Patrick Masson

Birds of a feather discussing building and enabling capacity within institutions of higher education though open initiatives. Join us to share how you and your institution are supporting and promoting (or would like to) the development and use of free and open source software, open educational resources, open content, open research, open access and journals, or any other FOSS initiative in highered.

Open source projects that emerge from within institutions of higher education are notably different from those with corporate roots or even founded by individual developers or communities. Indeed, higher education's open source projects most align with the movement's original mantra of "scratching a personal itch" when compared to other projects developed to support commercial interests or ventures. This session will present the unique motivations, attributes, practices, and principles found in academically oriented and research-driven free and open source software projects and, thus, how development, community, governance, funding, and all the other requirements to grow and maintain a project successfully differ from many of today's most notable--non-educational--projects and communities. While this session will reference software projects specifically, attendees with experience with other open educational initiatives will recognize a common theme and, thus, find applicable takeaways applicable to their own work.

The Apereo Incubation program’s mission is to assist open source software projects in adopting sustainable practices. Attendees will take away strategies implemented by Apereo in Higher Education open source projects, with governance strategies, understanding incubation, evaluation of a project, and guidance of its progress. This session is for those who are interested in nurturing and/or implementing best practices in their own open source software projects and forming supportive connections within this open source community.

Other people: Benito Gonzalez Laura Fernandez Moran

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Other people: Madeline Hagen Dr. Michele McColgan Kristopher Navratil

Schools discard thousands of computers each year, as hardware moves off of service warranties or is no longer capable of running the latest proprietary software. At the same time, many schools are looking to increase STEM curricula. The availability of surplus equipment and FLOSS software provides a unique opportunity for schools to enhance their technology-based educational programs. Using discarded computers, kids can repair hardware, build a local-area network, install GNU/Linux, install LibreOffice, install GIMP, and even code a bit. The project teaches kids by doing.

Once their projects are completed, kids can take their computers home, for keeps. For under-served students, where homework is done online and projects are completed via the computer, these rebuilt machines ensure access to education, and provide a source of pride.

Other people: Madeline Hagen Dr. Michele McColgan Kristopher Navratil