SELF News
Monthly newsletter
Sharing knowledge about Free Software
Issue 18, 30 May 2008

Contents

1. SELF Open Documentary Contest Update
2. SELF Testers needed
3. Pre-conference workshop - July 14, 2008
4. SELF Sprint Sessions during FKFT - July 16-17, 2008
5. Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference Programme Update
6. Agenda
7. About

1. SELF Open Documentary Contest Update

The SELF Project is pleased to announce that we have extended the deadline for submissions to the SELF Documentary Contest to allow all participating teams and individuals some additional time to finish their work. The new deadline for submissions is the 30th of June 2008.

At the same time, we are proud to announce the prizes for the contest!

The 50 highest places participants in the contest will receive a SELF Project USB stick with the best placed videos pre-loaded on the stick. In addition to this, the following prizes will be awarded the three best videos:

• 1st prize: Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Laptop with AMD 64 CPU, 2GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive and 15,4" screen.

• 2nd prize: JVC GZ-MG330 Video Camera with 30 GB hard drive

• 3rd prize: Ultra portable Fujifilm Finepix Z20fd digital camera with 10 Mpix resolution

The documentaries will be screened at the Free Knowledge, Free Technology (FKFT) conference in Barcelona, taking place the 15th-17th July 2008 and the best documentaries selected by the jury will be presented at an award ceremony during the conference.

You can find more information about the SELF Project and the contest on the contest website, where you will also find some useful background information, the exact guidelines and evaluation process as well as the submission procedures!

More information: http://selfproject.eu/contest

Contribution by Jonas Oberg, UGOT/FSFE

2. SELF Testers needed

The SELf Platform @ http://beta.selfplatform.eu is aimed to be used by authors to build online courses on Free Software based Educational Materials. At present, it implements features such as---adding courses, learning objects (LO), adding images in the content, organising the LOs, adding LOs to bookshelf, filemanager, viewing and comparing of versions of LOs. As of now, the Platform already has Learning Materials which can be viewed at http://beta.selfplatform.eu/SELF/collectionview/. One can navigate around the existing courses.

Since this is a collaborative, multilingual and author centric platform we welcome teachers, students, people, users, etc. from various communities to actively use and test the Platform for the above mentioned features. We welcome participation for testing of the SELF Platform. You may join as a user and further continue to test, navigate the Platform from a user's perspective. Please note that the Platform is still in a development phase and we want your active participation as a tester to make the Platform user-friendly. If you come across any errors, or feel that it requires certain tasks to be accomplished, you may give your feedback by email to: selftest[at]selfproject.eu.

Alternatively you may also file bugs and feature requests at the project hosting website on Savannah (an user account is required on savannah) at http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/self-platform

Looking forward for your feedback.

Contribution by Meena Kharatmal, HBCSE

3. Pre-conference workshop - July 14, 2008

A one day pre-conference workshop will take place just before the start of the FKFT Conference. The objective of the workshop is to get the community to familiarize with the SELF Platform and to provide with a hands-on experience on using the SELF Platform focussing on the technological, pedagogical aspects of the learning materials.

We invite teachers, hackers, students, and groups of people from various communities to actively participate in the hands-on pre-conference workshop on July 14, 2008. During the workshop, an introduction to the SELF Platform, its architecture, installation and learning materials will be provided. The participants are expected to create lessons and courses based on their domain of expertise as part of their involvement during the hands-on workshop.

Registration: Interested people can communicate about their participation in the pre-conference workshop by email to: self[at]selfproject.eu with the subject: FKFT – preconference workshop

Fee: No fee is required for participating in the pre-conference workshop. Those who have already registered for FKFT from July 15-17, 2008 are welcome to attend the preconference workshop.

Application Deadline: June 30, 2008

Venue: Computer Lab, Universitat de Oberta Catalunya, Barcelona.

Date: July 14, 2008.

Contribution by Meena Kharatmal, HBCSE

4. SELF Sprint Sessions during FKFT - July 16-17, 2008

The SELF Platform has outlined certain features, which need to be implemented as part of its future development. As this is a community based platform, we welcome and will be glad to have participation from hackers, students and other interested parties to help us create those features by coding at a special sprint session. A scholarship for selected participants will be awarded. A local server will be setup by the organizers, and the participants are required to bring their own machines for the sprint sessions.

Coding for Features: Setting up a GNOME Desktop client application, creating an atomizer for the learning material, developing a document exchange module, metadata editing, establishing a p2p network, creating learner's interface for course delivery, etc.

Requirements: A hacker who belongs to student/undergraduate/ graduate / masters level or from teacher community who can code using Free Software. Knowledge of GNU/Linux, Python, Plone, ZOPE, PostgreSQL.

Application Procedure: Applicants are invited to send their resume as either text, html or pdf format & emailed to: meena[at]hbcse.tifr.res.in & nagarjun[at]gnowledge.org with subject as: FKFT-sprint session.

Selection Procedure: Applications will be short listed based on their skills and interests.

Registration Fee: Selected applicants will be waived from the registration fee for the FKFT conference.

Registration deadline: June 30, 2008

Credits: Due credits as authors will be attributed to the respective hackers who code for the features of SELF Platform.

Venue: Fira de Barcelona, Spain

Dates: July 16-17, 2008.

Contribution by Meena Kharatmal, HBCSE

5. Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference Programme Update

Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference, July 15-17, 2008, Barcelona, Spain

Amongst the many very interesting submissions for the Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference the review team has accepted 26 papers. The authors are being informed this week and the programme will go online next week.

A brief overview, to be confirmed:

Tuesday July 15, 14:00 - 20:00

• Registration and Introduction
• Keynote Speaker Richard M. Stallman (GNU Project and Free Software Foundation): "Free Software and Beyond"
• Welcome reception

Wednesday July 16, 09:00 - 18:30

• Keynote Speaker Wouter Tebbens (SELF Coordinator): "The SELF Platform, building Knowledge in Freedom"
• Keynote Speaker Carlos Castro (Extremadura Government): "Digital alfabetisation plan in Extremadura"
• Getting Started with the SELF Platform
• FLOSSCom Workshop
• Panel discussion: "Free Software in Public Bodies"
• Workshop: "Educational Free Software distributions"
• Submitted papers on Educating in Freedom
• Submitted papers on Free Knowledge in Society

Thursday July 17, 09:00 - 18:30

• Keynote Speaker Steven Downes (National Research Council Canada): "The future of education"
• Keynote Speaker Karel De Vriendt (EC/IDABC): title pending
• Panel discussion: "Free Knowledge in Higher Education"
• Panel discussion: "Free software, towards a service oriented economy"
• Submitted papers on Educating in Freedom
• Submitted papers on Free Knowledge in Society
• Submitted papers on Free Knowledge in Public Bodies

Registration is still possible! Please register at http://fkft.eu/register and book your hotel/flight as soon as possible as Barcelona is filling up quickly.

More information: http://fkft.eu/

6. Agenda

SELF Open Documentary Contest Submission Deadline EXTENDED

June 30, 2008, 23:59 UTC

9th Libre Software Meeting
July 1-5, 2008, Mont de Marsan, France

Free Knowledge Free Technology Conference

July 15-17, Barcelona, Spain

ESOF 2008

July 18-22, Barcelona, Spain

• July 20, 14:30 - 18:00 SELF panel: "One Step Further: from Free Software to Free Knowledge"

7. 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
• Goteburg University
• Internet Society Bulgaria
• Fundación Vía Libre
• Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

Newsletter editor:
Hinde ten Berge

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