free software promotion and local status

[Paul Sutton]

In response to the thead
Fridays for Free Software ;)

I am going to try and share a few thoughts from my own experiences.

I tried to approach people such as digital unite in the UK, who are
working to bridge the digital divide by developing digital skills.

They work on a set curriculum on how to use digital kit, use the
Internet, use e-mail, social media etc,  and this is set by people above
them and funded by government.

The issue is that they teach proprietary  software,  but at the same
time business is using this.  There is little traction to move from
that, and little incentive to move from that,  despite the skills
shortage for Linux admins for example.

These courses are pushing people towards Microsoft, and Facebook (which
I refuse to use Facebook on privacy and ethical grounds)

There is however the learning machine who offer ingots (ITQ) using free
and open source software, but unless the trainers are taught to use this

The problem, here and on user groups, is people don't exactly need
training in say Libreoffice so don't ask for it, new users wanting to
learn may not ask or if they do they get told MS Office is standard, we
don't offer Libreoffice courses.

I am not sure what the solution is here.

Paul
-- 
Paul Sutton
http://www.zleap.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zleap/
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