Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
Fair enough request. But I will decline to re-open the issue, since as far as I understand it the (quite well known) software to which I refer failed on the license issue, so that there is in the end no reason to pursue my issues/concerns that happen to be unrelated to the issue of license. I have no reluctance to enter controversy in the pursuit of an end in which I believe, but here I am not unhappy with the end result, and therefore it seems better to lay off.-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:07:38 -0500 Arthur <ajsiegel@optonline.net> wrote:I had once, for example, raised the question here whether there were ethical issues that should be addressed in connection with theinclusion of a particular piece of software in an educational related Open Source distribution - issues that were unrelated to itslicense. I was told pretty roughly that I was being irrelevant.Please provide a reference to the actual incident.
More generally, I believe that the folks supporting the debian-edu project are undertaking a solemn responsibility. Whatever else, it seems hard to deny that implicit in the effort is a statement supportive of a significant role of technology in education. To me, if that statement it is to be made, it can only be made meekly, humbly, and tentatively. There is little evidence to support it, and we cannot pretend to understand and foresee the full implications of a good deal of what is being rolled out on a pretty impressive scale. .If we are technologists we are also - one hopes - scientists. It seems a little cart before the horse - to me - to have the roll out precede the definition of the problem, much less the collection and evaluation of evidence. But we live in usual times. The least I can hope is that we go forward with some nagging doubts about who is us and who is they. Good for the soul.
Art .