Anyone near NYC and want to help port an Adobe Creative Studio textbook to free software?

Begin forwarded message:

From: Michael Mandiberg <mandiberg@gmail.com>
Date: January 28, 2009 5:11:08 PM EST
To: Everyone <everyone@eyebeam.org>, openculture@eyebeam.org, alumni@eyebeam.org
Subject: FLOSSify 1: Digital Foundations
Reply-To: openculture@eyebeam.org
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.929.2)

Hello all

We are FLOSSing Digital Foundations next weekend.  We need help, and we want to do it *together.*  We need people of all levels, from the GIMP guru, to the Ubuntu n00b to test it all.

Digital Foundations uses formal exercises of the Bauhaus to teach design software.  It was written for the Adobe Creative Suite, but on Feb 6, 7, 8 we are going to translate it to FLOSS apps with FLOSSmanuals.  For more on the book, and why this translation is so important, see the description below.

We are trying ot get people to register via FB:


And to sign up on the wiki with their potential role


I hope to see you there.  And I hope you can spread the word.  By the end of the weekend, we'll have the first decent primer in FLOSS software!

please forward widely

m


FULL EXPLANATION:

FLOSSIFY 1 : Digital Foundations 

For a long time educational courses have been cheap marketing
for proprietary software companies. Can a student really afford all
those expensive softwares required by the courses? No. Ever hear of a
software company kicking up a fuss because students are using
'unofficial' versions?  Well, it does happen but not often. And why not?
Because proprietary software companies know, as the universities know,
that once the students leave their training they will be indoctrinated
with those tools and simply slipstream into being paid up proprietary
software citizens. Simply put, unlicensed software used in education is
tolerated because it is cheap marketing.

This is how tools become 'industry standards'.

FLOSS Manuals is fighting this flow by converting textbooks that
use proprietary software to using free software in their examples.

We call this process "FLOSSify". We convert the book from
closed software to Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) hence we
'FLOSSify' the book.

Our first text book is the wonderful Digital Foundations book
produced by Michael Mandiberg and xtine
burrough (http://digital-foundations.net/). Its a text book designed to
teach software by teaching design. The current toolset it uses is the
Adobe Creative Suite and we will convert these examples entirely to
using free software.

Not only have the authors given the kind permission to go ahead with
this, they originated the idea and approached FLOSS Manuals to be
involved. We are very happy to get behind this initiative and work with
the authors to create a fantastic text book promoting the use of Free
and Open Source Software within design courses. 

FLOSSIFY 1 : Digital Foundations will focus on a fun 3 day event at
Eyebeam, NYC. Anyone is welcome to attend and some food and beer will be
provided. Come and meet some of your old geek friends, make some new,
and help make a step towards unshackling education from proprietary
software. 

FLOSSIFY 1 : Digital Foundations
Eyebeam, NYC 
RSVP here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56609462816 
Feb 6-8
starts 10ish
finishes when we are done
fast connection, a table, some chairs, and beer and food provided



http://eyebeam.org/
540 W. 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
New York, NY 10011
Tel. 212.937.6580 Fax: 212.937.6582




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