[OSGeo-Edu] Summary of edu BOF discussion at FOSS4G

[Ari Jolma]

On 09/20/2011 07:05 AM, Charlie Schweik wrote:
>
> 1) To develop an educational version of the live DVD with a focus on 
> educational needs that would be ready for next year’s FOSS4G 
> conference. This would mean we should coordinate with the Live DVD 
> folks and it provides us with something really tangible to work on as 
> a group. A key issue will be identifying one or two people who would 
> act like Cameron Shorter does in the coordination of the LiveDVD.

IMO, a goal to set would be a workflow from open and shared development 
of edu material to packages that are easy to pull in to a OSGeo virtual 
machine / live system (usb stick, dvd, ...).

The making and technology of that could be a subject of a few days edu 
sprint - I'd be interested in such. There are several technical options 
(svn, git, docbook, sphinx, publican, deb packages, install scripts, etc 
etc) and perhaps we can't stick to one only. But the end product is a 
single system with matching software, data and written materials.

Even the end product can be made on demand to include just those 
packages that are needed for a certain course.

(above is based on my chats with Massimo, Daniel, Alex and others -- 
I'll invest some time into a version of the workflow I mention above)

>
> 2) To work toward building a network of OS GIS labs in universities. 
> (This idea was actually something Suchith suggested to me in an email, 
> and I think it is a great goal.) I’d like to hear from people 
> interested in trying to develop this.

I'm interested in this but I need to think what would be best way to do 
it institution-wise -- what would be the institution within my 
university that is a part of the network (department, professorship, 
institute, ...?)

Ari

ps. Dan, a special issue in that journal seems a good idea -- it would 
need an editor (or two) and ~12 papers ~6 pages each -- that's the 
impression I got by looking at it quickly. I'm not sure I could download 
a paper because of the location I'm in or is it a free access to all(?). 
Free would be good.