Open Source and URMANT
URMANT has now been successfully running for a year at Rainham Mark Grammar School, I recently had a meeting with the key users of the system to feedback on how it went. The positive comments were quite overwhelming, which highlights the fact that this system is most definitely something other schools will be interested in using. I've already had interest from a number of other schools in the area.
So the question then is, do I charge for it? I've been paid for part of my development time at RMGS, but it is my project, not the school's. A lot of time has gone into the project, that would make me quite justified in selling it, but the perhaps more moral side of me keeps thinking something like this should really be an Open Source project.
A number of options present themselves, I could make it open source, but our education system isn't renowned for its support of the open source movement, in fact fantastic systems like Moodle are discouraged for use in schools by BECTA for not being a profit-making enterprise. The other obvious downside to the open source option is that I'm not directly compensated for the project, which will inevitable discourage me from developing it further. Donations and sponsorship are feasible, but I don't know how much that would actually lead to.
The other option is to charge, I don't want to fleece schools for the project (indirectly, my taxes would be paying for it anyway) but I'm sure a one-off fee could be negotiated that entitled schools to the project and subsequent revisions and upgrades. My only concern with this option is that selling a project, rather than giving it away tends to give the client the impression they can rely on the supplier for support. Whilst bug reports and the suchlike would be warmly welcomed, I don't want to find myself bombarded with requests about how to set up mysql servers, how to run apache and php, etc. Working as a technician in a school I know how many other schools just don't have the skills to set things like these up, which leads to the outsourcing to corporate entities and rail-roads schools into huge fees for second rate systems (*cough* RM *cough* SIMS )
The other option I've been toying with is to host a single meta-URMANT on my own web host. Schools would then pay a yearly subscription to this system. That way, URMANT itself could stay open source (I wouldn't prevent schools from setting their own URMANT systems up stand alone from mine), but I could still charge for it, as it would be the service that I am charging for. For the schools, this removes the need for their in-house people to be knowledgeable in the services required for URMANT to run. For me, this would mean I would have to maintain this URMANT, and probably for some time to come. I would have to be sure I could guarantee this service, and should anything disastrous happen this could leave me liable, which as a poor student with lots of other things to do wouldn't be so great.
Well those are my options, and I'm not quite sure where to go from here. Your thoughts are appreciated...
19 Tomorrow!
I'm about to enter my last year as a teenager! Where does the time go?
I'm also clueless as to what I want for my birthday, over the last 18 years I seem to have been slowly accumulating everything I want and I'm now reaching saturation point. The only thing left really is a laptop, and I'm beginning to wonder whether that's really such a great thing to get anyway.
I mean, really, the only use I can see for it will be at Uni - so I can take notes on it without having to go back to those old fashioned pen-and-pencil-and-paper-thingies (and that's not entirely just sheer laziness, digitalised notes are much more useful!) - but, is a laptop really all that great for taking notes on? In my experience not so. Firstly its bulky - even the slimline 12" models still require a certain amount of desk (or knee) space. Secondly, while I can type a lot faster than I can write, I can't diagram or scribble faster on a laptop than pen-and-paper.
So... get a tablet computer? Still doesn't really deal with the bulkiness issue, and much more importantly its the cost. Decent ones seem to start at around £1000, and that's a little out of my league at the moment!
What I need is middle ground... and the Samsung Q1 looks like it could provide just that. Its a 7" UltraMobile tablet computer, and whilst its raw performance specifications aren't all amazing, if its just being used to take notes, ssh-client, surf the web, play solitaire, etc, does it need to be high performance?
The price is reasonable too, about £550 + VAT for the lower model with 512MB RAM and a 40GB HDD, or £650 + VAT for the model with 1GB RAM and a 60GB HDD.
But do I really need it? Or do I just want it because its a shiny gadget? I could get a budget laptop for £300 + VAT, cheaper if I really shopped around, do I really need this thing? Why, also, is it the only product like it on the market? If its such a great device why aren't Dell, Sony, HP, etc selling similar devices?
