[OSGeo-Edu] I'd like comments from the group on short presentation on our group's year and future

[Charlie Schweik]

Hi OSGeo edu folks,

 

I think Tyler Mitchell wanted each OSGeo subcommittee to report in a session
at the FOSS4Geo conference (starting tomorrow) on their progress. I started
thinking about what I might say for our group recently. I won't have much
time I'm anticipating, but here's what I came up with (I need to look at the
status report I sent Tyler. this was off the top of my head):

 

1)       2007-08 Group Achievements

 

-          Made great strides inventorying existing educational material on
the wiki - we have 27 links to different content developed all over the
world. Much for higher education, a few for high school, some just for any
GIS interested person.



-          We considered establishing some kind of documentation standards
(e.g., Docbook, Latex, etc.) but in the end decided it was too early in this
process and different people would have different needs. 



-          Established a repository system on the OSGeo subversion system
with a recommended hierarchy. 

 

-          Active sub group working on a Free GIS book. 

 

2)       Goals for 2008-09

 

-          Continue to get educational material inventoried - this should
continue to be our main goal

 

-          Move toward a system where "new derivative works" are created. If
nothing else, we should get translations. But also updating content for new
releases. why should we be constantly re-inventing the wheel? We need to
build on each other more in an "open source" way (or what I would call an
"open content" way)

 

-          We should work to better connect to the software groups and see
if we can link to their material. After all, education is the way they will
get larger user bases. We also should explore whether links to OSGeo local
chapters somehow will build a larger edu community. We need more active
people in our group.

 

-          Continue to focus on higher ed but also maybe work for high
school materials? Maybe develop subcommittees here? 

 

I'll probably be presenting this on Wednesday. Do you all agree with this
list? Any objections? Any additions? So any comments, reactions, ideas for
what I might say are appreciated. I want to make sure I'm representing the
group and not my own thoughts.

 

Thanks all for a pretty good year as a group. We certainly did a good job
with the inventory page on the wiki. Thanks to all of you who contributed!

 

Cheers-

 

Charlie Schweik

 

 

Associate Professor, Dept of Natural Resources Conservation
(http://nrc.umass.edu) and Center for Public Policy and Administration (
<http://www.masspolicy.org> www.masspolicy.org)

Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government (www.ncdg.org)

Personal website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik

Selected research available at: http://works.bepress.com/charles_schweik/

Office phone: 413 545-1824

 

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