Re: Towards more collaboration between the academic world and the GNOME community

[David Bolter <dtb gnome org>]

Hi Richard,

Richard Stallman wrote:
>     This is very timely. I've been asked to head up a pilot project here at 
>     the University of Toronto with a goal of engaging students in open 
>     source development.
>
> If you launch a project of "open source development", you can teach
> students how to participate in useful projects of collaborative
> development.  That is a useful thing to do, in a practical sense.
>
>   
I agree 100%. This is something I've wanted to do since 2001 but the 
right grant hasn't come my way yet. I think practical experience in open 
source development/collaboration is of huge value to students. Dave 
Humphrey does this quite successfully with Mozilla projects at Seneca 
College.

> If you call the same project "free/libre software development", you
> can teach students how to participate in collaborative development
> projects, and at the same time teach them to value and defend freedom
> for software users.  That would serve a practical purpose and at the
> same time strengthen our community's civil virtues.  So how about it?
>
>   
I think about this issue pretty much every time I write "open source" -- 
and it is your fault :) 

My preference is to go with the free/libre semantics and goals. The 
project was officially launched months ago and I'm coming in late but 
I'll see what I can do...  I've been told I can make a lot of changes.

cheers,
David