[school-core] Proposal for the Reorganization of Schoolforge

[David Bucknell <david@members.iteachnet.org>]

Dear All,

I've been thinking of the long term, sustaining our efforts and having a real
effect on the educational world. I am more convinced than ever that we can't do
it (in this day and age of "winner-take-all economics") alone.

As far as I know, the Open Source in Education Foundation is the only fully
legalized non-profit organization that has actively pursued our common goals.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps k edutainment and Ofset and others have also
successfully formed legal entities. Of course, the value of such an organization
is that is can raise funds and distribute them to needy causes. The benefit of a
non-profit structure is that it can have members (not stock holders), shares
benefits of corporate laws. The downside is that it requires paper pushing to
keep it in good legal standing. None of this is easy. I have concluded that it
is silly for me and others to maintain legal organizations rather than joining
with others to create one we all feel we can support. 

I've often wondered whether Schoolforge members could get together and form a
"legal entity," but I'm conscious of the fact that we have a group/org. that we
might join and support in return for its support of us and our projects.

I'm wondering whether the Open Source in Education Foundation could take on a
role equivalent to (or better than) that which the Free Software Foundation
plays in the FLOSS movement, but for free resources in education. For example,
we could support it (as members) and it could be the main supporter of
Schoolforge and all its projects. For example, it could support 

*its own evangelization project (distribution of and demonstration of free
software in education), 
*the Seul/edu software iso project, 
*the Seul/edu free software in education database, 
*the Seul/edu case study database (and all the other seul projects), 
*various member-organizations' software and content development projects, 
*the new book project, 
*the curriculum project (if people find it worthwhile) and 
*the formation of Schoolforge groups,
*a jobs forum,
*a means of supporting the software projects on which schools depend -- a
membership that gives schools support for software directly from developers or
experienced sys admin/programmers,
*outreach to needy schools;
*guidelines, standards and examples for technology integration using free and
open software and, perhaps even more importantly, computer science using free
and open software.

In other words, the purpose of having a "mother ship" legal entity that is also
a corporate non-profit (aka ngo internationally), would be to give the world a
focal point for fund raising and as an information source regarding free
software and other educational resources.

I thought of this because I have just had a meeting of the local shakers and
movers regarding the long-awaited (by me) formation of Schoolforge-Thailand. 
We have come to that age-old question, just what will motivate people in schools
to give it a try?

We thought of many avenues:

*holding local Schoolforge meetings
*encouraging the formation of school-based Schoolforge groups/chapters (or
subgroups)
*going to schools with demos;
*inviting them to schools where free and open resources are at work (like mine);
*providing support for those who will give it a try;
and
*providing Web-based examples;
and
*We would like to transform what we're doing on iteachnet into a place where
those who use free software can:
a)build a free (geocities type) Website -- we already have metadot there for the
users and we just need folks to make demos of what's possible using floss tools.
b)offer hosting to schools who want an external Web and/or mail server at a low
price because they could share the cost between many schools.
c)offer course hosting 
d)offer portfolio hosting
e)offer project hosting (software and courses)
f)distributing software which Schoolforge members have developed.

Speaking for myself, Iteachnet has members now, but I think that what we're
trying to do is what Schoolforge should be doing. All of our projects would fit
under Schoolforge and we don't really have a good reason for remaining
independent. Besides, we try to do too many things. I'd rather focus on the name
"Schoolforge" and know that it's international than focus on iteachnet.org and
not know whether we can really say international teachers support what we're
doing, supporting collegiality and oepnness. Finally, I think Schoolforge is a
more sustainable idea than iteachnet (despite the fact that iteachnet.org is
venerable in Internet terms). I think the Open Source in Education Foundation
could, if it wanted, be the natural choice for a mother ship.

We'd have to ask for representation on the board, of course, and members would
have to have a vote on important issues, including the distribution of funds.

How would it affect member orgs?

I think we could have various levels of membership as the first step toward
raising money. 
Free individual membership,
Full individual (paid) membership (some low fee with a few services such as a
login, Web space and mail)
Free org. membership (for deserving cases)
Various levels of org. membership depending on the services they request.


What do you think?

First of all, Harry, are you interested? 

If not, then I think we will, some day, have to face this issue -- form a
Schoolforge org. 

Am I the only one who sees the need?

David

-- 

GNU/Linux in Education Wiki Project: http://sfzwiki.opensourceschools.org/
http://www.iteachnet.org * http://www.schoolforge.net
http://members.iteachnet.org/webzine *
http://opensourceschools.org * http://news.schoolforge.net
http://www.rose-marie.ac.th *


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