Re: [school-discuss] Another angle on winning interest in open source

[tom poe <tompoe@renonevada.net>]

Hi: Nice article. As I read it, I found myself looking for mention of, and 
links to government agencies that use these things called Open Source.

For starters, there's the U.S. Census Bureau:
http://perl.oreilly.com/news/census_0101.html

"For Taylor, the Senior Internet Technology Architect who oversees system 
administration, content management, and application development for some of 
the servers at the bureau, - - - "

"One site, rates.census.gov, was the key part of a promotion for Census 2000 
that made it the most successful census in 30 years, resulting in a budget 
surplus. And the second one, an interagency site named www.fedstats.gov/imf, 
displays all the country's leading financial and economic indicators at a 
glance, and updates them twice daily. It's a site so powerful and concise 
that other subscriber nations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have 
recently requested assistance in setting up similar systems."

Tie a couple of these kinds of articles together, and I think it would be a 
good follow-up for this article. Let the teachers know that these kids are 
going to need to be exposed to something besides the toaster or the automatic 
coffee maker.  <grin>

If you come across some other examples, can you post them here? 
Thanks,
Tom Poe
Reno, NV
http://www.studioforrecording.org/
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/
http://renotahoe.pm.org/





On Saturday 11 May 2002 15:10, David Bucknell wrote:
> FYI, I have written an article meant to argue with teachers on their own
> terms that they should give free and open source tools a place in their
> programs.
>
> David Bucknell
>
> Here is the message I sent to a few teachers' mailing lists:
>
> "Dear Colleagues,
>
>   Genetically speaking, how strong is your school's technology program? You
> may
> have installed "the industry standard" in file servers, productivity
> suites, library and finance applications and Web course builders, and you
> may be teaching "the syllabus" recommended by the AP, IB, Microsoft or
> Apple. But does plugging these pieces into your school's network,
> workstations or curriculum mean that you're protecting the community from
> a)falling behind the tech learning curve, b)viruses, or c)wasted time and
> money teaching and learning dead-end technologies? I don't think so. If
> this topic intersts you, please read and comment on:
>  
> http://members.iteachnet.org/webzine/article.php?story=20020510191936985
>
>   Best wishes,
>
>   David Bucknell
> Editor, International Education Daily and Open Source Schools