New CoSN Leadership Initiative to Promote Open Technologies
IBM and Hewlett Foundation Support “K-12 Open Technologies Initiative” for District Leaders and Education Policymakers

Ted Richane
The Fratelli Group
202.822.9491
trichane@fratelli.com

For IBM:
Colleen Stroh
703.244.5467
CStroh@brodeur.com

For the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation:
Eric Brown
650.234.4500 x5743
ebrown@hewlett.org

Washington, DC (March 7, 2006) – The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) launched its latest leadership initiative today at its annual K-12 School Networking Conference. The “K-12 Open Technologies Initiative” – co-sponsored by the IBM Corporation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation – is designed to increase understanding and awareness of open technologies, including open source software, open standards to ensure interoperability, and hardware devices using open source operating systems.

“Open technology resources can be a key factor in maximizing the value of district hardware and software investments, yet too many education leaders are in the dark,” said Jim Hirsch, Board Liaison to CoSN’s K-12 Open Technology Initiative, and Associate Superintendent for Technology, Plano ISD, Texas. “By better understanding the applications of these technologies, education leaders will be better positioned to manage their districts and educate their students.”

Open technologies include a broad array of open source software such as operating systems, applications and content that is available with no or few licensing restrictions. In addition, the term refers to software development utilizing commonly accepted interoperability standards and to any hardware devices that make use of open source operating systems.

"Look at the Internet to see how open technologies can stimulate innovation and economic development," said Sean Rush, General Manager, IBM Global Education Industry. "In school districts, open technologies will increase access to education, improve interoperability, and allow more applications to be developed and adopted more quickly, easily and economically. Students, educators, administrators and communities will benefit. We in IBM value our relationship with CoSN and look forward to working with other companies and educators on open technologies. We’re glad to support the consortium’s latest leadership initiative for open technologies, which IBM regards as crucial for helping students and schools achieve the innovation required by the 21st century economy."

“The Hewlett Foundation has been investing in Open Educational Resources over the past five years,” stated Marshall S. Smith, Program Director for Education. “We are delighted to support CoSN’s leadership efforts to promote the use of open content and open technologies to improve efficiencies and quality throughout the K-12 system.”

According to CoSN’s April 2005 Primer on Open Technologies in K-12, open technologies and standards:

• Allow educators to pick one or more standards-compliant applications and know that they will all work together without a lot of customization;
• Permit school districts to mix and match proprietary software with open source applications; and
• Enable the sharing of data between applications, which eliminates redundant data entry and increases data integrity, security and privacy of information.

Further, hardware devices using open standards and operating systems are making significant inroads into consumer products all the way up to enterprise level routing equipment.

Through research and outreach, the new Open Technologies Initiative will explore different open source technology applications, analyze the total cost of ownership (TCO) and value of investment (VOI) of open technologies in learning environments, and share lessons learned from educators in the United States and around the world who have succeeded with open technologies. The initiative will initially produce:

• An International Symposium on Open Technologies: Issues, Exemplary Practices and Future Directions in Education at The World Bank in Washington (March 8-9, 2006), featuring leaders in the open source movement for K-12 from around the world. Keynote speakers include Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Martin Dougiamas, founder of Moodle, two prominent open content and course management systems used in education;
• A webcast on Open Technologies in Education on April 19 from 1-2pm ET (details here);
• For educators interested in open technologies, CoSN will be launching a new Web site this summer, the initiative’s “first-stop” web location providing ready access to resources most applicable in the K-12 school environment; and
• A free quarterly e-newsletter on open technologies.

The initiative’s founding sponsors are the IBM Corporation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, with additional sponsors soon to be announced. Michael Jay and Shaun Taylor of Educational Systemics are the project’s co-directors.

"The dynamics around technology integration in K-12 education represents a fine balance between efficacy, ease of implementation, and cost. With the help of an advisory team of education leaders, we have designed an aggressive program to engage this community in exploring how Open Technologies impact that balance," says Michael Jay, Project Director and President of Educational Systemics.

“This is a unique opportunity for U.S. education leaders to learn what much of the rest of the world already knows: open technologies provide great opportunity for the world of education,” added Shaun Taylor, Project Coordinator and Educational Systemics Research Associate. “We’re excited to explore the educational and technical implications of Open Technologies in K-12.”

About the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) is the country’s premier voice in education technology leadership with a mission to serve as the national organization for K-12 technology leaders who use technology strategically to ultimately improve teaching and learning. CoSN provides products and services to support and nurture leadership development, advocacy, coalition building, and awareness of emerging technologies.

CoSN leadership initiatives include: Accessible Technologies for All Students (www.accessibletech4all.org); Cyber Security for the Digital District (www.securedistrict.org); Data-Driven Decision Making (www.3d2know.org); Safeguarding the Wired Schoolhouse (www.safewiredschools.org); Taking Total Cost of Ownership to the Classroom (www.classroomtco.org); and the development of the Council of School District Chief Technology Officers (CTO Council).

CoSN’s membership includes a unique blend of education and technology leaders, policy makers, and influencers from the public and private sectors. Our audience includes key technology leaders (often called Chief Technology Officers—CTOs) in leading-edge states and districts, policy makers, private sector leaders, as well as those technology leaders who wish to accelerate their districts’ or states’ systemic technology use. Visit www.cosn.org or phone 866.267.8747 to find out more about CoSN’s programs and activities supporting leadership development to ensure that information technology has a direct and positive impact on student learning in elementary and secondary schools.

About IBM</p>

IBM, the world’s largest consulting, services and information technology company, helps improve education throughout the world. For more than 80 years, IBM people and solutions have been helping schools and institutions of higher education innovate for greater achievement, productivity and accountability. Working with business partners, IBM draws on its world-class portfolio of services, software and hardware solutions to help clients realize the full potential of their technology investments. For information about IBM’s solutions and experience in education, please visit: www.ibm.com/education. For information on partnering with IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com/partnerworld.

About the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, www.hewlett.org, has been making grants since 1966 to help solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, environment, global development, performing arts, philanthropy, population, and makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. A full list of all the Hewlett Foundation’s grants can be found at www.hewlett.org/grants.