David Humphrey, via Bread and Circuits, deliberated on the Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) 2008, and invites others to do the same. Snippets:
More than 50 great talks in all…. One of the things that was most exciting about FSOSS this year was the focus on open source education.
Too many people are talking about it but not jumping in with both feet. For starters, it would be good to know how many of us there actually are out there doing this now.
The “Teaching Open Source” issue is a huge discussion with not one but many solutions that all need to happen together. I’d encourage you to get engaged in this discussion. Perhaps you’re a student wishing your school was doing open source education. Maybe you’re a professor constrained by the “publish or perish” guidelines set out by your school, and without enough time to get engaged in a community. Maybe you’re in industry and want to help mentor the next generation of students/contributors/employees. Where ever you are, this discussion involves you. It’s not a problem just teachers have. Healthy community is how healthy open source grows and flourishes, and the problem of how to get new people engaged and settled into productive roles is a project-wide one.
So please blog your ideas and experiences, join the list of people working on this stuff, and get involved in helping us remake education. This stuff is possible, difficult, rewarding, challenging, exciting, and most importantly, it’s the future.
