Hello, David,It seemed (from a quick read through the thread) that people were expressing a desire to create an organized and growing knowledge base that would support advocacy around open source projects, and around the philosophy of open source as it relates to education.
The content of the site could be created/curated within the community, but some of the content (ie, the Issues) would be collected for the benefit of people looking for resources about how to get started in open source.
It seems like there are several parallel things being discussed here: * specific open source projects * recommending a specific project for a learning goal * recommending specific projects for adoption within a school * recommending a specific project for adoption within a district* documenting the rationale for schools/districts to make more use of open source solutions * identifying opportunities (conferences, teacher professional development, etc) where decision makers can be educated about the benefits of open source
These items are all related, but ultimately they are diffuse enough in focus to warrant different language targeted at the different audiences. My suggestion was for a communication hub that could collect information, and then repackage that information for these separate purposes.
I don't know if that makes it clearer, or muddies the waters further :) Cheers, Bill On 10/25/2011 12:23 PM, David Bucknell wrote:
Hi, Bill. Could you say more about your suggestion? Would these "issues" be forwarded to the relevant projects or ... can you explain your idea more? Thanks, David On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 1:27 AM, Bill Fitzgerald<bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Hello, all, We created an install profile with Drupal that could be of use here. It's a combination news aggregator and publishing platform that can be used to collect and remix content. One of the key features that could be helpful is the ability to create "Issues" - so, we could create a web tools issue, a desktop tools issue, a server admin tools issue, an "open source meets social learning best practice" issue, etc. Our install profile is, of course, free to acquire, use, install, and modify, and is built completely from open source components :) Documentation and download links available at http://code.funnymonkey.com/doc/voicebox Cheers, Bill On 10/25/2011 10:11 AM, Bryant Patten wrote: On Oct 25, 2011, at 11:39 AM, LM wrote: If Schoolforge members have resources to help advocate Open Source, the web site might be a good place to share them. For instance, sharing slide shows on switching to Open Source via the web or references (like http://www.ncose.org/node/3 which was posted to the list a while back) can be very helpful. Laura - It is ironic that you referenced the Free Software for Schools publication because I was just talking with Donna Benjamin (co-creator) about taking it down because it is so out of date - it could desperately use the kind of project help being discussed in this thread. On a positive note, we also discussed creating a Kickstarter project to automate the maintenance and PDF publication of this information. Perhaps advertising such an effort could be part of Schoolforge's new information mission. All the best, Bryant Patten Executive Director The National Center for Open Source and Education www.ncose.org