[TOS] Teaching the concept of Free Software
Jan Wildeboer
jwildebo at redhat.com
Sat Dec 5 13:50:22 UTC 2009
A very valid point. There are lots of "be very afraid" type slidedecks
explaining BSD v GPL etc but everytime I ask a lawyer about the 30+ EULAs on
a typical windows machine and their impact the lawyer gets violenlty silent.
This is also a good point to discuss Linux distributions. Red Hat and Fedora
invest quite a lot of time and (skilled) ressources in making sure that the
distribution in itself allows for maximum freedom.
Quite some other distributions care a lot less.
An interesting bullet point when comparing distributions IMHO.
Jan
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----- Original Message -----
From: tos-bounces at teachingopensource.org
<tos-bounces at teachingopensource.org>
To: Ralph Morelli <ralph.morelli at trincoll.edu>
Cc: rms at gnu.com <rms at gnu.com>; stormy at gnome.org <stormy at gnome.org>;
tos at teachingopensource.org <tos at teachingopensource.org>
Sent: Fri Dec 04 16:00:36 2009
Subject: Re: [TOS] Teaching the concept of Free Software
Ralph,
You made many good points.
I particularly want to emphasize this one:
> If the success of FOSS depends strictly on its high quality and
> its practical benefits, I worry that it will be more easily undermined and
> co-opted in the long run by cheap (or free) proprietary software.
Students (and Faculty) today tend to have access to reduced-price
proprietary software, and as a result they tend to under appreciate
the value of FOSS.
When covering the lectures on licensing, we have found very
useful to start not by describing FOSS licenses, but by reading
EULAs of typical software that the students use. Ranging from
their proprietary word processor to popular games like WoW.
This is particularly important when covering topics like Warranties
and Reverse Engineering.
Once they are exposed to all the restrictive terms of EULAs,
they get to appreciate a lot better the importance and significance
of FOSS licenses, and by implication, the importance of FOSS
as a movement.
Luis
------------------------------------------------------------------
2009/12/4 Ralph Morelli <ralph.morelli at trincoll.edu>:
> We in the HFOSS project are also teaching about free software. In summer
> 2008 Richard gave a lecture here in Hartford that our students are still
> talking about
> (links:http://www.archive.org/details/RichardStallmanTalkAtTrinityCollege2008
> and http://blog.hfoss.org/?p=48).
>
> In my sophomore level software development course this semester
> (http://www.cs.trincoll.edu/~ram/cpsc225/schedule.html), we started the
> semester with Stallman's recent CACM article on "Why 'open source' misses
> the point of free software" and then also read Free Software/Free
> Society.
> We also read the Cathedral and the Bazaar as well as Karl Fogel's book.
> We
> also read Perens' "It's time to talk about free software again" letter
> (http://slashdot.org/articles/99/02/18/0927202.shtml).
>
> In my freshman level course
> (http://turing.cs.trincoll.edu/~ram/cpsc110/schedule.html) we read the
> Fogel piece on "What is free software" as well as the "GNU Manifesto" and
> spend a considerable amount of our discussions talking about the free
> software principles.
>
> This year I'm also teaching a one-time-only first year seminar on "Freedom
> and Openness Everywhere"
> (http://www.cs.trincoll.edu/~ram/fysm183/schedule.html) that focuses
> broader
> societal and culture implications of the FOSS movement. In that class we
> also read parts of "Free Software/Free Society," as well as the Fogel
> article.
>
> I find that students seem initially drawn to the more practical focus of
> the
> open source viewpoint, but my sense is that, as the semester has
> progressed,
> they start to appreciate more the importance of Stallman's argument. What
> really helped things this semester is we held a free campus-wide showing
> of
> "Revolution OS" and we had a very nice public lecture by Leslie Hawthorn
> as
> part of our recent Software Freedom Week (http://sfw.trincoll.edu/). Both
> the film and the lecture helped students appreciate the importance of the
> free software principles -- I know this because they all wrote essays on
> the
> reactions to the movie and the lectures.
>
> In any case, we are strongly committed to the free software principles.
> And
> I think Stallman's right about the importance of emphasizing software
> freedom among our students and other new members of the "open source
> community." If the success of FOSS depends strictly on its high quality
> and
> its practical benefits, I worry that it will be more easily undermined and
> co-opted in the long run by cheap (or free) proprietary software.
>
> Best,
> -- ralph morelli
> Professor of Computer Science
> Trinity College, Hartford
> (http://www.hfoss.org)
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 1:20 PM, Stephen Jacobs <itprofjacobs at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
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