To
promote and sustain the use of Open Source Software through
advocacy, outreach, support, and the accumulation, restoration, and
contribution of donated computer hardware from the general public.
As a long-time Open Source
Advocate, a strong desire of mine is to help educate the world about
the Open Source
philosophy and its value to the computing world. The younger a person
starts learning about a new concept, the easier it is to learn.
Originally my goal was simply to form a non-profit organization to
re-cycle older pc's to benefit lower income families and service
organizations, such as Boys
and Girls Clubs and the like.
Older computers can do a great job of meeting the computing needs of
many people when running Linux
operating systems. Not everyone needs to get caught up in the MS race
of more hardware and more software.
After sharing with some close friends the Hawaii Open Source Education
Foundation was brought to my attention; I wanted share my own
personal thoughts and ideas with others. Many concepts (including the
organization name) have been copied after the HOSEF model. This was
done intentionally as someday I would love to see an organization in
each and every state in the union.
Establishment of a dialog with other like-minded individuals
and non-profit groups may someday provide low-cost computing
for the state of Tennessee and a large pool of individuals
experienced in Open Source
software.
A skilled talent pool such as this could be very beneficial
in bringing high tech companies to the state along with awesome job
opportunities and incredible boosts to the economy.
Today I learned how important knowledge about Open Source would be
to everyone. Many schools are now requiring students to purchase laptop
computers that run WindowsXP! Even with "student discounts", Linux is a lower cost
alternative operating system and is ideal for "student budgets". Some
schools also require Bill Gates' Office programs even though OpenOffice.org
provides all the functionality of MS Office for considerably less (FREE
vs $???)!
Please add ideas, thoughts, and suggestions via the Tennessee Open Source
Education Foundation blog.