Currently the existing educational open source initiatives are dispersed on a local, national, European and international level, as well as being spread throughout all educational levels and systems. There is no comprehensive overview on the state of the art identifying which of the initiatives could be applied to the school level. As a result, many viable existing efforts are not exploited.

In addition to development opportunities based on open source software and the use of GNU/Linux on the desktops and servers in educational establishments, there are many other issues at the stake, such as the use of free-of-charge educational software, localisation of software for small language groups, greater levels of accessibility, fighting piracy, spending public money wisely and creating new service and local job opportunities. Also, development of open content educational material and other web-based resources presents interesting opportunities for sharing and reusing content. This paper outlines all the above mentioned issues.

You can download the document from the url below:
http://www.eun.org/insight-pdf/special_reports/Why_Europe_needs_foss_Insight_2004.pdf