[OSGeo Africa] Introduction to GIS & Remote Sensing short courses

[Chris Berens]

Hi Gretha,

I am with Paolo and Frank on this, when the freebie dries up the
chances of students engaging with the software on an ongoing basis are
low.  People move, being able to take your tools with you is key to
personal growth.
We've had this discussion some time back and are led by GITOC's 2007
findings in that "FOSS/OC contribute in meaningful ways to economic
development generally, and directly support South African economic
development priorities in particular" - PDF here;
http://www.gissa.org.za/special-interest-groups/open-source/foss-documents/policy-on-free-and-open-source-software-use-for-south-african-government/at_download/file

Regards,
Chris Berens

On 11 August 2014 09:48, Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it> wrote:
> Il 11/08/2014 09:39, Gretha <gretha_g at sun.ac.za> ha scritto:
>
>> Thanks! And yes we definitely want to go Open Source at some point (when there is time...), or at least include sections in which we use open source software. I'm also interested in converting these courses to on-line or distance learning courses at some point, and then open source would make sense.
>> In the meantime it is worth noting that ESRI gives us a great deal where enrolled students qualify to buy a student licence at a minimal fee and get the entire suite for a year - difficult to refuse!
>
> Sorry if I'm rude, but I find this approach short sighted.
> With Open Source you effectively empower students, giving them powerful tools they
> can work with for free, improve, and master for their and their future customers use.
> All the best.
>
> --
> Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
> Corsi QGIS e PostGIS: http://www.faunalia.eu/training.html
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