[TOS] FSF announcement I believe will interest list members

[Don Davis]

I'd like to share something with the list that I feel is (1) very
pertinent to the list and (2) of great interest to list members.

I apologize sincerely if anyone finds this at all spammy.

>From FSF:


The new effort is based at http://www.gnu.org/education.

The newly formed GNU Education Team is being led by Dora Scilipoti, an
Italian free software activist and teacher. Under her leadership, the
Team has developed a list of specific goals to guide their work:

    *

      Present cases of educational institutions around the world who are
successfully using and teaching free software.
    *

      Show examples of how free programs are being used by educational
institutions to improve the learning and teaching processes.
    *

      Publish articles on the various aspects involved in the use of
free software by educational institutions.
    *

      Maintain a dialogue with teachers, students and administrators of
educational institutions to listen to their difficulties and provide
support.
    *

      Keep in contact with other groups around the world committed to
the promotion of free software in education.

GNU and its host organization, the Free Software Foundation (FSF),
emphasize that free software principles are a prerequisite for any
educational environment that uses computers:

    Educational institutions of all levels should use and teach free
software because it is the only software that allows them to accomplish
their essential missions: to disseminate human knowledge and to prepare
students to be good members of their community. The source code and the
methods of free software are part of human knowledge. On the contrary,
proprietary software is secret, restricted knowledge, which is the
opposite of the mission of educational institutions. Free software
supports education, proprietary software forbids education.

In an article at
http://fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-education-website-relaunch, Scilipoti
adds insights about the project's organizing philosophy, current
contributors, and progress so far. Of her basic motivation for being
involved, she says, "As a free software advocate and a teacher, I always
felt that the GNU Project needed to address the subject specifically and
in depth, for it is in the education field that its ethical principles
find the most fertile ground for achieving the goal of building a better
society."

In her article, Scilipoti also highlights some of the free software
success stories from around the world, especially Kerala, India, where
the government has migrated over 2,600 of its public schools to free
software.

While the Education Team has already compiled a collection of useful
materials, they are also looking for more volunteer contributors. People
who want to help, or who have information about instructive examples of
existing use of free software in schools, should contact education at gnu.org.

"Education really is one of the most fundamental areas we need to focus
on to achieve real social change," said Free Software Foundation
executive director John Sullivan. "We need to be acknowledging and
assisting schools that are doing the right thing, and helping those who
aren't yet on board understand why those giveaway Microsoft Office,
iPad, and Kindle deals aren't so great for classrooms after all. We're
very thankful to all of the Team members for stepping up to meet this
challenge. I hope others will be inspired by their work and join the
effort."

The Education Team has also been working closely with GNU's Translation
Team to make the new materials available in as many languages as
possible. People interested in helping with the translation component of
the project should see the information at
http://www.gnu.org/server/standards/README.translations.html.
About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
in freedom) software — particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants — and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
About Free Software and Open Source

The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer users. Some,
especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as "open
source," which cites only practical goals such as making software
powerful and reliable, focuses on development models, and avoids
discussion of ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints are different at
the deepest level. For more explanation, see
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.
About the GNU Operating System and Linux

Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a free
software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only
operating system developed specifically for the sake of users' freedom.
See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html.

In 1992, the essential components of GNU were complete, except for one,
the kernel. When in 1992 the kernel Linux was re-released under the GNU
GPL, making it free software, the combination of GNU and Linux formed a
complete free operating system, which made it possible for the first
time to run a PC without non-free software. This combination is the
GNU/Linux system. For more explanation, see
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.
Media Contacts

John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns at fsf.org

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