I usually lurk but wanted to pipe up on this one. On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Stephen Jacobs <itprofjac...@gmail.com> wrote: > So, enter the RIT Prof :-) > > Free Software and Open Source are taught first as part of an historical and > conceptual thread that includes... > > Copyright, trademark, patent, fair use, public domain, selective enforcement > of copyright (grateful dead, Phish, etc allowing free distribution of concert > tapes and Clinton's efforts detailed in "wired's "Hey Man, Smell My Sample) > > and then historical alternatives including Morton and Sandin's > "Copy-It-Right" and "Distribution Religion," Copy-Left, GNU and the GPL, FSF, > the Open Source License, Creative Commons, and the Pirate Party.
I wish the topic of licenses, patents, copyrights, etc was treated in a more general sense and not as a computer science FOSS issue. These issues impact us all in more ways than software. What is fair use on copying from a book? an article? video? What about DRM, P2P How do I comply with terms X? The first X I think of is the footnote on every ACM and IEEE article about payment. Professionally I see a lot of people assuming that if they can download it, it must be OK to use for any purpose. And IT can be anything. These are not stupid people and not CS people -- they were just never taught. There are a lot of open issues in this area which seem to get largely ignored until the boogey man of FOSS comes up. So the end of this rant, is that every student should get a lesson in "intellectual property law". And it should be taught just along with "what is plagarism?" because in my mind, they are both just ways to be dishonest with someone else's intellectual material. FWIW I think a quick coverage of export law would be good in this international age. It does impact a lot of scientific research and sharing material when team members have different nationalities. Then you would have more time to hack. :) And maybe the other departments would know when they are violating intellectual property "requests". --joel sherrill RTEMS > They read the recent Communication of the ACM viewpoints by Richard Stallman > on why "Open Source" Misses the Point of Free Software" and the Wired piece > by Kevin Kelly on "The New Socialism." > > All that said, the course's main focus is on supporting Sugar Labs' Math4 > Team efforts. It teaches high level , introductory concepts on IP, Open > Source process and tools, child development, how to write a lesson plan, User > Testing, Technology in the developing world and Globalization, among others. > > I see the OLPC, Sugar and this course as "a Trojan Horse to Open Source," > something that introduces the students to Free Software concepts and > OSS/FOSS/FLOSS process while providing them with a service learning > opportunity to get them involved in Humanitarian work, rather than a "Course > on Free Software or a Course on Open Source" specifically. This continues my > own bent to having students use their skills and homework to benefit others. > > Some of the course topics above have been tweaked from the fall's draft > syllabus at http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/RIT/Honors_Seminar > > I intend to release the full set of revised materials, lecture slides (which > I'll have to move from ppt to odp first) sometime in April or May when I'm > teaching one course, instead of the three I taught last quarter and this > quarter ;-) > > Hope that all helps. > > > > Stephen Jacobs > Associate Professor > Interactive Games and Media > Rochester Institute of Technology > 102 Lomb Memorial Drive > Bldg 70 > Rochester, NY 14618 > s...@mail.rit.edu > 585-475-7803 > > > _______________________________________________ > tos mailing list > tos@teachingopensource.org > http://teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos > _______________________________________________ tos mailing list tos@teachingopensource.org http://teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos
