E-Rate Eligibility

[vbresults]

If xF was E-Rate eligible, maybe more schools would pick it up.

Many educational institutions I have worked with are averse to acquiring paid forum software because of their "budget". This provides a solution!

Read more about it here.

 

[Erik]

If xF was E-Rate eligible, maybe more schools would pick it up.

Many educational institutions I have worked with are averse to acquiring paid forum software because of their "budget". This provides a solution!

Read more about it here.

It's only in the United States, and from what I've read on the Wikipedia page it just seems like a program to provide schools with subsidized basic connectivity and Internet Access. I don't see anywhere where it suggests the program would subsidize software;

Applicants must provide additional resources including end-user equipment (e.g., computers, telephones, etc.), software, professional development, and the other elements that are necessary to utilize the connectivity funded by the Schools and Libraries Program.

 

[vbresults]

An example of E-Rate eligible software: http://www.thinqed.com/services/erate.php (used to be called SchoolCenter for those who are familiar with it).

 

[Peggy]

Yeah the user has to provide the software. So this really doesn't apply.

 

[Erik]

An example of E-Rate eligible software: http://www.thinqed.com/services/erate.php (used to be called SchoolCenter for those who are familiar with it).

I don't know how they can do this, but I'm quoting the official website here:

The Schools and Libraries Program supports connectivity - the conduit or pipeline for communications using telecommunications services and/or the Internet. Funding is requested under four categories of service: telecommunications services, Internet access, internal connections, and basic maintenance of internal connections [note: software not listed -Erik]. Discounts for support depend on the level of poverty and the urban/rural status of the population served and range from 20% to 90% of the costs of eligible services. Eligible schools, school districts and libraries may apply individually or as part of a consortium.

Applicants must provide additional resources including end-user equipment (e.g., computers, telephones, etc.), software, professional development, and the other elements that are necessary to utilize the connectivity funded by the Schools and Libraries Program.

I think that pretty much says it all. Even if software was eligible, I don't think Kier and Mike would waste time going after this. Schools can either buy a license, or go with some other software.

 

[Ashley]

Of course we would like for as many people to love and use XenForo from all sectors, including educational institutes. The questions that are raised are who applies to the Universal Service Fund for a product to be E-Rate eligible, the educational institute or the provider. Our expertise lies in developing forum software, so I would say that the onus would be on the educational institute. The next question would be whether the resource required would justify the cost saving of the license. Then there is a whole discussion to be had about how averse they really are, and "budget" would be countered by "free forum software"!

 

[Floris]

Good and valid points Ashley Thanks for posting your point of view on this.

 

[Dean]

Of course we would like for as many people to love and use XenForo from all sectors, including educational institutes.

In general (not for the specific suggestion in this thread), it might be interesting to think about how to get software into the younger audiences such as schools. It worked for Apple fairly well.

I made a suggestion earlier to at least think about having a licensing arrangement friendly to hosting providers for people new to forums, to make it easy for them to get started. It might be possible to combine the 2 ideas and have a limited version (just one idea) for the educational institutions, run by the hosting companies, with them doing the tech support.
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/hosting-with-xenforo.998/#post-13389

One of the reasons I choose the hosting provider I choose, was because they offered hosting for free for non-profits, and I thought that was really nice of them. I assume they would only be providing a small limited hosting, but it made a difference to me.


I *really* want xf to succeed and hope the sales do not plateau.

 

[vbresults]

Of course we would like for as many people to love and use XenForo from all sectors, including educational institutes. The questions that are raised are who applies to the Universal Service Fund for a product to be E-Rate eligible, the educational institute or the provider. Our expertise lies in developing forum software, so I would say that the onus would be on the educational institute. The next question would be whether the resource required would justify the cost saving of the license. Then there is a whole discussion to be had about how averse they really are, and "budget" would be countered by "free forum software"!

If xF Ltd. reaches out to the educational institutes by applying for the Universal Service Fund, that puts it an additional two steps ahead of the competition. Which of the main competitors have done so, especially when the product launched? I understand that your expertise lies in developing forum software, so help will need to be called in to sort these things out; but the ends will almost certainly justify the means. There is no distinguished forum software in the educational community as of yet (at least not to my knowledge), and with xF Ltd. literally giving the licenses to reputable, high-quality forum software away, free forum software is not even considered. The main benefit I see in this is getting xF's name out to a very large sector.

 

[Erik]

You have to keep in mind, however, that free alternatives exist, and most schools wouldn't even know the difference. Even if XenForo was discounted, I don't think schools would spend the time to apply, wait, etc. when they could just go to any one of the free forum's and have something up and running in 10 minutes.

While I'm all for supporting educational institutions, I just don't think it's practical here, especially seeing as the software hasn't even launched yet are there are TONS of things that are probably much more important than this. It would be cool to see it in the future, though.

 

[vbresults]

You have to keep in mind, however, that free alternatives exist, and most schools wouldn't even know the difference. Even if XenForo was discounted, I don't think schools would spend the time to apply, wait, etc. when they could just go to any one of the free forum's and have something up and running in 10 minutes.

While I'm all for supporting educational institutions, I just don't think it's practical here, especially seeing as the software hasn't even launched yet are there are TONS of things that are probably much more important than this. It would be cool to see it in the future, though.

Even if the software has not launched, this suggestion was practical and important enough to reply to three times.