Re: [seul-edu] New educational section in GNU

[Michael Viron <mviron@wsdo.sao.uwf.edu>]

>Many people confuse school with education, but generally >education
proceeds faster and deeper when schools as such >are not involved, because
productive relationships >(including ``anti-relationships:''
separations/isolations) and patterns can form which school >would otherwise
block or at least repress because they do >not harmonise with the pattern
which is the school >itself. 

As a very recent college graduate, I would have to say that this is not
necessarily the case.  Some schools, including The University of West
Florida (UWF), give you the ability to take courses that may not be at all
connected with your major as "electives" or dual-major should you so choose
(one of my friends graduated recently with a dual-major--Computer Science
and Music).

Most schools also give you the opportunity to found an organization and
therefore, gain experience that may not be "in-sync" with the course
offerings at the school.  I started one such group, Web Spinners
(http://www.webspinners.uwf.org) in 1997, before the CS and other
departments really started offering any web design courses.  Web Spinners
has since gone on to donate thousands of volunteer hours to the university,
as well as starting the first set of web seminars / conferences in 1999.
None of this was in place at UWF before Web Spinners started (or at least
not in any organized way).

I also have several other projects that I work, coordinate, or consult on,
that are "non-profit" groups (many free), such as:

Simple End User Linux, where I consult, and occassionally work on the
website and several other SEUL connected sites. ( http://www.seul.org )

Linux Professional Institute, where I consult, and started the process of
coordinating their web site development (in 1999, before I began
consulting). ( http://www.lpi.org )

Open Object Directory Services, where I consult, and sometimes work on the
srs / documentation. ( http://www.oods.org )

General Education Online / GEO Database Projects, of which I am the Project
Coordinator / Primary Developer. ( soon to be at
http://www.findaschool.org, right now at http://webspinners.uwf.org/~geo )

A few others come to mind including continuing to consult (as an alumni) at
Web Spinners as a System Administration and Web Design / Development
Consultant, with Phi Eta Sigma National as a Web Design and Development
Consultant, with the Phi Eta Sigma chapter at UWF as a technical
consultant--the list runs far longer than I'll post to the list.


Similarly, rallying behind a 
>single banner to oppose Microsoft lands you in exactly the same position 
>as Microsoft, philosophically speaking. It's like yelling at your kids 
>to shut them up - they learn to yell, not to shut up. This us-or-them 
>herd mentality brought us the Dark Ages and has the power to return us 
>to a new Dark Ages. I would much rather see a large variety of different 
>groups not necessarily opposing anybody - even if Microsoft continues 
>Borg-ing for much longer as a consequence - because the *final* result 
>will be much better.
>
>Case in point: Richard Stallman and I disagree on some basic 
>philosophical premises. This doesn't stop me from using his licence for 
>many things, or stop any of the GPLed projects from accepting my 
>patches. The BSD people also have many good points of argument for their 
>licences, and I have no objection to contributing to BSD projects even 
>though there is a greater risk of my contribution becoming part of a 
>closed-source project.
>
>> Do they know what sinergy means ? 
>
>_GNU_ might but _I_ don't. (-:
>
>Synergy, on the other hand, depends upon the participants marching to 
>the same drummer, so to speak. Humans being as they are, this generally 
>requires one of those horrid leader things to be beating a drum 
>(co-ordinating, at least).
>

Depends on whether the leader or coordinator micro-manages everything or
lets people do as they need--some leaders can be very good at coordinating
/ leading projects.

Just my .02,

Michael Viron