I would like to propose another idea for a keynote at ApacheCon, given by Jurriaan Souer who works at PulseOn:
PulseOn is a cloud based web application, built on open source technologies, many of which originating from Apache, that provides students with a personalized, lifelong learning environment. The project was started a couple of years ago with the goal to change the way we educate our children. The school system in The Netherlands, like in many other countries in the world, has not changed significantly over the last century. Children still go through a system that focusses on standard text books and a fixed curriculum. Personal learning styles and preferences are ignored, which means that we are teaching everybody in a sub-optimal way. With PulseOn we provide a digital environment that leverages current technologies and tracks each student individually, providing them with content that suits their learning style and personal goals. That means that basically, instead of providing standard books, we chop those up into small pieces of content that are assembled dynamically based on the profile of the individual. Furthermore, the system also contains formal and informal tests, that provide us with a good insight into how well the student understands the various pieces of information. The end result is a system with which they can learn more quickly and more efficiently. Our mission is to maximize human potential through personalized learning, worldwide because we believe that education is the foundation on which society is built. With PulseOn we believe we can contribute to a better world, allowing each learner to become what they are and can be. The PulseOn platform builds on several key Apache technologies, including Apache Felix to create a modular back-end, Apache Wink for REST support, Apache CXF and ServiceMix to connect to other enterprise applications, Apache ACE for dynamic provisioning of the platform in the cloud and Apache Commons for various utilities. These open source technologies have all been consolidated in an open source platform called Amdatu. The keynote is not technical, but instead focusses on how this platform helps improve the way we teach our children. As such I think it’s an excellent example of how open source improves our daily lives. Jurriaan is a Product Manager at PulseOn. He has 15 years of experience in online product development, management, marketing and sales engineering and a Ph.D. in Computing and Information Sciences. WDYT? Greetings, Marcel
