[school-discuss] Schoolforge.net's next step and payment for Web services

["David M. Bucknell" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Schoolforge members,

1. As you know, we have had general agreement among list members that  
schoolforge.net should get more directly involved in forwarding its  
mission of "fostering" use of free and open software and other  
resources for education.  There have been many ideas, and I would like  
to invite you to re-open that discussion with hopes of getting started  
this year.

An idea that is gaining traction among several of us is for  
schoolforge.net to host a place where sub-groups can be formed for  
projects by members -- those of you on the list.  We have fiddled with  
Open Atrium as the basis of our thinking as it has a fine interface  
and built-in group-collaboration tools.  I personally support that  
option because I've used it with schools successfully already, and I  
can say a lot more on that subject.

The important thing, however, is that it would have groups designed  
for collaborative work.  We wouldn't stipulate what project you did  
there (although we might need criteria for vetting projects), and we  
would let those with the energy go for it.  Notice I'm not saying  
software, training materials, or anything else because they would all  
be ok.  Anyway, that's the kernel of an idea.   Please help improve it.

2. As you may also know, Justin Riddiough designed and developed the  
current schoolforge.net Web site using Drupal 7 and continues to  
maintain it.  He has ideas and energy for extending it, too.  It has  
taken him considerable time, and the site is serving us well with over  
200 visitors a day.

Like all of us, Justin needs to work for a living, and, as our Web  
site is a real need for schoolforge.net, it only seems fair that we  
pay him for his work. You may remember that he was also the one who  
entered schoolforge.net as an applicant for the open source  
development grant which we won from http://taos.com and which must be  
spent this year: US$1,000.00.  Bryant Patten of NCOSE (National Center  
for Open Source and Educatio) at http://www.ncose.org/ generously did  
the paperwork and accounting to accept the money on our behalf.

Now, I know there are many things we could do with that money, and we  
should get going on those projects, but, in the meantime, there is no  
more obvious real-life need staring us in the face than supporting the  
one who supports us.  I would like to ask you to support using the  
grant money to support Justin.

As this is a somewhat personal matter, please just comment on whether  
it's alright with you to spend the money on supporting our Web site  
designer, developer and maintainer.

Thanks to all you who support opening up education for all.

David Bucknell
On behalf of Schoolforge.net
--
http://www.web4you.in.th -- an IKN portal:
Sustainable Ed-Tech with Drupal and other free and open standard resources
084 329 1183


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