I started fiddling with the http://www.gnufans.net/cgi-bin/fsedu.pl?FreeSoftwareInEducation wiki and thought this list might be a better place to clarify my thoughts.
My issue: how to divide "the problem" of Free Software advocacy insofar as it can be applied to the field/s of education/training/learning. My first thoughts were, as evident on the site, to differentiate moments of advocacy according to those where philosophical, theoretical or practical types of arguments and evidence are required. Most attempts at advocacy can be classified in this manner and I find it helpful to differentiate them this way IN MY MIND. I've found few people actually use these words to handle issues currently under discussion without a few glasses of good red wine. I use them to map the way, not to walk the path though the distinction doesnt matter so much after the second glass. The real difficulty I have found is that discussions tend to lurch all over the place, hence clearly differentiate philosophical evidence for philosophical issues, and ditto for matters of theoretical and practical significance. Advocacy on philosophical grounds involves the idea of freedom. More and more businesses are taking up the idea of core values or value-driven leadership. Sadly, schools lag a bit in this respect with lots of good ideas expressed in vision statements and policy documents but little engagement in values clarification when it comes to a decision point. It has been said before, but choice of operating system, platforms, packages, editors, etc is nigh on a religious one. All the same promises and prejudices emerge in the reasoning we give and hear. In this context, I argue for Freedom, Truth and Beauty. Free software refers to a community-of-believers who quite obviously advocate a moral/ethical position. Anyway, I digress... My task is to catalogue the philosophical territory in terms of argument/counter-argument. I think the case for and against Freedom has been well made, the wiki might be a good place to build a running summary on the matter. Also to build and advocate more presence of mind for Truth and Beauty in the software industry. Note that most gut reactions against *nux are aesthetic concerns (erggh, the command prompt!). Amazing how students get seduced by the command prompt with a little knowledge/power. My current school have disabled access to the Win(r) command prompt (apparently its a "security risk"). next installment -> theoretical arguments (must go to class). cheers, Neil Kelly All emails leaving Kingsbury High School are automatically scanned for viruses and content. The views of the sender do not necessarily reflect the views of Kingsbury High School. Kingsbury High School Princes Avenue London NW9 9JR Tel: +44 (0)208 204 9814 Fax: +44 (0)208 206 3040 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
