SchoolTool: Defining Our Niche in the Open Source Architecture of Schools

Abstract – A well designed and documented open source student information system would benefit schools around the world. A common open infrastructure for student data would facilitate a new layer of innovation in how data is accessed by stakeholders, used by complimentary applications, visualized and interpreted by educators. The utility is clear, yet as of 2005, no such freely available system has emerged. The relative simplicity of creating small custom systems, combined with the risk and expense of creating and deploying large enterprise systems, have worked against the spontaneous creation of an open source development community for a student information system. SchoolTool is an ambitious project funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation which aims to fill this key niche in the open source architecture of schools