The FLOSS culture

• The FLOSS fundamentals: motivations, ideology and practice

  180 minutes

  Learning Objectives

  • Map and explore the main concepts behind FLOSS culture
  • Understand the interdependence of FLOSS and Open Educational Resources (OERs)
  • Link them to the formation of Open Educational Resources (OERs)
  • Discover the ethical, legal, social, economic, and impact arguments for and against FLOSS
  • Decide which platforms/tools/services are most useful for themselves and their community

  This session will give the opportunity to its participants to map and explore the main concepts behind FLOSS culture. The different goals within the FLOSS movement will be also examined. During the session, diverse understandings of these concepts, goals and results will be demonstrated. We will link them to the formation of Open Educational Resources (OERs).

  Introduction

  Trainer will start the introduction to the module by asking participants about their current and previous experiences to FLOSS culture. Answers will be documented and then reused to customize the training material.

  The FLOSS culture

  FLOSS will be reviewed as a conceptual phenomenon based on two basic elements: community and modularity. These elements are set in a parallel mode allowing to dynamically place initiatives and move them according to a third element: need to change to a commons oriented production. A coherent overview of FLOSS as socio-economic continuum linked to: ideology, technology and the need for a profound change of production to commons oriented system will be explored.

  FLOSS arguments

  In this activity, we will revisit the documentation results of the introductory session in order to find and develop arguments (for and against) using FLOSS in our everyday lives.

  Homework

  Participants should listen to the Techno-capitalism's moral and intellectual calamities podcast and post a comment in the comments section If participants find any other resource or material, they should add it to the group in Diigo.

  References

  • A collection of related resources is available on a collective-social bookmarking space.
  • Benkler, Y. (2006).The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production TransformsMarkets and Freedom. Yale University Press.
  • Salus, Peter H. (March 28, 2005). "A History of Free and Open Source". Groklaw. Retrieved 2015-06-22.

• FLOSS is everywhere

  180 minutes

  Learning Objectives

  • Provide a state of the art around FLOSS
  • Analyse FLOSS initiatives in EU countries
  • Discover the FLOSS the policy framework in EU
  • Motivate educated policy contribution in the FLOSS area

  The second session will aim at setting the state of the art around FLOSS. FLOSS practices in EU countries will be presented and compared. Participants will engage in a critical analysis of the policy framework of FLOSS in EU and design an initial policy for their own organisation.

  Introduction

  Trainer will start the introduction to the module by asking participants about the FLOSS initiatives around them - mostly coming from other organisations or the EU. Answers will be documented and then reused to customize the training material.

  FLOSS in EU and elsewhere

  FLOSS culture will be linked to Commons oriented examples under the following areas:

  • Agriculture
  • Manufacturing
  • Medicine and health
  • Housing construction
  • Circular economy
  • Urban development
  • Water management
  • Crypto-programming
  • Disaster response
  • Knowledge
  • Communication
  • IT Infrastructure

  An EU policy framework for FLOSS

  Presentation and analysis of the main EU FLOSS policy initiatives including:

  • Open source software strategy.
  • Open data policy.
  • Open standards.
  • The European Union Public Licence (the ‘EUPL’).

  Your policy framework for FLOSS

  Join a group to design and share your policy proposal for FLOSS both nationally and EU level. What should be people doing?

  Homework

  Wikify your policy framework. Use a platform of your choice to share and discuss your policy ideas on FLOSS.

  References

  • FLOSS as Commons. David Bollier, Floss Road Map, 2010.

• FLOSS as collective learning, FLOSS in collective learning

  180 minutes

  Learning Objectives

  • Provide a critical analysis of the importance of FLOSS and OERs in the field of non-formal training. It will continue by while
  • Examine the use and advantages of open digital technologies in education
  • Foster learners active and creative engagement through FLOSS technologies both as a theory and practice
  • Motivate participants to adopt FLOSS in their education activities

  This session will allow for a critical analysis of the importance of FLOSS and OERs in the field of non-formal training. It will continue by examining the use and advantages of open digital technologies in education, while foster learners' active and creative engagement through FLOSS technologies both as a theory and practice.

  Introduction

  Participants will brainstorm on collective intelligence initiatives around them. Answers will be documented and then reused to customize the training material.

  FLOSS culture and collective intelligence

  The gaps between conventional wisdom about the organization of knowledge production and the empirical reality of collective intelligence produced in “peer production” projects like Wikipedia have motivated research on fundamental social scientific questions of organization and motivation of collec-tive action, cooperation, and distributed knowledge production. Wikipedia, for example, demonstrates how participants in many collective intelligence systems contribute valuable resources without the hierarchical bureaucracies or strong leadership structures common to state agencies or firms and in the absence of clear financial incentives or rewards.

  FLOSS and Open Education

  FLOSS has walked hand in hand with a certain idea of education. An organic view of teaching and learning—and an even more organic view on how ideas spread. The process is not like an engineer building a structure according to specifications; it’s more like a farmer or gardener tending to plants, creating an environment in which the plants will flourish.

  Collective scenarios for OEP - Open Education scenarios

  The activity will focus on an exemplary selection of applications of the paradigm of open educational practices.

  Homework

  Search in the Zenodo open repository and find your three favourite papers on FLOSS and education. Document and/or post a comment on them.

  References

  • Unglue (v. t.) To pay an author or publisher for publishing a Creative Commons ebook.
  • DIS The future of learning is much more important than the future of education. DIS is a streaming platform for entertainment and education — edutainment. We enlist leading artists and thinkers to expand the reach of key conversations bubbling up through contemporary art, culture, activism, philosophy, and technology. Every video proposes something, a solution, a question, a way to think about our shifting reality.