Thank you also to @erik_lonroth and the workshop participants for working together with us to make some positive change and for beeing good guest at House Blivande 
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Chat, group instant messaging. It’s not spot on to bring “Teaching Teachers Open Source” into the “Change Course Public” room in Matrix, so I wondered if Edgeryders chat somewhere, or perhaps try to keep everything in this forum?
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@MariaEuler I am thinking about the RIOT we use for fast coordination that perhaps a room could be set up in if you guys need/want @unclecj ?
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“nextcloud” is perhaps what the community needs. It has a rich plugin flora and I use it all the time to maintain my privacy, skills, ownership of my data and compute and just not having to totally become a subscriber.
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Here is the concluding document from the workshop! I hope it will be valuable for you as it was for me!
Looking forward to you comments, reflections and edits: @MariaEuler @hugi @nadia @unclecj @akenyg @ellewe @haj
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Thank you @erik_lonroth. Could you please also copy the text (and if possible pictures into a post in this thread so people can read and reply here directly?
have a great Christmas time
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Takeaways: Teaching Teachers Open Source
Workshop 28:th november 2019 in Stockholm
Participants ranged from: Academia, Software industry, Media, Entrepreneurship
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A full day of learning, sharing experiences and discussions.
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Teaching open source values in schools and general academia is much needed but faces significant resistance. We concluded that the drivers for adopting technology – any – in schools are generally driven by proprietary interests with little or no philosophical or ethical value ground. Proprietary software providers have the resources for marketing and lobby, plus, access to decision makers and policymakers. Winning over that force requires mobilizing our collective networks to create awareness and gain influence over these very important decisions of our time.
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Continued efforts in educating our networks on why open source is important and how we can gain momentum is needed. Its also fun and appreciated.
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New workshop planned in 2020 to bring more networks together and increase the education on the topic.
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Stay connected on the Edgeryders platform: Teaching Teachers Open Source
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The food during the workshop was fantastic!
The Research Questions
Method & Disclaimer:
We did a survey during the workshop addressing these questions.
To protect the integrity of the participants, I have excluded the raw material from this document. The scientific value will be low off-course, but the reader may want to participate in future workshop to assess the relevancy. Take it for what it is.
==== Research Question: #1 Summary ====
“Gain better understanding of the current view on ethics related to computer science and how that view affects all education in the age of internet.”
I found from the survey that most people don’t know about the foundational values that govern free and open source. Most are self taught on computer science and consult relatives and friends on topics related to the digital world we live in. Almost nobody get their new knowledge from institutions. This raises many questions.
‘Not even software developers’ seems aware about the fundamentals of open source and the four freedoms. Since those are the baseline for all legal frameworks within open source licenses, copyright law, patent etc. this raises also more questions on how practice and policies are made in real life.
==== Research Question: #2 Summary ====
”Articulate a few core principles or concepts that would help teachers navigate when educating in the age of internet and computers.”
I found that its difficult to form consistent or shared thoughts on ethics without a common ground on which to base these ethics on. Despite the enlightened crowd participating in the workshop, opinions on “what”, “how” and “why” in software is not well grounded.
Most people learned about “computers and internet” late in their lives and the age of the participants was relatively high (about 30), which also reveals the immaturity of these issues at present day. It raises more questions about future generations, which was also the motivator for the workshop itself.
It was a shared opinion that questions on ethics and morals in relation to software in general were much needed in education.
Exctraction from participants:
Translated and minor edits to English from Swedish.
Name a few things important to learn in schools:
”Participatory culture, the complexity of the works and noone should be just a consumer nor just producer.”
Name a few positive outcome from teaching open source in schools:
”Stronger democracy, co-creative citizens, increased empathy, more active, more self reliant and responsible.”
Have you ever reflected over ethics in relation to computers and internet?
”Yes, how it affects Exposure and Exclusion”
Who are the most influential sources to what is taught on computers and internet in schools today
”Politicians and Skolverket (Department of Education) but there is a responsibility with the parents.”
Have you ever reflected over ethics in relation to computers and internet?
“A society divided between owners/capable, vs, unpropertied/incapable will have a bleak future.”
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Might be a good person to loop into whatever you are planning next https://mobile.twitter.com/grishund
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There is discussion about a webinar/community call within the next two weeks:
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Who want to join into the webinar? Please invite people you think might be interested and post what you think we should add to the next one :). Looking forward to seeing most of you on Tuesday!
Edgeryders Team is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Biweekly Community Calls
Time: 28th Jan, 18:00 CET (every second Tuesday)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 306 321 0325
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No word about Open Source or ethics - but apparently one of the presentators is Brussels-based iiuc.
I have not looked at the material but if it is, as you sa, it is sad.
Open Source as code has no differentiator from proprietary code. It adds absolutely nothing from a practical perspective.
Open source adds the value to the whole society primarily on the ethical level.
- Sharing of knowledge.
- Collaboration before division.
- Freedom through empowering.
The functional aspects are secondary.
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Uh I totally disagree.
Here I agree 
Honestly, I find it hugely beneficial to be able to look up what happens at - lets say nextclouds database - and not been dependent on a support team (which might even not exist anymore because the company went belly-up)! Or to verify that installing a sinatra web-app does not phone home. I consider the study,share,improve-freedoms very elemental “practical” benefits from using Open Source. And given the context (“learning”) they enable whole other dimensions of empowerment, collaboration, learning, research, etc.
I will try to clarify what I mean.
A piece of code will be the same piece of code regardless of the license attached.
In that sense they differ nothing.
The practical implications however of attaching a good license which enforces access to the code (osi licenses) brings good things which are of values not inherited by the code itself. E.g. the code will not be ‘better’ in any way just because it’s open source or not.
Richard Stallman hacked intentionally the anglosaxian copyright law to codify ethics into licenses attached by open source programmers. The consequences are that these values (freedom, collaboration, empowerment, knowledge) are enforced even if you don’t think they serve your business model.
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Yes, what the code “does” (the “result” of the code) does not differ.
However, “practical implications” are there for the empowered user, who uses the code (and/or other parts of the system, translation files etc) itself, whereas other users might just use the result of the code, which calculates the same independent of its license.
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Isn’t there the aspect that the quality of code usually is better with open source due to “many eyes” inspecting it? I see posts in different contexts online every now and then about open source code being beautifully written, minimalistic and trimmed in contrast to proprietary code projects in different places being accused of being buggy, big and bloated.
But a line of code is the same line of code and has the same practicality of course regardless of license, except, as you wrote, that there are other practical benefits of the open source code. Hope I’m adding anything of value.
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