Hi all,

It is a very important topic for us too in Hungary.

10 years ago the lock-in process has been very similar in Hungary:

1. The state has bought a central educational online system which only worked on MS platform. 2. Next year MS declared to the ministry that they have to be payed as the central system is MS based 3. In 2001 the ministry of education signed School&Campus for the whole sector 4. Result: Vendor lock-in for 10 years, all free softwares has been droped out 5. In the past couple of years we (Open SKM - FSF Hungary - ODFA Hungary) had many (more or less unsuccessful) campaign against MS vendor locks. 6. After 10 years we are near to convince the government to end MS vendor lock-in.

I strongly believe that certain and long term changes are now achievable via Europe wide activities.

This could be a good time to start a European/cross nation campaign for free softwares and open software standards in the public sector (education, administration).

Best, Peter Szakal

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "Matthias Kirschner" mk@fsfe.org To: discussion@fsfeurope.org Sent: Monday, November 7, 2011 10:52:33 AM Subject: Dutch government hands over education's keys to Microsoft

We started a campaign in the Netherlands:

The Dutch government wants to tie the country's schools to a single software vendor for years to come. Dutch students using Free Software or devices without Silverlight-support will find themselves locked out of schools' online systems due to the use of proprietary technology and closed standards. Marja Bijsterveldt, the secretary of education, recently said that she is unwilling to enforce the Dutch government's own Open Standards policy on educational institutions. Instead, the government will accept long-term vendor lock-in of educational institutions.

Full PR: https://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20111107-01.en.html Campaign page: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/nledu/nledu.en.html

Regards, Matthias