Contents

1. SELF Advisory Board
2. Overview of main gaps
3. Learning Standards Expert Group
4. SELF in Mumbai, India, Jan 26th ? Feb 2nd 2007
5. "e-Society.Mk": Free Software in Macedonia
6. OSOSS SYMPOSIUM
7. Agenda
8. About

1. SELF Advisory Board

The SELF Consortium partners are in the process of establishing an Advisory Board associated to the SELF Platform in order to contribute with suggestions and expertise to this project. Advisory Board members will play a key role in the development and implementation of the SELF Platform. They will participate in the production process and the exploitation of results, to bring together communities and knowledge as well as to raise awareness and to contribute to the building of critical mass for the use of Free Software and Open Standards. The Advisory Board members will be a mix of well-recognised people in the areas of Education and Training, Learning Environments and Platforms, Legal/Lawyers, Free Software in eGovernment and NGOs, Business, Development of Open Standards and Government/Politics. As the target groups consist of several actors and regions, the Advisory Board will mirror these to create an on-going link with individuals and organisations.

2. Overview of main gaps

As a result of researching existing materials and an overview of which parties can be interested in the SELF materials, a first gap analysis of the desired educational materials has been performed. Several teams will be set up shortly to work on the following areas:

1. Generic gaps -- gaps in this category are transversal to the categories

• Resources structured as learning materials
• Migration to Free Software and Open Standards
• Basic computer science for the general public

2. Specific gaps -- relative to a specific category or application

• Basics of Free Software and Open Standards advocacy
• Educational applications
• Enterprise applications
• Specific applications such as:

            * Evolution
            * OpenOffice.org - Base
            * GnomePlanner
            and others.

These teams need help from the communities! If you feel you can and want to help, please contact us at self [at] selfproject.eu. If you - or an organisation you know of - are looking for an educational material that fits in our scope, please let us know so one of the teams can work on that.

3. Learning Standards Expert Group

Learning standards and guidelines for the contents of the SELF Platform provide a common basis for the design of educational materials. The Learning Standards Expert Group (LSEG) has been constituted in order to help define the learning standards and guidelines for the contents of the platform.

The Learning Standards Expert Group will advice, provide feedback and test demonstrating the final version of the SELF Platform, emphasising the implementation of the learning standards. They define common goals and structures for different kinds of educational materials. This group is formed by experts in the field of Learning Objects (LOM, SCORM and/or IMS-LD) to give advice in the definition of the information used to label the SELF contents and to create the structure of the SELF repository. The Expert Group, led by David Megias, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, consists of: Dai Griffiths, Rosanna Forestello, Rob Koper, Julià Minguillón, and M. Sasikumar.

More information in our press release

4. SELF in Mumbai, India, Jan 26th - Feb 2nd 2007

During the second leg of the SELF project, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR willt organise the second BOARD meeting in Mumbai, India. The issues that will be discussed are related to SELF Support Programme (SSP), Finances & budget, Expert groups, and other strategic plans. The week long meeting comprises of two days workshop sessions, three days board meeting, one day SELF conference and one day for social event.

The two days workshop sessions will be focused on the development of the SELF Platform and interface design of the Technical Experts Group lead by Nagarjuna and the team. During the three days board meeting it is proposed to present a consolidated financial report by Wouter Tebbens. The report is for the first semester from July 1st - December 31st, 2006 along with a further estimation of finances for the next semester. The other issues to be discussed are related to the Expert Groups: Learning Materials Expert Group by David Megias, Communications by Hinde ten Berge, Learning Standards Experts Group by David Megias, Legal Experts Group by George Greve, Jonas Oberg, and Quality Assurance Experts Group by Federico Heinz. The other issues related to the SELF International Congress 2008 will be discussed.

Another important Mumbai event is a one day international conference on Science, Education and Learning in Freedom to be organised by Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR in Mumbai, India on 2nd February, 2007. The conference will be opened by Richard Stallman. Expected are people from the community of free software advocates in ministries, industry, educational institutes. It is intended to have talks related to Free Software, Learning Standards, Legal policies, etc. along with panel discussions on Free Software and Education. On this day, HBCSE will also launch the Gnowledge portal for science education to the community. Further details are to be announced soon...

Contribution by Meena Kharatmal, HBCSE, TIFR

5. "e-Society.Mk": Free Software in Macedonia

The Second International Conference "e-Society.Mk" took place in Skopje, Macedonia, on November 15, 16 and 17th, 2006.

This year, the focus of the conference was regional approach to ICT policy creation. The conference gathers experts, policymakers, advocacy groups and other stakeholders from Macedonia, the SEE Region and EU to share knowledge and experiences through series of panel discussions and workshops. One of the topics of the conference was Free Software and Open Source Software. Ms. Pefeva from ISOC Bulgaria presented as part of her presentation the SELF project. Further her presentation, representatives from Free Software Macedonia and GNU/Linux Centar Serbia communities expressed interest to the project and possible cooperation.

Another valuable presentation has been performed by Igor Stamatovski, from Free Software Macedonia. He presented why open standards are crucial for all during the panel 'e-Government and Citizen participation'. It is important to mention one of the follow up recommendation elaborated during the conference: Past experience has shown that use of closed standards leads to difficulties in the work and decreased opportunity for inclusion of all stakeholders in the development of information society. In order to provide the highest interoperability level between all e-services users the governments should provide continual communication by using open standards defined by the relevant international organisations and bodies (IDABC, W3C, OASIS).

More information about the e-Society Macedonia conference

Contribution by Dessi Pefeva, ISOC.bg

6. OSOSS Symposium, December 14, 2006, Arnhem, the Netherlands

On December 14, OSOSS, the program OSOSS on Open Standards and Open Source for government, will organise "Van Denken naar Doen" ("From Thinking to Doing"): a symposium about the use of Free Software and the used applications and experiences within the Dutch government. Speakers will include people from central and decentral government institutions, amongst others member of parliament Kees Vendrik, and Karel de Vriendt, head of the European eGovernment Services (IDABC).

During this event Wouter Tebbens and Hinde ten Berge will give an overview on the new developments within the SELF Project. They will present the accepted open standards and guidelines of the project. Secondly, the presentation will include an update on the first materials following the requirements of the SELF Platform: high quality educational material, published under free licenses.

Entrance is free, please register beforehand.

More information and registration

7. Agenda

OSOSS Symposium

December 14, 2006, Arnhem, the Netherlands
A symposium about the use of Free Software and the used applications and experiences within the Dutch government

• 12:00 - 12:45 E-Learning and Free Software, Wouter Tebbens and Hinde ten Berge, ISOC.nl
  

F/OSS Usability Workshop

December 15, 2006, CINECA, Bologna, Italy
tOSSad project organises a F/OSS Usability Workshop in Bologna, Italy on December, 15. The workshop will focus on the usability of free and open source software, aiming to build a bridge between the developers and the usability specialists.

International Conference on Science, Education and Learning in Freedom

February 2, 2007, Mumbai, India
The SELF conference will help to establish a network with the community of free software advocates in ministry, industry, and educational institutes.
More information to follow.

8. About

SELF News is a monthly newsletter about the SELF Project and related issues. SELF aims to be the central platform with high quality educational and training materials about Free Software and Open Standards. It is based on world-class Free Software technologies that permit both reading and publishing free materials, and is driven by a worldwide community.

Information about SELF:
http://selfproject.eu/

Consortium Partners:

• Internet Society Netherlands
• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
• Free Software Foundation Europe
• Gothenburg University
• Internet Society Bulgaria
• Fundación Vía Libre
• Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

Newsletter editor:
Hinde ten Berge

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