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The Free and Open Productivity Suite
Released: Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15

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Pro-Tem Lead: Louis Suárez-Potts

News

We have created a new education project focused on development; it complements this one, whose goal is the usage of OpenOffice.org in schools. If you would like to participate, go to the Education Development Project. This project incorporates the University Education Project.

Old News..

Dover Grammar School Moves from MS Schools agreement to GNU/Linux and OpenOffice.org

Schoolforge-UK reports that Dover Grammar School is making good progress with their transition to GNU/Linux and OpenOffice.org.

A Case Study: Wilmslow High School

An interesting and brief account of one school's switch.


History

As part of the project's Third Anniversary, OpenOffice.org initiated an education push, led by Ian Lynch. The result was this project, which focuses on getting OpenOffice.org to be used in schools throughout the world.

Participation

OpenOffice.org may be used free of charge in any setting. Support is also available, if you like. Because the application, which is a sophisticated office suite, communicates well with Microsoft Office and even saves files in that format, there is little reason to continue with MS Office. Try OpenOffice.org: it's free, there is no obligation.

To download it, go to http://download.openoffice.org/ . All platforms and languages are supported.

You can also download an OpenOffice.org CD-ROM ISO image from the CD-ROM ISO Images, make CDs and start your own revolution. Install it at home or at your school, providing you get the right permission. Encourage your friends to use it; pass it along via P2P networks. There are no license fees, no license obligations; there is no fear, only freedom.

If your school is doing anything interesting with OpenOffice.org, produce a short case study and email it to our primary list, educ@marketing.openoffice.org. You need to be subscribed to post. Get some free publicity for your school on one of the busiest websites on Earth!


Winner of OpenOffice.org School Mascot Competition Announced

The recently established Schools Project of OpenOffice.org has a mascot. The happy winner of the competition is Andrea Maggioni, whose cheerful drawing, of a fun-looking seagull holding a fish, plays on the "OOo" shorthand of OpenOffice.org and was chosen out of dozens of submissions by students throughout the world.

According to Ian Lynch, the former lead of the Schools Project, "Andrea's contribution is not only beautiful and effective but also illustrates the potential of young people to contribute importantly to real projects under the banner of Free and Open Source Software. The idea is to learn by working together on projects such as OpenOffice.org whose license allows free collaboration across borders and between schools. We invite all educators and students to consider involving themselves in OpenOffice.org."

For more insight into Andrea, see our interview.

OOo school mascot

 

Objectives of OOoEdu (Marketing) Project

Teach

One way to go about this is to take the initiative and inform people of the project and its goals. See our About Us page for more information.

Inform

This simply requires contacting schools and providing factual information. For instance:

There is a free office suite they can download from www.openoffice.org and there are sources of supply on CD-ROM for nominal media costs. The software is designed for easy migration from MS Office and has a high degree of file compatibility with it. The software has functions of significant value to education that go beyond those found in MS Office. (i.e. the ability to save in Portable Document Format (PDF) and a powerful drawing and design program.

The method of contacting the schools will depend on local organisation. In some cases it will be just a matter of talking to a friend or relative who works in a particular school, in others it might be possible to contact the administration responsible for a group of schools. Remember one school contacted is better than no schools contacted, so don't assume that if you can't do a lot it's not worthwhile. Every little bit helps.

Give

Because there are no license issues, one can use P2P, downloads, or CDROMs to disseminate the application. Give it away and encourage others to do the same.

Grow

OpenOffice.org is a community project, and that means that students and teachers can participate in the making of the product and its advertisement. If you want to help with making the product, visit the Education Development Project. But students may also:


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