Hey Everyone, I like David's idea of bringing together people that are all interested in working on advocating the use of Open Source software in education. What David has written up is a good place to start but I don't think it addresses a key issue right now in the Open Source for education community. This issue is how we can best support and share resources between local SchoolForge groups and SchoolForge members. I have taken a lot of my time browsing the web for websites that would be of interest to people considering to use Linux and Open Source software in education. Most of this browsing was to find links for the Linux In Education Portal (http://www.linuxineducation.org). What I found was that people were duplicating each others efforts and that it was so hard to find information. It would be a nightmare for an Administrator of a school or school district to try and find what they need to make a good decision. What I am looking at is having some way that people can share the resources that others have taken the time to produce. These resources include anything from lesson plans used to teach computer classes with Open Source tools to financial documents that detail how much money they have saved using Linux to writing up HOWTOs for common Linux and Open Source based computer setups. I would like people to know about the Linux In Education Portal because it is so good for people just starting out looking at using Linux and I am sure that other people have taken their time to produce some meaningful product that the Open Source in education community can use. How can we get this information out to people, how do we share information between SchoolForge groups? Isn't this one of the purposes of SchoolForge to be an organization that facilities the sharing of resources...what is SchoolForge doing to make this happen? Are we looking for new ideas? Regards :), Jonathan Hughes On Sun, 2003-04-06 at 20:43, David Bucknell wrote: > Dear Schoolforgers, > > What do you think of the idea of encouraging the formation of local Schoolforge > groups within and-or in addition to such groups as LUGS and application > development projects? > > Here is an idea. I have voiced it in other forms before, but think this may be > more like the first step than what I've said earlier. > > I'll paste in the text which I think could be a draft of a Schoolforge Press > Release. I would like to propose this or something similar as a Schoolforge-wide > endeavor. > > Here's the link: > > http://opensourceschools.org/staticpages/index.php?page=20030303060148945 > > and here's the text: > > Possible Title? > *** > Schoolforge Encourages formation of local "chapters" around the world > *** > > *What is Schoolforge? > > Schoolforge is an umbrella organization for organizations working on some aspect > of fostering free and open source software and other educational resources for > schools. Read about Schoolforge on the main site. > > *Progress > > Now Schoolforge now has nearly 200 members. This growth is part of the growing > interest in Free and Open Source Software around the world and Schoolforge would > like to take the next step in fostering that growth. To that end toward would > like to > > *Goals > > a.) call attention to specific positive projects worth supporting and > b.) to help people organize local groups that take advantage of our members' > global reach and expert knowledge to further our common goals in their communities. > > *Reasons to Form Local Schoolforge Groups > > There are four kinds of efforts for which we suggest that local Schoolforge > Groups be formed: > > 1. maintaining, translating, writing and-or updating documents for the > educational community's members > 2. maintaining, creating, translating and updating FLOSS/EDU software > 3. maintaining, creating translating and updating FLOSC (content)/EDU > 4. introducing people in education and software development to all of the > above and to each other. > > Whether you are interested in all or one of the above tasks, we would welcome > your interest in forming a local Schoolforge group. > > * We hope that Local Linux User Groups which share the goals of Schoolforge > will join Schoolforge as a way of acting on those goals. > * Other FLOSS-oriented groups which share the goals of Schoolforge are also > encouraged to join. > * We also invite groups fostering non-software educational resources to join. > * Schools and other organizations directly involved in education are invited > to form Schoolforge groups > > *What should your Local Schoolforge Group be called? > [Schoolforge + Your Community's Name] > > *How can you get started? > We suggest that you > > 1. announce your intention and ask for responses from others who are > interested on a LUG or related open source mailing list used by people in your > area, and > 2. also send to your local educational mailing lists, and > 3. begin corresponding by e-mail with those who respond about > * common goals (think broadly at first) > * possible meeting place(s) > * possible meeting time(s) > * possible meeting method(s) (For example, Schoolforge recently began > chat meetings) > > *Why form a Schoolforge group rather than a LUG? > > * If Linux or BSD or some other software is your only, or at least your > primary interest, then join or form a LUG (also: http://lugww.counter.li.org/) > or an application project. These are excellent purposes. > * If educational software and-or content are so important to you that they > actually equal or surpass software in importance, then form a Schoolforge group. > Until now, education has come second; we would like to maintain the tie with > expert computing developers, but put the goal of education first, not second. > > *What should a Schoolforge Group do? > > Once you have formed a group, then we suggest that you do all of the following: > > * build a Web site which might or might not be hosted by an existing > Schoolfoge member organization, > * join Schoolforge (http://schoolforge.net/membership.php) and > * post news of your progress (or lack of it with details) on > http://news.schoolforge.net. > > *What else can a Schoolforge Group do? > Consider > > * organizing and-or hosting one or more workshops for system administrators, > programmers, tech coordinators, teachers, students and-or parents > * organizing and-or hosting one or more conferences in which people from all > or some of the above present to each other > > *Resources for your efforts: > > * Schoolforge.net (Schoolforge Main) > * news.schoolforge.net (Schoolforge News and Journal) > * Schoolforge Membership List (http://schoolforge.net/members1.php) > * Schoolforge-discuss Mailing List (http://schoolforge.net/sfdiscuss.php - > open to individuals as well as group reps.) > * Joining Schoolforge (http://schoolforge.net/membership.php) > * SEUL/EDU Directory Educational Applications (http://richtech.ca/seul/) > * OFSET's educational CD-ROM > * KNOPPIX Linux Distribution on CD-ROM > * LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) > * k12os.org > > > *Conferences and Workshops > > Linux in Education, Grand Prairie, Texas, USA > Contact Marilyn Hagle > http://opensourceschools.org/calendar_event.php?mode=&eid=200304041433248 > > Proposed Schoolforge-Thailand > > June 23-27, 2003, Bangkok, Thailand > > Best wishes, > > David -- Jonathan Hughes <declaretruth@yahoo.com> Message digitally signed for security. 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