Student Administrative Software for Unix? 31
MISplice asks: "I have been searching for a Linux alternative to SASIxp which is a student administrative databse for K-12 schools (it does grades, schdeuling, and holds demographic and medical data). I have found the OpenSIS project which seems to be on hiatus and never past the implementation stages. Does anyone know of such a product or project that is under development? If not does anyone know if these types of products will work under WINE?" Have there been any new developments in this area since this article from 2000?
Interesting concept (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Interesting concept (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd love to see some open source limited market application software projects. There aren't many, for this reason: This type of application software needs domain experts and programmers. Ideally, if the domain expert is also a programmer, you'll get the best software. A talented programmer who is also a domain expert and wants to build open source software is a rare bird indeed. Add to that the immense commitment required for all but the simplest application programs, and you see why limited market application programs are not open source.
Re:Interesting concept (Score:1)
Re:Interesting concept (Score:3, Insightful)
support staff and a recurring service charge.
I tried to sell such a project (open source scheduling/
grading) to the local public school service co-op,
but they wouldn't fund it. I went to the Minnesota
department of childhood families and learning, and
they *loved* my demo and prototype, which included
9 man-months of effort invested in collecting the
local and state-wide graduation standards to allow
students to see what they needed and how they were
progressing towards graduation while they selected
their classes, but they weren't interested in
funding it either.
Really, this is a gold-mine opportunity for an ASP
start-up. I've got the experience and even a lot of
the code and data to do it, but I don't have the bizdev acumen to make this fly. If you're an angel
investor tired of dot-com flim-flam and want to
do something that really helps people as well as
making money hand-over-fist, give me a buzz.
Re:Interesting concept (Score:1)
Re:i recommend Linux (Score:1)
Re:i recommend Linux (Score:2, Insightful)
Bessie the Annhilator (Score:2, Informative)
Do they? (Score:1)
Re:Do they? (Score:1)
Colleges (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Colleges (Score:1)
Re:Colleges (Score:2)
If it doesn't have to be open source... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:If it doesn't have to be open source... (Score:1)
Just build it yourself. (Score:2)
Re:Just build it yourself. (Score:3, Insightful)
Obviously, you've never used a product like SASIxp, or worked in a K-12 school district for that matter. These are incredibly complex packages that handle everything from student records to financial records. In addition, they store the kind of information that allows state and federal mandated reports to be generated, and can generate those reports in the exact manner required.
You're also assuming that the poster is a developer, or has such skills.
I have looked into this... (Score:2, Insightful)
If you can find several developers that understand what School Administrators need and enjoy hacking on this kind of software for free in their spare time, I would love to meet them. I would love to contribute to such a project but after following the OpenSIS devel lists for a while, it became inrcreasingly clear that the requirements are huge for such software. It requires people with a lot of intimate knowledge of state reporting requirements for each individual state, intelligent scheduling functions, information security, and still be simple to use.
I dislike the pricing, support costs, and vendor lock, and bugs of SASIxp, but it really is not a trivial task to replace this software with an free software alternative.
Re:I have looked into this... (Score:1)
Re:I have looked into this... (Score:1)
There is just so few alternatives for a comprehensive student management package. There doesn't exist a free software alternative, but as I and others have already mentioned, the incentive to create niche software of this kind as free software could only really be done by those with the knowledge of what schools need.
Re:I have looked into this... (Score:1)
A little More information (Score:2, Informative)
School admin software (Score:1)
http://www.cotcomsol.com/byteworks2.sql
I know nothing at it per se, except that it was written by a competant programmer.
Open Source SIS (Score:1)