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NYC LOCAL: Friday through Sunday 6-8 February 2009 FLOSSify: Freeing up
From: |
secretary |
Subject: |
NYC LOCAL: Friday through Sunday 6-8 February 2009 FLOSSify: Freeing up the Digital Foundations textbook |
Date: |
5 Feb 2009 16:20:44 -0500 |
<blockquote
what="official FLOSSify announcement"
via="Fred Benenson of Free Culture"
where="http://eyebeam.org
540 W. 21st Street,
New York, NY 10011
between 10th and 11th Avenues,
on the Island of the Manahattoes,
Tel. 212.937.6580 Fax: 212.937.6582"
when="three days starting Friday 6 February 2009,
at 10:00 am"
on-facebook="If you do not wish to use Facebook,
write directly to
Michael Mandiberg <mandiberg@gmail.com>"
exhortation="Come one down and help!"
observation="There will be food and drink."
note="This front is important.
The Englobulators occupy many classrooms today
without serious opposition.
Every free textbook is, in the hands of
our fighters, a weapon."
edits="one typo fixed">
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 15:35:54 -0500
Subject: FLOSSify NYC
From: Fred Benenson <fred.benenson@gmail.com>
Hi free software friends,
My friend Michael is organizing an event this weekend to help
"port" his newly published book from proprietary systems like
Adobe to FLOSS tools like GIMP. He wants a strong turnout from
the NYC Linux crowd, so I figured I'd forward it to you in case
you knew of people in NYC who might be interested in
attending. Feel free to drop him a line, I've CC'd him above.
More information & fwd below ...
F
---
Hello all
We are FLOSSing Digital Foundations next weekend. We need help, and we want
to do it *together.* We need people of all levels, from the GIMP guru, to
the Ubuntu n00b to test it all.
Digital Foundations uses formal exercises of the Bauhaus to teach design
software. It was written for the Adobe Creative Suite, but on Feb 6, 7, 8
we are going to translate it to FLOSS apps with FLOSSmanuals. For more on
the book, and why this translation is so important, see the description
below.
We are trying to get people to register via FB:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56609462816
And to sign up on the wiki with their potential role
http://wiki.digital-foundations.net/index.php?title=February_FLOSS_Registration
I hope to see you there. And I hope you can spread the word. By the end of
the weekend, we'll have the first decent primer in FLOSS software!
please forward widely
m
FULL EXPLANATION:
FLOSSIFY 1 : Digital Foundations
For a long time educational courses have been cheap marketing
for proprietary software companies. Can a student really afford all
those expensive softwares required by the courses? No. Ever hear of a
software company kicking up a fuss because students are using
'unofficial' versions? Well, it does happen but not often. And why not?
Because proprietary software companies know, as the universities know,
that once the students leave their training they will be indoctrinated
with those tools and simply slipstream into being paid up proprietary
software citizens. Simply put, unlicensed software used in education is
tolerated because it is cheap marketing.
This is how tools become 'industry standards'.
FLOSS Manuals is fighting this flow by converting textbooks that
use proprietary software to using free software in their examples.
We call this process "FLOSSify". We convert the book from
closed software to Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) hence we
'FLOSSify' the book.
Our first text book is the wonderful Digital Foundations book
produced by Michael Mandiberg and xtine
burrough (http://digital-foundations.net/). Its a text book designed to
teach software by teaching design. The current toolset it uses is the
Adobe Creative Suite and we will convert these examples entirely to
using free software.
Not only have the authors given the kind permission to go ahead with
this, they originated the idea and approached FLOSS Manuals to be
involved. We are very happy to get behind this initiative and work with
the authors to create a fantastic text book promoting the use of Free
and Open Source Software within design courses.
FLOSSIFY 1 : Digital Foundations will focus on a fun 3 day event at
Eyebeam, NYC. Anyone is welcome to attend and some food and beer will be
provided. Come and meet some of your old geek friends, make some new,
and help make a step towards unshackling education from proprietary
software.
FLOSSIFY 1 : Digital Foundations
Eyebeam, NYC
RSVP here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56609462816
Feb 6-8
starts 10ish
finishes when we are done
fast connection, a table, some chairs, and beer and food provided
http://eyebeam.org/
540 W. 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
New York, NY 10011
Tel. 212.937.6580 Fax: 212.937.6582
~ ~ ~
thoughts / http://fredbenenson.com/blog
work / http://creativecommons.org
sights / http://flickr.com/fcb
sounds / http://www.last.fm/user/mecredis
status / http://twitter.com/mecredis
</blockquote>
Distributed poC TINC:
Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org
- NYC LOCAL: Friday through Sunday 6-8 February 2009 FLOSSify: Freeing up the Digital Foundations textbook,
secretary <=