[TOS] Teaching the concept of Free Software

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

On Tue, 1 Dec 2009, Stormy Peters wrote:

> I mentioned TOS in my last weekly update and Richard Stallman asked if 
> people in this group are teaching the concepts of free software as well 
> as the open source model? (Free software, the movement and the ideals as 
> opposed to open source software.)
> 
> Since many of the materials I've seen include a history that usually 
> mentions Richard, I'm thinking many of you do ... but I'd like to put 
> the question out there and introduce Richard to the group.
> 
> I'm also sure that if people are interested in covering it in your 
> classes, we could find guest speakers from the community as well.

Speaking from the perspective of the textbook effort -- a textbook 
intended, recall, for the complete neophyte -- I would say that free 
software ideals come first and last.  First, as a *very* thin introduction 
and a promise to get to it again later -- because at that point the 
students really don't even know enough to get it.  And then last as the 
coda.

The reason that FOSS is potentially useful in the CS/CSEE classroom is 
because it allows students to play in large codebases without needing 
anyone's permission.  That is tremendously powerful to the aspiring 
programmer.

Show that power first.  Get the students to understand, and participate 
in, the collaborative development model.  And then, when they start to 
"get it", that's when the deeper questions come to the surface: what makes 
this cooperative model possible?  What rights do people have to this thing 
that they all share?  Once they're actually participating with other 
people, these questions become pragmatic questions that matter.

--g

--
Computer Science professors should be teaching open source.
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