With the focus of our group's proposal a little off track, some of the research I've already conducted won't apply to our slightly shifted topic. The focus is now on the general IT needs of educational institutions (both small and large scale), and the white paper's decision focuses on what software solutions are viable and at what costs. Most schools today use closed source, commercial software, and have had great success, but others are finding value in open source and other free software. We want to present the case for both sides, and in several areas of software including operating systems, and word/office processing suites. The paper will be catered to the audience of school board directors; those who are in charge of decisions concerning IT funding. We want to educate this type reader on this topic, so IT costs can be controlled, while still offering powerful IT advantages to students and faculty.
The research I'm going to conduct will involve cost analysis of different software solutions for educational use. How expensive is the licensing for Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft Office, and will those costs rise in the future? What is the total cost of ownership of Windows based systems versus Linux or BSD based systems? Does total cost of ownership rise or lower between Windows and Linux systems based on scale? These are all important questions for school board directors to ask when considering software packages for hundreds or thousands of machines on their network. Our white paper needs to address these types of cost and scaling problems so board directors can make the right decision for their institution.
The plan to conduct this research will involve significant use of the internet. Most of these questions regarding cost can be located by searching vendor specific websites like Microsoft. Others like total cost of ownership will probably have to be estimated, and will need expert IT testimony. I plan to keep this information in a digital format, and organized in a central location on Google Docs. This way my group can access any of my research, and could even add to it if they locate anything while performing their own research in other areas.
Audience and Research
I like that your group is shifting towards a more specific audience. However, for the benefit of your research plan, and the white paper, you still need a more specific audience. Schools both large and small is a huge audience that you cannot possible satisfy. You need to at least pick between large and small. You then need to consider the level of the school: grade school, high school, trade school, college or university. You cannot possible conduct tailored research with the audience you have currently identified.
Note: you need to be sure to incorporate the assigned readings into these reading reports. There is no other way to determine if you have done the assigned readings.
Revisions
The most common thing that I’ve seen in the posts this week, much like in yours and mine, is a reference to how each group is altering and/or refining their topic. This is to be expected, to some degree, since the instructors provide feedback for improvement but I had assumed that would mostly involve revising the individual aspects relating to the topic, and not the topic all together. The most common change, however, seems to concern the target audience. For instance, both of our groups have changed whom we intend to target with this white paper. I believe, though, that you will likely undergo at least one more revision there, as in your post you suggest that you will target “both small and large scale” educational institutions. As Nathaniel has commented before me here, and similarly in the feedback on my group’s proposal, “you still need a more specific audience. Schools both large and small is a huge audience that you cannot possibly satisfy.” After reading his feedback, we could clearly see why choosing such a broad audience would prove difficult and detrimental, so we elected to target only small organizations with ours.
Organizing Research
I like your idea here about keeping all of your information in digital format. I always keep my research information on the computer, in a word document. However, for this project my group decided that we would all share our research information on google docs. I think this is a great idea because now we can all see the amount and quality of research that each member has completed. Since we are all researching slightly varied topics, it will also make it possible for us to share sites that might have a wealth of information that other members could use to aid their research. This will also make it easier to write research blogs, individual activity reports, group activity reports, and final group reviews, by just looking back at what has been accomplished.
Cost of Open Source Software
I am not sure if you are aware of this but I would like to make some points about the cost of open source software. Many people think it is superior simply because it is free whereas commercial software costs money. Although this seems like a slam-dunk case for open source software there are several points that people often miss. There have been many case studies shown that open source software is harder to manage, so although the software itself is free, organizations using this software have to pay more to personnel in charge of keeping the operating systems and software running smoother. Another major concern is that open source software does not come with a support agreement. Corporations thrive on having reliable and fast support that can resolve their problems before they cost the corporation large amounts of monetary damage from down time or malfunctions. Some companies such as Red Hat and Novel provide support for open source software but that support costs a lot. When taking these support costs into consideration, the price of open source software is actually quite comparable to many of the purely commercial alternatives.
I think it would be great if you explore this more and include it in your white paper.