[seul-edu] The nature of our coalition

[Doug Loss <drloss@home.com>]

Before I start off on this, I'd like to invite everyone following
this discussion on the OS:N: mailing list to join the seul-edu
mailing list (go to http://www.seul.org/edu/; joining the list will
be obvious from there), as that's where the majority of the messages
are coming from and are addressed to.  It's getting too cumbersome
to try to keep both lists covered with all messages.

OK, now on to the nature of the coalition.  David Bucknell, Roger
Dingledine, Paul Nelson, and I have been exchanging emails privately
about what to do next to further this Linux in education coalition
idea.  David has drafted a letter to present to all the appropriate
groups we can find, inviting them to join the coalition.  He'll be
posting that draft here for your comments later, I think.  I've
taken on the task of defining what we mean this coalition to be, so
we don't have too wildly differing expectations of what it will be
and will do.  That would set us up to disappoint some portion of the
members, almost inevitably.  This is of course a draft for your
comment, not the word from on high passed down on stone tablets.

The whole idea of a coalition is a group of independent entities
getting together to achieve (or at least to work toward) a commonly
accepted goal.  The entities don't have to surrender any of their
local autonomy, and shouldn't.  Each member of the coalition will
have certain competencies and skills, most likely differing from
those of other members.  The individual entities can choose what
they wish to contribute to the coalition effort.  The coalition
itself may (and probably should) set requirements for membership, so
that entities don't join the coalition merely for some perceived
cachet and then contribute nothing to the common goal.

That is a general description of a coalition.  In our specific case,
I believe our coalition should have the common goal of promoting the
use of free and open source resources (software, lesson plans,
curricula, etc.) in organized education.  I include home-schooling
as an aspect of organized education, incidentally.  This goal covers
Linux, but also covers things not specifically related to Linux.  We
don't have to realize all these things instantly as soon as we
declare the coalition up and running, but I think it's a good idea
to have them in our long-term "mission statement."

There are many groups already working on one or another aspect of
this goal.  The coalition needs to extend membership to these
groups, particularly the ones that are the most active and the most
successful.  These groups would continue to operate as they
currently do, but as coalition members would work with other members
to link to and promote aspects of the common goal that they're not
currently working on.  If coalition members find that some of their
efforts significantly overlap with those of other members, they may
want to think about redistributing those efforts.  For example, if
group X is maintaining a large group of Linux in education advocacy
documents and is running 1-2 mailing lists about Linux in education,
and group Y maintains a handfull of advocacy docs but has a dozen
mailing lists dealing with many aspects of Linux in education, Y may
want to turn its docs over to X in exchange for taking on X's
mailing lists.  That wouldn't be required of anyone, but might be
best for both groups.

The coalition itself would maintain a website that all member groups
would direct visitors toward as the central navigation site to all
things dealing with free resources for education.  That website
would have comprehensive lists of the various groups and of the
resources being provided to the internet.  The links on the
coalition website would show URLs having the coalition domain, but
would be redirects to the member groups' sites that cover those
areas.

In cases where the coalition members decide that there's some
resource needed that isn't already being provided, one or another
coalition member may decide to begin providing that resource; if no
individual group wishes to, then the coalition as a whole might
decide to begin doing so.  This would be the only time I'd see the
coalition as becoming a content provider as opposed to a
navigational aide and communication fosterer (is that a real word?).

That's about it from me.  I think that covers the nature of the
coalition, at least so far as I can see.  Your comments?

--
Doug Loss                 Always do right.  This
Data Network Coordinator  will gratify some people
Bloomsburg University     and astonish the rest.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain