[TOS] Teaching the concept of Free Software

[Stephen Jacobs]

So, enter the RIT Prof :-)

Free Software and Open Source are taught first as part of an historical and conceptual thread that includes...

Copyright, trademark, patent, fair use, public domain, selective enforcement of copyright (grateful dead, Phish, etc allowing free distribution of concert tapes and Clinton's efforts detailed in "wired's "Hey Man, Smell My Sample)

and then historical alternatives including Morton and Sandin's "Copy-It-Right" and "Distribution Religion," Copy-Left, GNU and the GPL, FSF, the Open Source License, Creative Commons, and the Pirate Party.

They read the recent Communication of the ACM viewpoints by Richard Stallman on why "Open Source" Misses the Point of Free Software" and the Wired piece by Kevin Kelly on "The New Socialism."

All that said, the course's main focus is on supporting Sugar Labs' Math4 Team efforts.  It teaches high level , introductory concepts on IP,  Open Source process and tools, child development, how to write a lesson plan, User Testing, Technology in the developing world and Globalization, among others.

I see the OLPC, Sugar and this course as "a Trojan Horse to Open Source," something that introduces the students to Free Software concepts and OSS/FOSS/FLOSS process while providing them with a service learning opportunity to get them involved in Humanitarian work, rather than a "Course on Free Software or a Course on Open Source" specifically.  This continues my own bent to having students use their skills and homework to benefit others.

Some of the course topics above have been tweaked from the fall's draft syllabus at http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/RIT/Honors_Seminar

I intend to release the full set of revised materials, lecture slides (which I'll have to move from ppt to odp first) sometime in April or May when I'm teaching one course, instead of the three I taught last quarter and this quarter ;-)

Hope that all helps.



Stephen Jacobs
Associate Professor
Interactive Games and Media
Rochester Institute of Technology
102 Lomb Memorial Drive
Bldg 70
Rochester, NY 14618
sj at mail.rit.edu
585-475-7803