The AFFS (and related organisations) would not be an appropriate front for this activity as their objectives would be perceived as overtly
Just in case it is of any use to you guys this is the contact for Richard
Stallman rms@gnu.org a leading light in the free software movement....I
organised for him to speak in the Uk at DFID last year and put an invite on
this mail list...but without response.....he is a very engaging and
enthusiastic speaker...totally sold on Open software and with many years of
experience in starting/supporting associations....
rgds Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: MJ Ray [mailto:markj@cloaked.freeserve.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 11:49
To: suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com
Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Open Souce Conference - a way
forward ...
=?iso-8859-1?q?Richard=20Rothwell?=
fine - do we need to form an association / web site / grouping now? I think so. Sorry to say this on this list but it can't have the name "suse" in it!
In fact, I can think of many reasons why AFFS is a good place to take this forwards: - Richard Smedley (current press and education officer) has been involved in this type of project before and knows the history... those who don't learn from history, etc; - MJ Ray (treasurer) is currently an FE lecturer; - Marc Eberhard (chairman) is an HE lecturer; - There are compatible aims of this campaign with the AFFS aims, I think; - AFFS has resources and willing to persue this; - AFFS was designed as a stable organisation to house exactly this sort of campaign; - AFFS provides a link to sympathisers outside of education. I can think of some reasons why you might be concerned: - We are currently at half-strength with 5 on the exec instead of 10; - We are currently distracted, trying to organise a conference and AGM; - We are an associate group of FSF Europe and will not use the phrase "open source". But: - The May AGM should elect enough to bring us up to full strength; - Maybe you'd like to come to another conference? ;-) ; ...and... - "Open Source" is an ambiguous phrase with definitions from OSI, OeE, Becta, Microsoft(!) and many others. One of the original reason for the Open Source Initiative was to remove ambiguity by securing a trademark on the phrase (wishful thinking?) and to clarify things through marketing it. However, they didn't get the trademark and their marketing effort is dwarfed by other people defining "open source" as other things. The Free Software Definition is simpler and the ideas have had 20 years or so to establish themselves. Another reason was to remove the connection with the ideas of sharing and being a good member of the community. From what I heard at the conference, those are still very popular ideas with people working in education. Some people class promotion of these ideas as political. I guess in that case, Chris could call AFFS a political group. Oh well. I'm not sure why it would be less popular with educators or why it should stop us promoting free software for the practical benefits too, though. If you sympathise with the goal of providing effective promotion of our preferred software licensing, please use the older term "Free Software" and do the relatively simple explanation about "free as in freedom." Ambiguity and division never help marketing. The material I consulted for that overlong bullet is mostly drawn from OSI's own site, but I had to dig around in pages not listed on the site index for some of it. The history of OSI and "Notes for translators" are the source for most of it. These are some of the older documents on there, as I remember them from the start of OSI, and quite enlightening about the original purposes of the campaign, instead of what it is today. I now return you to your normal mailing list. MJR -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-help@suse.com