Schooltool, the open source schools administration project started by the Shuttleworth Foundation, has been in limbo since its suspension almost three months ago. Development on the project, written in Java and originally planned to have a version 1.0 release in July, has come to a standstill while the foundation looks for potential developers to take on the project.
Foundation marketing and communications manager Kim Vosse says a decision was taken earlier this year to stop in-house development on the project and to make it available to the public with the hope that someone else would take it up. She adds that the organisation is still committed to the project but needs to concentrate on its role as a funding agency.
In a letter sent out to interested parties earlier this year, the organisation wrote that the foundation was essentially a funding organisation and not a software development house. "Therefore the skills of the staff relate to evaluation and funding of proposals in the education arena and not to developing and managing a full-scale software program.
"Schooltool was only one of the projects that the foundation was working on. However, it was taking up an inappropriate amount of time and restricted the team from carrying out other functions. The foundation in its present form just does not have the capacity to continue with the design and development of Schooltool."
Vosse says the organisation is looking into a number of proposals for the future of Schooltool but nothing has been decided. The foundation will most likely continue to fund the future development of the project, although this is not guaranteed.
There are many hurdles to the future of Schooltool, and Vosse says there is every likelihood that Schooltool will be just part of the overall solution.
Another hurdle may well be the original decision to develop the tool in full-blown J2EE (Java2 Enterprise Edition). Thomas Black, technical co-ordinator at the foundation, says the use of J2EE may have been "overkill" and the overheads may be too high for its role in education.
Black says at the time of its suspension, many of the components for Schooltool were in place although a complete and working tool is not available. Full source code and documentation for Schooltool is available from the foundation.
The foundation also recently sent out a request for new proposals for open source education projects. The organisation already sponsors the set-up of Linux-based computer labs in schools as well as a translation project that translates desktop Linux software into indigenous languages.
In its appeal for new proposals, the organisation writes that it intends "to promote open source software primarily through the funding of innovative new projects. We look to invest in well-researched initiatives that can make a significant difference to South African schools and education."
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