Re: [edu-eu] RFC - FSFE activity "education"

[gerhard . oettl]

Hello everybody

Guido Arnold schrieb:
> Hello,
>
> here are some more thoughts:
>
> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 01:23:28PM +0200, Thomas Jensch wrote:
>
> > 4) European network of "Free Software in education" projects and initiatives
>
> Does anybody have a list of projects and initiatives? Maybe we can
> start a collection in a wiki. Since wiki.fsfe.org is restricted to
> Fellows, it might not be the perfect place for it. Any suggestions?

Such a network would be highly desirable. When I was joining a local initiative 
I did a quick web research focused only on school distributions (german and live 
distributions in particular) I was astonished about how much distributions are 
out there. To be a little odd one could say: There are not too less distros, 
there are too much. I know there never can be too much, but without network I 
fear the forces are spit instead of added.

So a wiki for collecting is a very good idea.

By the way, if you want to have a look at my distro-collection go to 
<http://wiki.linuxadvanced.at/index.php/Fossielinks#Distributionen>


> > 3.2. schoolbook publishers
> > - by now publishers just provide proprietory software
> > - publishers depend on the curriculum
>
> Publishers can only sell what schools will buy. If the political
> policy demands cross-platform software, that will be a huge step
> forward. It's important to note though, that cross-platform does not mean
> free.
>
> > - probably weird contracts with MS (?)
>
> Never heard of that one. Anybody else? 

Not for school books, but for software: Yes here in austria exists such a 
contract.


> > 4) European network of "Free Software in education" projects and initiatives
> > 4.1. powerful edu-eu@ ML
> > - define tasks for edu-eu@

> I think edu-eu@ is a list where people are connected who are already
> involved in certain edu projects. I guess, it's a nice place to start
> with the international network.
>
> But the projects should be listed somewhere. 

There exists something for that
<http://www.ofset.org>
(Organization for Free Software in Education and Teaching).

And there are more of them out there (I would say about 10 at least). Most of 
them having "latest news" dated in 2003/2004 and look passed away.

As mentioned above, without a central entry point much of the power gets lost. 
So cooperating and featuring one of them may be would be better than building a 
new one.

And not to forget, the european union itself sponsors a project building 
communities and source forges around open source and free software. Have a look 
at <http://www.osor.eu>.

I could not evaluate how serious they are in their intentions and how dangerous 
it would be depending on such (more or less political) stuctures.

Does anybody know more on this subject?



gerhard