[TOS] tos Digest, Vol 20, Issue 4

Remy DeCausemaker remyd at civx.us
Mon Oct 4 18:10:58 UTC 2010


Matt,

Very cool concept for a course. I think the Starfish Text is a good one for
sure.

My A-team of Opensource Texts would be the following 3:
 - The Success of Opensource, Steven Weber
    - This book is somewhat dated now, but gives some great "economics" of
why this movement is significant.
 - The Cathedral and the Bazaar
    - One, its Free, and two, it gives another great look at how OS
community works/changes things.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar
 - Code: and Other Laws of Cyberspace
    - This one is really dated now, but since it is Lessig, it will continue
to have some "kernels" of wisdom.

I'd add a 4th, the one that we used in RIT's OLPC Seminar Course--Now
Humanitarian Free and Opensource Software Development Course-- Karl Fogel's
book available at http://producingoss.com/

I think that bringing sustainable business development and OSS into the same
boat are a *wonderful* frame for students. The only concern I'd have is that
it is hard to find non-software success stories that are based around
Opensource Communities. That being said, finding non-software based products
and business models is exactly what the movement needs!

I applaud your conception, but I'd be sure to include a solid software
development component into the coursework, but I may be developer biased ;)

If you ever find yourself in or around Rochester, Professor Jacobs,
Professor Shein, and myself would love to chat with you more about it.
--RemyD.

On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 12:00 PM, <tos-request at teachingopensource.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Course design question (Matthew Jadud)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 20:16:21 -0400
> From: Matthew Jadud <mjadud at allegheny.edu>
> Subject: [TOS] Course design question
> To: tos at teachingopensource.org
> Message-ID:
>        <AANLkTimk3TONkjTwztwTeJSd=5DGgnbXu2k6+LcbnhV7 at mail.gmail.com<5DGgnbXu2k6%2BLcbnhV7 at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> HI all,
>
> I have had many opportunities to work with first-year
> non-computer-science students lately. Feedback on the course I'm
> planning for next term is welcome. So far, I've got a course
> description, one text, and a plan for how to get the students to
> engage with local and remote communities.
>
> Last year, I ran "Technology and Activism," which was closely coupled
> with "Art and Activism." Given that the latter is not running next
> term, and the two were very closely coupled, I'm not in a position to
> do a quick revision of "Tech and Activism" and run it again. This
> term, I'm running "Creativity and Leadership." We're reading some fun
> stuff (we're finishing "Starfish and the Spider" at the moment), and
> are exploring into the space of open communities a bit more gently
> than we did with the "X and Activism" courses last year. My proposed
> course for next semester currently has the following description:
>
> ===
> Making the Future: Entrepreneurial Empowerment for Everyone
>
> A hands-on exploration of the tools, physical and virtual, that
> empower individuals to participate in growing and changing communities
> on a local and global scale. This course will make use of virtual
> tools (wikis, YouTube) as well as physical (eg. the Makerbot 3D
> printer) to begin "democratizing innovation," described by Eric von
> Hippel in his book of the same name. Our work will have us
> communicating with entrepreneurs locally (in Meadville) as well as
> globally as we experience the process of decentralized collaboration
> and change.
> ===
>
> Within the context of this course, I'd specifically like to do the
> following:
>
> 1. Find the funding to purchase a Thing-O-Matic[1].
> 2. Set the students the challenge of creating a sustainable business
> around giving away 3D prints to open projects.
>
> By "sustainable business", I mean "we can keep doing it year round."
> At worst, "we can do it through the school year." I can then work that
> business into future runs of these FS courses over the next few years,
> which will give students an authentic, entrepreneurial experience in
> an open, collaborative context where they can see and touch the
> products of their interactive process. Along the way, we read, write,
> and do interviews surrounding the challenges and rewards of working in
> open/decentralized contexts.
>
> My questions to you:
>
> 1. How does it sound? Anything you'd add? Take away?
> 2. Any readings you'd like to see in there?
> 3. Do you think kickstarter.com would fund a project like this? I'm
> looking for approx. $1500 to get the printer and bits.
>
> (If it comes to it, I can probably do it for around $700, but that is
> far from ideal.)
>
> Naturally, the description was due this past Friday. I've been swamped
> keeping up with the courses I'm currently running, both of which
> involve community interaction, and therefore both require me to stay
> on top of quite a few things. But, as long as I'm a day late, another
> might not get me in too much trouble...
>
> Cheers,
> Matt
>
> [1] http://store.makerbot.com/makerbot-thing-o-matic.html
>
>
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> End of tos Digest, Vol 20, Issue 4
> **********************************
>



-- 
Remy DeCausemaker

Remy DeCausemaker
Hacktivist & Storyteller
Center for Student Innovation
Alumni Fellowship Program
Rochester Institute of Technology
Building 87-1600
Rochester, NY 14623
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