Re: [Masterlibre-list] Report on the master programme

[Eric Cousin]

At 11:18 28/05/2006, Jonas Oberg wrote:
> Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona wrote:
>
> > focused it on a postgraduate programme on libre software, based on the
> > work of this MoLOS group. In fact, I guess we've just put in writting
> > what we have been talking about several times.
>
> That's the impression that I get too. It doesn't seem to contribute very
> much to the state of the art, and seems to mostly iterate previous
> knowledge, if in a more formal and defined way. As such, it lacks in
> much the same way, ie. it provides a path for education only for IT
> engineers. It would've been interesting to see your thoughts on Free
> Software education for other fields, which I consider more important.
>
> However, I'm sure we'll be able to return to that subject later on down
> the road. It's something that Mathias and I from Göteborg University
> will work on more in depth from this fall on, if things develop as we hope.
>
> --
> Jonas Öberg



Hi Jonas,

Many of us on this list probably agree that education on the Libre paradigm 
should not be reserved to IT engineers.
But after all, it is rather natural that designing a Master on Libre and 
Open Source Software (as is the official goal of Molos) leads to an 
IT-oriented specialisation. But this doesn't prevent from going further.

As tolds in the abstract of the proposed report, the master is described as 
being the second generation of Libre software training [the first being 
proficiency in Libre software tools and technologies]. In my view, this 
well fits with the spreading of the Libre paradigm : first, only geeks were 
concerned, then came other computer scientists, then IT managers. Now that 
Libre software has become a real alternative for companies (whether for 
using it or creating it) , many other professional are concerned by the 
Libre paradigm : business, lawyers, ... The phenomenum will probably go 
further, as there is a real paradigm shift.

Therefore, I suggest - as you do - that Libre paradigm as such (i.e. not 
only focused on software) should/will be taught in non-IT cursus. I even 
think that it should be taught in undergraduate classes, if not before. We 
are working on that track (that, for instance, we discussed in our last 
Autour du Libre conference - http://www.autourdulibre.org). We could say 
that this will be the third generation of Libre [software] training. I'd be 
glad to share on that with you and any other interested person.

Eric