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Texas Support for Open Source Technology Education
OpenSourceForAll writes "North Lake College in Irving, TX is offering the first Open Source Technology certificate in the U.S. beginning Spring of 2006. The certificate program was made possible through a grant by the Texas Skills Standards Board. As a TSSB-recognized program, open source will finally get the corporate and industrial exposure it deserves. We believe the program is the only one of its kind in the nation at the community college level. Our goal is to promote Open Source as a business philosophy and as a way of life rather than limiting the program to a few token OSS offerings. Among the courses to be offered: The Philosophy of Open Source, a series of LAMP courses, and a capstone course which will focus on OSS development practices. Courses will
be offered both on-line and on-campus."
I agree, I would too. But even better, I'd like to send some people to that course, especially intermediate manager/technical types at my company. They're the ones, unfortunately, who just don't get it and need to be educated about the principles of Open Source and what makes it worthwhile.
In my opinion an associates in this holds much more value than a Microsoft Certified Professional certificate.
If universities dish out Bachelor of Science/Art degrees in Madonna Studies (the musician), golf course management, and pig enterprise management, one would hope that they'd jump on this.
Advice for my fellow geeks: before seeking out that threesome you dream of, you might see what a TWOsome is like first.
A class on the philosphy of open source? A whole semester? Yay indoctrination!
That was for Kansas: Butler Community College, Cowley County Community College, Hutchinson Community College and Wichita Area Technical College.
Making the study of Open Source software and philosophy available to students as formal curriculum can only help to further establish an already unstoppable momentum. Microsoft must now open yet another front in their battle against open source. From MS's academic "studies" that attack open source as a viable platform for governments and private citizens, to their secret slashdot promoters, to their highly-paid lobbyists in every country, MS must now take the war into the offices of, I hope, what will become thousands of college administrations, and somehow persuade them NOT to offer a view contrary to the official Redmond way. Good luck, MS!
I'm not sure it's a great idea to focus much on LAMP. Most people I know just think of it as a cheap way to setup a website, giving crap about stuff such as the license or philosopy.
Especially the answer sheet to tests.
What sort of "LAMP" are they talking about here? Does the "P" represent Python, PHP, or Perl? Some combination of the three?
What about FAMP (FreeBSD, Apache, MySQL, Python) or NAPRR (NetBSD, Apache, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails), and so on?
I don't think it's a good program if it doesn't expose the students to the entire open source community. It's good for such business people to be aware of the alternatives to commercial, closed source software. But it's also important for them to realize that the open source community isn't limited to Linux, MySQL and PHP. There are often far better (ie. more secure, less resource-intensive, etc.) pieces of open source software out there. And if their developers suggest the use of such alternatives, it would be beneficial if they had some knowledge of them.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Do any educational institutions offer Open Source Professionalism courses? Such a course may be quite beneficial for many open source developers. While many developers are great programmers and designers, they often lack the public relations skills necessary for any serious project. It's not just about the communication skills with users, but also about projecting a solid, professional image.
More often than not we see instances of open source developers damaging the reputation and image of the projects they're involved with. Take the recent case of Novell's servers being vandalized. And then there was the recent incident of a KOffice developer publically insulting a KOffice user. Whatever the circumstances, the end result is that the product and community looks bad because of the lack of professionalism from even just a single individual.
That is why I suggest that many open source developers take a course on basic professionalism, if one is offered anywhere. Any large scale project requires developers who are polite, intelligent, respectable and well-spoken. The open source community has the capability to succeed beyond our wildest dreams if we as a group are able to master professionalism.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I would like to find out more about getting involved in these kind of initiatives , perhaps as a change career direction. I've heard of similar government and local council initiatives in the UK where I live. I've got an excellent background with linux and opensource technologies but want possibly to move away from Web Development and do something where im working with what I love and perhaps branch out and gain some more skills along the way.
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Nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
We had a computer center that was "donated" to us by Microsoft. There were banners hanging all around it saying stuff like "Welcome to the Microsoft Computer Lab" It was about 1999 or so, and all the PCs were Dell GXa and GXi PCs with removable hard drive trays. I was going to be taking MCSE courses for Windows NT 4.0 at the time. I finished Networking Essentials and Windows NT 4.0, but shortly after took a job where one of the requirements was that the person NOT be an MCSE because they were tired of MCSEs. They said they picked me because I didn't have an MCSE and I knew what I was talking about.
There's also a class on Open Source this fall term at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Mail me for more information.
- Hubert
Reporter: Senator, why is there a decrease in personal wealth?
Senator: I blame the Ways and Means comittee!
Reporter: The Ways And Means Comittee?!?
Senator: Yes, you have have Means, they'll find Ways to get it!
I basically have to agree with the GP here. Burger-flippers have to be polite to people that don't deserve it, because it's their ass on the line. Ditto all the way up the corporate chain.
Please, please explain to me why a KOffice developer has any incentive to lick the boots of the un/misinformed (which, to put it as "professionally" as possible, you were clearly a member of in the linked thread). It's not like you pay his salary.
You can whine and moan all you like that this guy doesn't behave within the choking confines of corporate norms, but that doesn't mean his behavior is at all out of line. I think you need to re-examine the way you expect to be treated. It seems pretty apparent that your first reaction wasn't, "Why did I piss this guy off so much?" but "Oh my god! This guy is pissed off at me! That's not supposed to happen!"
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
I got hold of the course syllabus and I am posting it here.
Chapter 1. RTFM.
That is all.