I do want an iPhone though, I just can't have one yet 
Doh
So when my car last broke (ok, crashed..) I had a tricky call to make. Spend £200 fixing it, hope its fixed enough to pass its next MOT and hope it stays fixed. Alternatively, I could get shot of it whilst it still had some value and take advantage of a momentary high point in my finances and buy a new car.
I made the wrong decision.
Today, at approximately 7:50 and whilst driving through the Medway Tunnel, the head gasket went. Now we can attempt to fix it ourselves, probably costing in the region of £100, or send it to a garage and get it fixed for around £1000... The car's current value? About £50 for scrap.
I guess its time to learn how an engine works then.
Decisions!
Why are there so many decisions in life? Which is the right one to take? How do I know it’s the right one?
I feel a bit swamped in decisions at the moment. Some are more important than others - but the most important decision is what to do about my future career. I have a fairly clear idea of where I want to be in the future, but its how to get there that's causing the problems.
- "The Lacey": Finish gap year at RMGS, take up my deferred place at
- "The Martin": Make it two gap years; there’s more money, more experience, more savings, and more lessons in life. But does that mean living at home for yet another year? In theory I could move out and rent; but that seems a waste of those precious savings for uni. On the other hand it gives me more time to focus on the URMANT project, which may prove to be a lucrative venture.
- Stick with RMGS until I find a better job; don't bother with Uni. Trouble with that is that I'm going for a career in Software Development, and my job at RMGS is more general ICT Support/Management. That said, there is URMANT - but I can't base my whole career on that! All the time I'm with RMGS I can be doing courses and things which might put me in a better position to get another job later. I could even do a part time/Open University degree.
- Today I got a tip about two Software Engineering posts going for a firm my cousin's fiancée works for. I don't have many details, but it could be a first step on the ladder. On the other hand, it sounds like a small company, the website is unimpressive and its developments don't sound all that exciting. So, this might end up being more of a limiting environment. On top of this, its in
- "The Keith" : Investigate sponsorship/Apprenticeship further. Either working for a company who will gain me equivalent qualifications to a degree, or one who will sponsor me through university with the promise of a job at the end.
All of these options have their individual merits, uni obviously has huge advantages. There’s the bit of paper, despite all the experience and skills I have its completely worthless without the bit of paper. Indeed a bit of paper from no less than The University of Durham. £6000 a year though? Is the bit of paper worth £20,000? As for RMGS, its a great experience and I love being there - but would I be frittering time taking another gap year?
Any thoughts warmly welcomed!
Then there’s what to do about my car... but that’s a whole different story.
Musings on my first week of work...
As of Tuesday I am now officially employed by Rainham Mark Grammar School, and will be for at least the next thirteen months. Its really happening!
I can't begin to express how odd it is to work for the school - to be a member of staff. There are the obvious differences between staff and students (I get paid to be there, for one), but then there's the things you might not think of; like using the staff toilets (I don't even know where most of them are), parking inside the gates (saving me at least 50m on my walk from the car to school), and ... weirdest of all - calling people by their first names! There's also a feeling that I'm being treated differently, I can't identify quite what it is, but I think its that we're now talking on a level, rather than me being looked down on for being "just a student".
Obviously at the moment things are a little different because there are very few teachers in, mainly support staff. the hours are shorter and everything is a little more relaxed. However, once everyone comes back in September and the existing technicians leave me and Sam behind it'll be interesting to see how I cope with the "weirdness".
All of this does open an interesting moral question too. With the rest of my year group heading off into the Big Wide World (or Uni...) my friendships in year 12 are ever more important. But is that "allowed"? Arguably I'm not in a considerable "position of authority" over the students, but theoretically I could be - and I've been Police checked for that very reason. So do I continue seeing these people out of school as after all they were my friends before I became an employee of the school, or distance myself? The former does carry with it risks, but the latter is unfair on both parties. Hmmmmmm