Taking it to the street

There's been a fair bit written in recent days about the importance of community initiative, the role of students, and the part educational institutions can play in order to encourage and enable this. I couldn't agree more, and this week I'm working on doing my part to further these ideas.

First, I'm gearing up for a talk I have to give on Thursday at a learning and technology conference for professors from across the province. I'm going to lay out a road map for others to follow, showing how to teach students about projects like Mozilla. I'm hoping to spread my enthusiasm for open source and get my colleagues excited about having their students work in open source too.

Second, I'm finalizing details for a reception we're throwing at Seneca's Centre for Development of Open Technology (CDOT) on June 7th. It's a chance for us to show industry, the media, and other educational institutions the kind of magic that happens when you embrace open source in your curriculum and research. We'll have demos of student work and research projects on display. It will also be a good chance to meet-up with the open source community in and around Toronto.

I've had a number of conversations with people this past week about the difficulty they are having enabling healthy communities. For those of you wanting to start your own, I'd encourage you to come and see what an amazing open source educational community really looks like. Email me if you'd like to be added to the guest list--we'd be glad to have you join us.

This is a great chance to spread the word about open source projects like Mozilla, and the role they can play in enriching educational opportunities. Wish me luck!