it's B! Cavello 🐝
At #MozFest2025, Simona Levi ( @X_net) shares about “de-Googling” schools through open source. She talks about how even when people are given free devices with #OpenSource software… they still go for big tech.
“We need to compete on #UserExperience”
Nov 9 at 2:05pmWeb
Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 9

@X_net #BigTech was on the defensive. As soon as they began the process to assert #DigitalRights in schools, they were accused of trying to extract $ from the schools.

“Everybody knows free software makes you so rich” 😹💀😭

(They are not. They initiated a public tender process, not making any money off of it.)

Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 9

@X_net Meanwhile, the technology is being selected without a public tender process AT ALL!

A 2014 EU directive requires tenders be made small & individual, not big bundles, trying to make it possible for small firms to compete.

The map shows the distribution 10y later. (Green is not 100%, the highest is 50%)

NO ONE is adhering to the directive. Across the board, tenders are made HUGE and impossible to be fulfilled by local vendors. Only big multinationals can deliver these oversized tenders.

Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 9

@X_net Something that may be under-utilized in #TechProcurement is that you don’t have to always just do the cheapest. You can have other criteria (gender equity, privacy, etc.)

Writing the tenders FOR the policymakers may be a way to make it easier for them. We can’t let #BigTech (or more accurately #BigAdvertizing) write the rules of the game.
#MakeItEasyToDoTheRightThing

Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 9

@X_net I got to ask Simona about how most “#EdTech software” is not actually just software, but it’s SaaS. It’s a subscription with customer support. #OSS, even if we have great #UX (which is still a work in progress), software alone isn’t a full substitute.

Simona talks about how that is a place where we DO need the government to step up. The software can be free and open, it can be maintained by all of us, but the government funds should go toward providing these services.

Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 9
@X_net “We are not telling them they have to stop with Google,” says Simona. We are only asking for a pilot. We have a public tender. We just want to give people an OPTION to go with some alternative to #BigAds.
Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 9
@X_net Something that I found surprising in the discussion is the difference between “single sign-on” vs having a more unified platform. Recreating the Google ecosystem in a way that people can seamlessly switch requires REALLY making things seamless. Not just stapling together a bunch of open source tools, but proactively creating a unified experience.
Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 9
For those interested in learning more about #DD or #DemocraticDigitalisation for #Education from @X_net
https://xnet-x.net/en/introducing-dd-tool-democratic-digitalisation-education/ #DigitalizaciónDemocrática
Introducing DD: a tool for the Democratic Digitalisation of Education

DD: an agile, auditable and interoperable public-code tool for the Democratic Digitalisation of Education.

Xnet - Internet freedoms & digital rights
Show threadRuud SteltenpoolNov 12
@b_cavello @X_net Even the most basic tools, often still very much like the paper counterparts they originate from, have not done a fundamental redesign other than a UX-reshuffling or a complexity raising band-aid on problems that came up, or did I just miss them in my Big Tech 😡 context?
Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Nov 13
@steltenpower @X_net I’m not sure I understand 😅🙈 could you rephrase?
Show threadRuud SteltenpoolNov 13
@b_cavello @X_net Agenda-centered: https://social.edu.nl/@steltenpower/115536186408406654 Or meaning-in-data-centered: https://communities.surf.nl/en/regie-op-data/article/fair-data-too-little-too-late-unless etc.
Ruud Steltenpool (@[email protected])

Inboxes are technically 'infinite', but humans do (roughly) 1 thing at a time, at 1 location at a time. While faces&places (much more bandwidth than scr+cam+keyb) are very important in structuring our thoughts and memories and sense of time (and belonging), a range of applications (and vendors deciding on data models and UX) scatter what we plan, travel, do, communicate, document, and log in systems or uncreative office spaces. Reply with ideas for putting our TIME and usability really central?

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