[OSGeo-Edu] Denver "Content Sprint" ideas

[Charlie Schweik]

Hi folks,

Related to the "Edu Content Sprint" for the Denver conference.  I'd like 
to propose a goal to this group. I think we can achieve this goal and 
move us collectively forward.

Last year, there was the suggestion to develop "exercise workbooks" that 
provided material for all of the different OS options. That is, similar 
exercises for each of the different OS Desktop GIS packages, or Web 
packages. I started these two wiki pages but not much has happened since 
then:

1)   OS desktop GIS exercises 
(http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Desktop_GIS_exercises)
2)   Web-based GIS exercises 
(http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Web_GIS_lab_exercises)

I think we should start with some exercises of the basics. I have a 
bunch of exercises for desktop GIS I am using for my undergraduate 
Spatial Technologies class based on QGIS that uses freely available data 
from our state GIS agency, MassGIS (www.mass.gov/mgis). The list on #1 
above lists some of these.

Following what the group was interested in doing from our discussion 
last fall, I think we should try and build these and see if we can get a 
set using the same exercise concepts for the other desktop packages.

The idea would be that we would:

A) Develop the template format for all of these exercises to take. My 
strong preference would be to use Open Office (.odt) as the format 
because it would be the easiest to use for the broadest group of 
potential contributors. Some will remember we looked into other formats 
several years ago and that effort didn't go anywhere.

B) Start inventorying exercises that people have already for different 
desktop and web packages. Those will be our "raw material" for 
conversion to the standard template structure. One requirement  would be 
that they use publicly available datasets that can be downloaded from 
the web.

The idea is that we do as much as we can between now and Denver working 
with the above wiki pages (and possibly using Subversion for content), 
and then in Denver we fill in the cracks/fix things that need fixing.

Reactions? Does this seem like the right direction for the "Content 
Sprint"? Whose willing to join this effort?

I'm willing to "co-lead" this, but would like to establish a 
subcommittee to help me. Any takers?

Cheers
Charlie




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