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[school-discuss] Press Release for Last Comments/Changes/Additions



Thanks to those who sent changes and suggestions. I think I used them _all_! 
I suggest that by this time tomorrow, we try to ship it to the translators and
get it out by ... whenever you think you can do it ;-)

David
==


***SCHOOLFORGE PRESS RELEASE***

[http://schoolforge.net February, 2002]

SchoolForge, a coalition of organizations supporting free and open resources 
in education has nearly fifty members (48).

SCHOOLFORGE NEWS: 
*Coalition Grows; Begins Work on Open Standard for Educational Resources

In its first month of operation, Schoolforge's membership grew from 31 
organizations at its January 8 launch to 47 organizations by month's end. 
Located in Asia, Africa, The Americas and Europe, these new members share our 
common vision of free and open resources in education.

Members have begun work on Schoolforge's first project, EduML, an XML-based open 
standard for educational software and content development. Although an attempt
at an EduML standard was initiated in 1998-1999 as a standard for
intercommunication between educational applications, Schoolforge is picking it
up and moving forward with revisions and improvements. Those interested in
collaborating on EduML are invited to join the schoolforge-discuss mailing list
via http://schoolforge.net/sfdiscuss.php. 

In addition to a description of Schoolforge's mission and methods, visitors to 
http://www.schoolforge.net will find news, software, and curricular resources
made 
available by our member organizations, as well as a full membership list and 
instructions for joining us.

Media and candidate organizations wishing to learn more about Schoolforge are 
welcome to contact us at info@schoolforge.net.


RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS BY MEMBERS:

* Blue Linux Beta Release 1.0
Jan 22, 2002 - Hillsborough, NC, US
"With this release we bring a easy to install and configure Linux operating
system for Intel based systems, we hope to have a release for the Macintosh
systems shortly. This release is avaliable on our ftp servers." Full story:
http://www.bluelinux.org/news/012202.php

* K12LTSP 2.0 (K12 Linux Terminal Server Project) released on February 10
 February 10, 2002 - Portland, Oregon, US
"K12LTSP is free software with the potential to save schools, public agencies
and businesses millions of dollars." Full story: http://k12ltsp.org/press.html

* MimerDesk 1.5.0pre released
January 10, 2002 -  Finland 
"MimerDesk is an open-source group environment designed for a wide variety of
uses such as web-based eLearning, carrying out projects and setting up
communities." Full story: http://www.mimerdesk.org/community/engine.html?page=31

LATEST MEMBERS

These groups joined us in January of 2002:

*OpenSchooling [US]: The OpenSchooling project has the goal of providing
FDL'd (released under the Free Documentation License) curriculum that meets the
standards set out by each country, state, province, etc. for all subjects and
electives. Both Web browser-based and 
printable versions of the curriculum will be made available. Schools and 
publishers can make books for sale and use. (http://openschooling.org)

*Northwest Educational Service District 189 [US]: NESD 189 is a regional k-12 
service center for regional districts in [ where? ], and which also develops 
Web-based tools for education using GNU tools. (http://www.esd189.org)

TEFL China Teahouse [China]: This organization's purpose is to help teachers
create open resource teaching materials that offer them the same advantages that
open source software has 
provided IT professionals. (http://teflchina.com)

Lone Jack C-6 Schools [US]: Public k-12 Institution using Linux as its 
primary server operating system and for terminals in labs and classrooms. 
[http://blue.ljc6k.k12.mo.us]

GnuSkole [Denmark]: Goal is to promote the use of open source software in the 
Danish primary school system by publishing documentation, finding and 
translating educational software, and holding a discussion forum for teachers 
and system administrators at schools. [http://www.gnuskole.dk]

Goa Schools Computers Porject [India]: Equipping schools in Goa with computer 
labs, this project aims to help bridge the digital divide by means of free and
open resources. (http://www.goasudharop.org/gscp)

Linuxlab.org.za [South Africa]: Open source schools advocacy group in South 
Africa. (http://linuxlab.org.za)

Globewide Network Academy [US]: Collects information about distance learning 
from various sources and publishes an open source database. 
(http://www.gnacademy.org)

Regional Institute for Scholastic Excellence [US]: RISE is a group of Illinois 
alternative schools charged with providing standards-based curricula and a 
structured educational environment for 6th through 12th grade students who have 
been released from other schools. (http://www.s-cook.org/rise/default.htm)

ENMAC Linux User Group [Mexico]: Promotes the use of Linux for Mexican 
educational environments.  (http://enmac.seul.org)

Greek Research and Technology Network [Greece]: Provides advanced Internet 
services to the Greek Academic and Research Community. (http://www.grnet.gr)

***
A FULL LIST OF MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS is available at 
http://schoolforge.net/members.php
***

WORLD-WIDE DISTRIBUTION

Schoolforge Member (projects) are located in these (18) countries so far:

US, Belize, Italy, Mexico, Colombia, Finland, Australia, Denmark, India, 
Greece, France, Norway, Turkey, Singapore, South Africa, UK, Canada, China

***
TRANSLATIONS of this announcement are available on http://schoolforge.net.
***

Copyright schoolforge.net, February 2002. Permission to repost with 
attribution to schoolforge.net is granted.
==
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