[OS:N:] OSCON and OS Eduction BoF

[OpenSourceFan <opensource whitenitro com>]

Hello All -

I was wondering if anyone was going to the Open Source conference in 
Portland OR next week.

I am new to the Open Source community but have 20+ years designing 
educational software and I am very interested in learning about success 
stories in K-12 using OS solutions.

As a method to learn more, I suggested to the O'Reilly crew running the 
conference that they offer a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session on Open 
Source and Education.  Here is the blurb I submitted:

"With K-12 schools chronically short of funding and Open Source 
solutions being largely 'free', why have OS solutions not taken over 
the high school environment?  Is it lack of understanding or the 
traditional worries of support?
How are Open Sources operating systems, tools and applications 
currently being used in high schools and colleges beyond the 
traditional LAMP server uses?  Macintosh and Wintel computers fill most 
high school labs but there are success stories for OS solutions.  What 
are they and how can we get the word out?  Come and share your 
successes, failures and hopes for the future."

After having submitted this suggestion, and having it accepted and 
scheduled, had the horrible, sinking feeling that people might show up 
expecting *me* to know something or at least be able to open the 
discussion with some basic facts, URLs, etc.

Panic.

So, I am wondering if anyone who actually knows something or has 
stories to relate might be going to OSCON or, barring that, can this 
group point me to web sites, provide sources for statistics, stories, 
etc that I could study over the weekend to get a crash course in what 
is happening nationally.

Key questions that would be great to get the collective wisdom of this 
group to jump start a discussion next week include:
1) What is an estimate for the percentage of machines in K-12 schools 
that are running Open Source solutions?
2) What are the top 3 reasons that OS systems are not more widely 
adopted?
3) Would people be interested in contributing chapters to a book if we 
could find a publisher interested in releasing a book about the 
subject?

Here are some resources already on my list (but please let me know what 
I haven't included):
http://www.redhat.com/opensourcenow/intro.html
http://www.netc.org/openoptions/
http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html
http://www.k12ltsp.org/
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6349
http://baldwinets.tripod.com/linux.html
http://www.schoolforge.net/
http://www.osef.org/
http://www.k12os.org/
http://www.opentextbook.org/

Any and all advice greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance for any 
help.  Apologies in advance for cross posting this on k12osn redhat com 
and open-source-now-list redhat com 

Bryant Patten
White Nitro, LLC