Thanks a lot Wouter, I have also published this on Ning, and am helping Franco with the diffusion of this appeal, Michel On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 11:40 PM, Wouter Tebbens <[email protected]>wrote:
Dear all,
first of all, I follow with great interest the activities going on in the P2P Foundation. And after some discussion with Michel, he suggested me to post here this small message, or better: an invitation. Let me first explain it briefly.
With a network of universities and specialised groups we are working on the development of a shared master curriculum on Free Technologies (FT). We understand FT to include Free Software (OSS / Libre Software), Open Standards, Free Hardware. And with specialised tracks on Free Culture and Peer Production.
Our aim is to help the adoption of these technologies and production methodologies through helping universities and higher educational institutes to participate and incorporate (parts of) the shared curriculum in their study programmes.
One of the things we are looking for is people and organisations willing to contribute to the curriculum. A large part is already there, but especially in areas such as Free Hardware we could use more people who are in the frontline of developments. Maybe some of you know of existing courses and educational materials that may be of interest, or case studies about interesting projects. If you're interested, read on!
This work builds further on what several universities and specialist groups have started years ago and that we are now continuing together under the umbrella of the Free Technology Academy (FTA).
Let me summarise then a few main aspects that hopefully help to clarify our pursuit: * we are building a common framework for a shared master curriculum with shared norms, rules and procedures as well as copyleft educational materials * this facilitates the autonomy of each university interested in adopting parts of it, while assuring compatibility between programmes and courses * we like distance learning through the Internet, while also having face2face options at concrete locations * the developed educational methodology is based in full course books, that are openly published under free licenses * we are opening up the development process and feedback through web-based tools, open standards and team work * the books are generally worked through in (online) class rooms and continuous assessment activities are done by the participants, guided by a mentor from one of the universities * did I say that we practice what we preach? Indeed, the technologies used are free as in freedom. * we strive for recognition of the course certificates by universities * we strive for double degrees and ultimately for a joint degree * we build the curriculum with all interested parties willing to use and contribute to it. Only as a wider community or ecosystem can we develop this in a sustainable way.
A draft for the shared curriculum we are developing in the FTA Campus Wiki: http://campus.ftacademy.org/wiki/index.php/Master-Curriculum
A substantial part of the courses are already active, here you can find the course books: http://ftacademy.org/materials and courses are conducted for example at the FTA: http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme and are recognised by the partner universities.
If you would like to contribute, even by just adding some useful pointers, please do so in the course pages in the Master-Curriculum wiki-page.
There are more people interested in working on this with us. And even more willing to take the courses. I look forward to hearing from you through this list, personal email or directly in the wiki. Your inputs are more than welcome and very much needed.
best regards, -- Wouter Tebbens -- Free Knowledge Institute /Unlocking the knowledge society/ http://freeknowledge.eu/ Free Technology Academy /Online education about Free Software/ http://ftacademy.org/
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