Awesome!! I just discovered that there is a site devoted to those who teach open source.

TeachingOpenSource.org was set up in March 2009 to serve as a neutral collaboration point for everyone involved in Teaching Open Source, where we can:

• Work out Open Source educational models, support and funding schemes, community relationships, and other issues.
• Advocate for the changes that are necessary to further the goal of teaching Open Source.

The initial collaboration points were this wiki, the Planet, and the TeachingOpenSource Mailing List; these have been extended with the #teachingopensource IRC channel and a monthly conference call.

I’m off to read and learn more - share with those around you who are teaching open source - this might be a very handy tool.

I’ve been catching up on blog reading and learning about all kinds of great open source learning tools. In addition to yesterday’s post about teaching open source to students, I found this great list of tutorials for open source applications from OStatic. It includes tutorials for OpenOffice, GIMP, Linux and more. Make sure you share these tutorials when teaching your colleagues about open source.

InfoPeople have an upcoming (July 21) webinar are on open source software in libraries:

Open Source Library System Software: Libraries Are Doing It for Themselves

The first webinar in this series presented an introduction to and overview of Open Source Library Systems (OSLS). This webinar focuses on how you can become involved in improving OSLS software – even if you’re not a programmer or a “techie”!

One of the great advantages of an Open Source Library System (OSLS) such as Koha or Evergreen is the ability to empower staff and optimize the user’s experience by getting involved in improving the software. This is in contrast to the traditional integrated library system (ILS) model where all the software development was done by “the vendor,” creating a condition of “learned helplessness” on the part of library staff. By making the transition to OSLS, you can shift the culture of your organization from “learned helplessness” to one in which everyone can contribute to enhancing their work environment.

Learn more on the official page.

When I was in undergrad, my college didn’t have many options for computer classes. It has since adopted lots of open source (including Moodle - which I just love). I don’t know what portion of their curriculum includes open source, but I hope they come close to what’s being done at Seneca:

When I first became involved with Mozilla through working on a Mozilla Foundation accessibility grant, I quickly discovered the impressive open source educational work at Seneca College in Toronto, lead by David Humphry and Chris Tyler. Students on the computer science course get the enviable opportunity to work on projects that immerse them directly in some of the most successful open source development communities, contributing to programs such as Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office and Fedora (Linux).  These projects are not just academic exercises, rather they are strategic for the open source projects, and students contributions are accepted into the projects. As a result students get incomparable experience working on large code bases and in the process acquire the open source software and community development skills that are highly sought by companies all over the world.

This from a post on open source education at the OSS Watch team blog. Do you know of any educational institution that’s teaching this much (or more) open source? If so I’d love to hear about it.

The amazing staff at NEKLS have done it again! They have already contributed to the Koha community with their amazing NExpress website, but now they have added training videos into the mix!! Make sure you check out their videos and their other training materials and subscribe to their site!

Make sure you keep an eye on these open source webinars this spring:

Thursday Dates, 2-3pm, CST

• 3/12 - SOPAC
• 3/19 - Mobile Applications
• 3/26 - WordPress as a CMS
• 4/2 - Bitnami Sandboxes
• 4/9 - LibraryThing for Libraries
• 4/16 - LibX

The registration page still has last season’s dates on it - so keep an eye on the blog for information about registering.

I just finished reading a great article in EDUCAUSE Review titled Open Source: Narrowing the Divides between Education, Business, and Community. Jim Whitehurst has a great explanation for why we should be teaching our students on and about open source software (so great, I wish I had come up with it first )

We live in an increasingly global community. Gone are the days when working for a company in an office meant serving a small geographic area from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Today’s graduates will work in a matrix environment where projects cut across organizational and geographic boundaries, requiring cooperation and communication. Open source uses the power of collaboration to provide students with hands-on learning and to equip students with an expanded skill set that is very attractive to businesses.

Open source better prepares students for the business world by exposing them to real-world problems and encouraging learning through the completion of real tasks. Open source amplifies a “hands-on” approach to learning by connecting students to a community of users in an effort to solve problems. Open-source developers don’t rely on textbooks; they rely on the knowledge base of other developers with whom they connect through community forums, building off of one another’s ideas to create a solution that is eventually shared with all. To this extent, open source better prepares students for future job experiences and allows them to complete, while they’re still in school, work that’s being used by the global open-source community.

Open source also teaches students useful skills that can be applied across other coursework and classes. Students have the opportunity to work with many more code bases in open source than are found in traditional student projects. This strengthens skills in collaboration, project management, and testing and encourages a well-rounded computer science education, making students more marketable in the business world.

Make sure you read the entire article and send it on to the decision makers in your institution. Jim touches on many points that are right in line with my ideals and the ideals of libraries in general.

It’s not too late to register for my PALINET workshop next week:

• Open Source 202: General Applications All Grown Up
  PALINET, Live Online, December 11, 2008

Make sure you mark your calendars, invite your colleagues, and share info about this event with all of your library friends:

Date: Mon, Nov 24, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM EST
Duration: 1 hour
Host(s): Brenda Hough

Why are some libraries making the decision to use free and open-source software? Popular reasons include: it’s free! It’s customizable. You are vendor-independent. Security and reliability are also cited as benefits by users.

Is open-source software right for your library? How can you get started? Join this FREE webinar to learn more.

I found a new blog this week and some webinars that may be of interest to you. Check out Library Open Source Webinars and their series of webinars:

Sign up now, mark your calendars and pick your favorite topics for this series of weekly webinars offering fun and informative stuff good for libraries. Here’s the line-up that’s filling out with more great speakers everyday:

11/4 Intro and Overview - Casey Bisson
11/11 OPACs/ILSs
11/18 Drupal in Libraries
Thanksgiving hiatus
12/2 Social Library and it’s Tools - Tasha Saecker
12/9 Plinkit and “Library web sites for all” - Darci Hanning
12/16 Google Sites and Apps for non-profits

Register now for individual webinars at $25 each, or for the whole series at the bargain rate of $100 for 6, at: http://www.wils.wisc.edu/events/opsource_reg.html