Hello Adam, all, > It's a licence to print money I tells yer - especially given Blackboard's > track record of charging large amounts of money for 'simple' upgrades! Is it? Doesn't look as if proprietary VLE companies can carry on the way they have been, and this merger is testament to that. The lines of VLE competition are being redrawn - before it was principally commercial v. commercial, and now it's commercial v. non commercial (Open Source, Community Source, at no charge etc). The companies compete for market share, and the free VLEs compete for skills, time,kudos - which also depend largely on market share. And market share - what does that depend on these days - has anything changed in the 2-6 years since a lot of institutions made their first VLE choice? I'm very heartened at how non-commercial software is developing, but still, every VLE needs some quality competition - I hope Blackboard provides that. Very curious and wish I could see into the future. Best, Mira ***************** List information: ***************** Remember - replies go by default to the entire list. Access the list via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/vle.html To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with the message: leave vle ***************** List information: ***************** Remember - replies go by default to the entire list. Access the list via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/vle.html To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with the message: leave vle