First thanks to Chris for putting himself out there to announce Schoolforge UK to the Schoolforge world.
From my colleagues at Ultralab (Stephen Heppell's lot) I got the offer of us taking a 'hot seat' spot on 'Talking Heads' (the virtual community of school leaders). AFAIK head teachers of all schools are eligable to be members, so when we have more to show them ( i.e. after bringing all the hoped for resources together) I think that could be a great opportunity to deliver information and stimualate debate in a highly focussed way. It's not organised yet but any thoughts on what to include would be useful - if nothing else it is a little seed aroud which other ideas can grow.
Secondly I think the Wiki or website or whatever should be focussing as much on the idea of sharing knowledge and resources, and the philosopy of openness in education as it does on the technology of open source, or freely-distributed or whatever you want to call it software/solutions. I think it imperitive that Schoolforge UK is as inclusive and encouraging as possible - covering the philosophy that Stephen Heppel, Roger from SuSE and Diana Laurillard were talking about at the conference. Analogies with the 'scientific principle' are useful (standing on the shoulders of giants, networks of peer review etc) and I think strike a resonating chord with many more than those that just understand or are interested in the software. Get philosophical not evangelical!(in the words of Stephen Heppell). I'd also like to suggest a joint/combined/co-ordinated press release for Schoolforge UK to tie in with the conference one we're organising now at APU. I thought it would be useful to show the coming together at the conference and the springing forth of SchoolForge UK therefrom. Just a thought... What were we thinking of putting in the SchoolForge UK release? I'm not sure how many folks are using the list in the next week or so, but i'd like to apologise in advance for not replying to any responses as I'm on my hols until next Tuesday (22/4). Also I'd like to thank all those who have responded with case studies and encourage more to come forward into the light. James