Peter Rock Lacroix, a technology coordinator and teacher at a small international school in west Africa gives the background about the school being told to reverse it’s decision to move to Free Software (which was decided unanimously by the school’s Technology Committee) after “numerous recommendations forthcoming from the US Embassy, the State Department, and technology professionals involved in providing services to international schools worldwide”.
It’s interesting how an unanimous decision by a small school in west Africa gets overturned by the influence of, wait…the US Embassy and State Department – not the school’s director but by some other sovereign state.
[ http://gnuosphere.blogspot.com/2006/06/jonathan-kozol-hates-microsoft.html]
This reminds me of the President of Peru being invited to visit Bill Gates after Peruvian legislators approved a bill sanctioning use of open source software by government and levelling the playing field for start-ups against Microsoft.
[ http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,54141,00.html , http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/07/16/peru_mulls_free_software_gates/]
The interference of the US and Microsoft [so Microsoft gets to retain a monopoly] in particular with the internal affairs of sovereign states is most vexing.
And to sum it off? Peter was told “you need to refrain from placing undue focus on your personal beliefs concerning the philosophy and practice of Microsoft.”
“It’s interesting how an unanimous decision by a small school in west Africa gets overturned by, wait…the US Embassy and State Department – not the school’s director but by some other sovereign state.”
Ultimately, it was the director’s decision which was – according to the letter I received – influenced by confidential discussions with “US Embassy” and “State Department” employees.