[p2p-research] Free Technology Academy and Free Software Foundation Partner to Expand Access to Master's Program in Free Software and Free Standards

[Michel Bauwens]

hi franco,

I already forwarded the other announcement via the list,

feel free to post this on the p2p ning site if you want,

Michel

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 7:08 AM, Franco Iacomella <yaco at gnu.org> wrote:

> Permanent links:
>  - http://www.fsf.org/news/free-technology-academy
>  - http://ftacademy.org/announce/fsf
>
>
> AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- Tuesday, October 26, 2010 -- The Free
> Technology Academy (FTA) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
> announced today their partnership in the FTA's Associate Partner
> Network. The Network aims to expand the availability of professional
> educational courses and materials covering the concepts and applications
> of free software and free standards.
>
> The FTA consists of an advanced virtual campus with course modules which
> can be followed entirely on-line. The learning materials are all
> published under a free license and can be accessed by anyone, but
> learners enrolled in the FTA will be guided by professional teaching
> staff from one of the three participating universities. The FTA aims to
> enable IT professionals, students, teachers and decision makers to
> undertake accredited professional education modules in free software
> studies.
>
> One of the FTA objectives is to establish a strong relationship with the
> free software community and to turn the FTA course materials into an
> essential reference. The FTA seeks to educate and promote the adoption
> of free technologies without losing sight of the free software
> community's core purpose of freedom and social transformation.
>
> Wouter Tebbens, president of the Free Knowledge Institute and director
> of the FTA, explains: "We are building this master's programme on free
> software with the support from relevant organisations and community
> members. And in this sense it is an honour for us to have the support of
> Richard Stallman and the FSF. We hope to be of use to the community and
> we invite the community to participate in our courses and review our
> materials."
>
> Richard Stallman, leader of the free software movement and president of
> the Free Software Foundation, said, "The FTA course materials teach
> people to use GNU/Linux; more than that, it teaches them to recognize
> why this is important."
>
> Details of the Partnership:
>
>     * The FSF will provide special video guest lectures in FTA courses.
>     * The FSF will encourage volunteers to collaborate in the
> maintenance of existing materials and the production of new courses.
>     * The FTA will provide the FSF Associate Membership
> (http://www.fsf.org/associate/) with 30 discount vouchers for FTA
> courses each trimester.
>
> Enrollment for 2011 courses is now open, and students can register at
> http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme/2011.
>
>
> == About the Free Technology Academy ==
>
> A Consortium formed by the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), the
> Open University of the Netherlands and the University of Agder (Norway)
> and led by the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), the FTA has started up -
> with support from the EC's Lifelong Learning Programme - an
> international educational programme on Free Software. The courses are
> taught completely online in a virtual campus based on the Campus Project
> interoperability framework.
>
> Following the Free Software and Open Educational Resources movements,
> all learning materials are freely available through the Internet. The
> use of Free Software (also referred to as Open Source software or Libre
> Software) is rapidly expanding in governmental and private
> organisations. However, still only a limited number of ICT
> professionals, teachers and decision makers have sufficient knowledge
> and expertise in these new fields. The Free Technology Academy aims to
> address this gap by providing high level courses that fit into larger
> Master Programmes at the participating universities.
>
>     * More information: http://www.ftacademy.org
>     * Contact information: contact[AT]ftacademy.org
>     * About standards: http://ftacademy.org/standards
>     * About FTA Associate Network:
> http://ftacademy.org/about/associate-network
>     * FTA Study Programme 2011:
> http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme/2011
>     * FTA Community Portal: http://campus.ftacademy.org/community/
>
>
> == About the Free Software Foundation ==
>
> The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
> computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
> computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
> in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
> GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
> also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
> freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
> and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
>
>     * More information: http://www.fsf.org
>     * Contact information: info[AT]fsf.org
>     * FSF's Membership: http://www.fsf.org/associate/
>     * Donations: http://donate.fsf.org
>
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