Amsterdam, 16 August 2010. - A broad coalition of Dutch civil society organisations expresses its serious worries about the policymaking process and contents of the anti-imitation agreement ACTA. The negotiations about this international treatment take place for the most of it in secret. The organisations have sent an open letter to call upon the Dutch government to increase the transparency of the negotiations and reduce the scope of the proposed agreement.
Technology
In a broad sense, technology is the usage and knowledge of tools and crafts applied to modifying and adapting our environment. It is indeed one of the defining qualities of human beings, and one of the parameters we use to compare the level of progress of different civilisations.
Technological knowledge provides some of the most evident proofs of the importance of sharing knowledge. The history of technology is made of incremental inventions, of artisans, technicians and inventors that build upon previous knowledge. From the simplest tools to the most sophisticated devices, from the wheel and the lever to the microchip and the space shuttle, virtually all human inventions have benefited from the knowledge built up in previous generations.
We see in technology, and very specially in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), a double interest for the goals of the FKI. On one hand, technology constitutes a form of knowledge that can highly benefit from the sharing and exchange of ideas. On the other hand, technology --and specially ICT-- is a necessary tool in the information society.
The Free Knowledge Institute develops activities in the following technology-related areas:
- Free Software and Open Standards
- Free access
- Open fabrication
Related content:
Posted by Wouter at the Microfactoria Blog.
Bringing together higher education institutions, free software projects and enterprises, as well as all type of learners, openSE (www.opense.net) has reached its final stage and full force by developing a platfo
A couple of weeks ago Jan Stedehouder, a Dutch journalist, writer and Open Source advocate, published a blog post (english version here) about the use of Silverlight in the Dutch public education system.
The Free Technology Academy is happy to announce the new FTA Community Portal: an open space where anyone can participate in the Academy daily life and be a part of the FTA virtual community. (read in Dutch)
On September 12, 2011, the winner of the International Prize will be announced! (see Dutch)
The International Prize is meant for a novel and transferable project, which has concrete impact in the Netherlands as well as in one or more other countries. The Prize is administered by the Learn for Life Foundation and is awarded to a Dutch organisation or institute, who make their expertise beneficial to innovating projects in the area of international vocational education.
Recently we came together with the partners of the Free Technology
Academy at the Open University Netherlands in Heerlen to discuss strategies and concrete plans to go forward. In this
post I will try to explain the main aspects of the vision we discussed in the session "Evolving Free Technology Education together. A vision for the Free Technology Academy."
The FTA Network is maturing. Today the Varna Free University from Bulgaria has joined the Free Technology Academy as Associate Partner. The VFU will start providing FTA courses in Bulgarian and furthermore is planning to set up its own master programme in collaboration with FTA partners.
On June 1st, 2010, Karin Spaink gave an excellent speech during an expert meet on e-books. She is urging the publishing industry to learn from all the mistakes the music industry made. E-books need to be protected against technical measures to control users, such as DRM, and should be much cheaper than printed books.
Read her speech on De Nieuwe Reporter, in Dutch.
Software Engineering (SE) is a fast changing subject that often poses a moving target both for learners and educators. In order to tackle this problem, an open approach to SE education can provide continuous feedback between educational institutions and "the real world", where these skills will be finally applied in most cases.