[OSGeo-Edu] proposed meeting

[Charlie Schweik]

Hi,

Also, I'd like to participate in upcoming IRC or other Skype meetings to 
the extent I can, but the next week is bad for me.

Please note I just added the below in quotes under the Licensing portion 
of the wiki which raises a couple issues we need to think about shortly.

"A key component related to this whole effort (related to incentive 
structures for some) will be how we maintain author attribution over 
time. This might be as simple as establishing in every document produced 
a "change log" listing who developed the initial document, and then 
listing who contributed to new derivative works.
Also we need to decide whether we want a standard way of developing 
curricular material (e.g., wiki pages, open office writer documents, 
etc.) or if we accept any format, is the wiki set up to allow for the 
upload of files?

And do we want to try and agree on one open content license that allows 
for new derivative works or do we want to have a set identified 
depending on the author's interests? For example, someone might be 
willing to provide a tutorial but not want new derivative works, while 
others may be open to having new derivatives works produced from their 
submission. [Posted by Charlie Schweik]"

Right now, I am producing some tutorials for undergraduates at my 
institution on the use of Quantum GIS. (I need to contact Gary Watry 
given it sounds like I may be duplicating some that he has done 
already). I intend to try and build a Intro to GIS course that uses 
Quantum as a kind of initial tool and then move into GRASS. We've 
thought about a second course that might involve Mapserver applications 
eventually.  And my intention is to try and make things I develop 
available through this effort. What we've done so far exists on a wiki 
of our own. In a couple weeks I'll try and enter on the wiki where the 
Quantum material falls in the curriculum (the actual tutorial 
names/topics -- but I am not sure where to put that on this wiki).

Also, I am making a little progress in my thinking on how I will do this 
in conjunction with an online course here at the University of 
Massachusetts. This will probably be obvious to some of you. But I'm 
thinking of myself as an instructor much like what is done by Lawyers or 
Tax Accountants. The information they deal with is in the public domain 
-- what they provide is a service, using that public domain information. 
So I think there may not be as much of a tension as I thought between 
developing an online course at a University and the University interests 
and still working within the domain of "open content". In other words, I 
think there is compatibility between making the course content open 
access and sharable via CreativeCommons or GNU Free Documentation 
license and still being able to offer a GIS course out of an educational 
institution's online program under the rules of that institution because 
the instructor is providing an additional service. Again, this may be 
obvious to many of you, but it is something I have been grappling with 
as I move toward developing this course. Along these same lines, I find 
myself wondering how we might want to work with the MIT Open Courseware 
effort or the Rice Connexions effort on making curriculum available. It 
may be a simple posting to whatever we develop on those sites.

I'm still a little confused about our communication method and when to 
post to the discussion list and when to post to the wiki.

Cheers - this is an exciting effort and I appreciate the efforts others 
are putting into this.

Charlie Schweik
UMass Amherst