[OSGeo-Edu] Can we leverage the Free Technology Academy to create GeoSpatial Open Source training material?

Tue Oct 26 15:24:22 EDT 2010

  Hello people at the Free Technology Academy, (CC OSGeo Education 
Committee)

I'm writing on behalf of the education committee of the Open Source 
GeoSpatial Foundation, (OSGeo). [1]

Among other things, OSGeo has been building a Live DVD for GeoSpatial 
Open Source which contains consistent marketing material for all our key 
software, and also some inconsistent training material. [2]

I'd like to move to the next step by providing templates and guidelines 
for creating training material that the developers can follow in order 
to create integrated training courses. Raw material created by 
developers will then be refined by the 40 or so education professionals 
we have lurking on our email lists.

What we are missing is:
* A template that can be used for creating documentation, which is as 
easy to use for a non-techie as Open Office, or media wiki, and which is 
linked into a publishing pipleline which can produce HTML and PDF.

* Writing guidelines which include heading structures, writing tips for 
generic sections, writing style tips, definition of target audience, 
licence guidelines etc. (We have provided such steps for our Project 
Overview and Quick Start documentation - and have successfully had 40 
projects create material for us from these guidelines [3])

Do you have such core templates and guidelines for material creation 
that we can make use of?

[1] http://osgeo.org
[2] http://live.osgeo.org
[3] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Add_Project#Application_Overview

On 27/10/2010 4:06 AM, Tyler Mitchell wrote:
> Sorry if many of you have seen this already.  Wondering if OSGeo Edu 
> folks might be interested in pursuing a similar relationship with this 
> Master's program.  Food for thought anyway...
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> *From: *Peter Brown <info at fsf.org <mailto:info at fsf.org>>
>> *Date: *October 26, 2010 9:45:25 AM PDT
>> *To: *info-fsf at fsf.org <mailto:info-fsf at fsf.org>, info-press at fsf.org 
>> <mailto:info-press at fsf.org>
>> *Subject: **[FSF] Fostering free software education: Free Technology 
>> Academy and Free Software Foundation partner to expand access to 
>> Master's Program in Free Software and Free Standards*
>> *Reply-To: *info at fsf.org <mailto:info at fsf.org>
>>
>> Fostering free software education: Free Technology Academy and Free
>> Software Foundation partner to expand access to Master's Program in Free
>> Software and Free Standards
>>
>> http://www.fsf.org/news/free-technology-academy
>> http://ftacademy.org/announce/fsf
>>
>>
>> AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- Tuesday, October 26, 2010 -- The Free
>> Technology Academy (FTA) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
>> announced today their partnership in the FTA's Associate Partner
>> Network. The Network aims to expand the availability of professional
>> educational courses and materials covering the concepts and applications
>> of Free Software and free standards (http://ftacademy.org/standards).
>>
>> The FTA consists of an advanced virtual campus with course modules which
>> can be followed entirely on-line. The learning materials are all
>> published under a free license and can be accessed by anyone, but
>> learners enrolled in the FTA will be guided by professional teaching
>> staff from one of the three participating universities. The FTA aims to
>> enable IT professionals, students, teachers and decision makers to
>> undertake accredited professional education modules in free software
>> studies.
>>
>> One of the FTA objectives is to establish a strong relationship with the
>> free software community and to turn the FTA course materials into an
>> essential reference. The FTA seeks to educate and promote the adoption
>> of free technologies without losing sight of the free software
>> community's core purpose of freedom and social transformation.
>>
>> Wouter Tebbens, president of the Free Knowledge Institute and director
>> of the FTA, explains: "We are building this master's programme on free
>> software with the support from relevant organisations and community
>> members. And in this sense it is an honour for us to have the support of
>> Richard Stallman and the FSF. We hope to be of use to the community and
>> we invite the community to participate in our courses and review our
>> materials."
>>
>> Richard Stallman, leader of the free software movement and president of
>> the Free Software Foundation, said, "The FTA course materials teach
>> people to use GNU/Linux; more than that, it teaches them to recognize
>> why this is important."
>>
>> Details of the Partnership:
>>
>> * The FSF will provide special video guest lectures in FTA courses.
>> * The FSF will encourage volunteers to collaborate in the maintenance of
>> existing materials and the production of new courses.
>> * The FTA will provide the FSF Associate Membership
>> (http://www.fsf.org/associate/) with 30 discount vouchers for FTA
>> courses each trimester.
>>
>> Enrollment for 2011 courses is now open, and students can register at
>> http://ftacademy.org/registration-form
>>
>>
>> About the Free Technology Academy
>>
>> A Consortium formed by the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), the
>> Open University of the Netherlands and the University of Agder (Norway)
>> and led by the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), the FTA has started up -
>> with support from the EC's Lifelong Learning Programme - an
>> international educational programme on Free Software. The courses are
>> taught completely online in a virtual campus based on the Campus Project
>> interoperability framework.
>>
>> Following the Free Software and Open Educational Resources movements,
>> all learning materials are freely available through the Internet. The
>> use of Free Software (also referred to as Open Source software or Libre
>> Software) is rapidly expanding in governmental and private
>> organisations. However, still only a limited number of ICT
>> professionals, teachers and decision makers have sufficient knowledge
>> and expertise in these new fields. The Free Technology Academy aims to
>> address this gap by providing high level courses that fit into larger
>> Master Programmes at the participating universities.
>>
>> * More information: http://www.ftacademy.org
>> * Contact information: contact[AT]ftacademy.org
>> * About FTA Associate Network: 
>> http://ftacademy.org/about/associate-network
>> * FTA Study Programme 2011: http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme/2011
>> * FTA Community Portal: http://campus.ftacademy.org/community/
>>
>>
>> About the Free Software Foundation
>>
>> The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
>> computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
>> computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
>> in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
>> GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
>> also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
>> freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
>> and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
>>
>> Media Contacts
>>
>> Peter Brown
>> Executive Director
>> Free Software Foundation
>> +1 (617) 542 5942
>> peterb at fsf.org
>>
>> ###
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> info-fsf mailing list
>> info-fsf at fsf.org
>> Unsubscribe: http://lists.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/info-fsf
>
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com

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