academic alliances or the like

[Morten Bo Nielsen <mon@eal.dk>]

Hi all

I am searching for a way to cooperate with the Debian project.

We are currently changing our strategic approach to industrial partners
at our department. We are or will be working with companies like
juniper, palo alto and vm ware.

They have academic alliance programs where we get lots of licenses,
teaching materials and contacts to local/regional companies.
It works, is of high quality and really gives a lot of value to our
students and has tons of potential branding value.

I am an open source guy, and have been happily using Debian for a long
time, so I am looking for a FOSS supplement. The large corporations make
it very easy for us teachers to just use their systems and materials,
and I feel it skews the students impression of what is relevant.

Have there ever been thoughts on doing a Debian "academic alliance"
style partnerships?

My wish list
1) a contact person that could help me find relevant local/regional
companies that use Debian
2) course material that makes it easy for me to teach linux from a
Debian point of view
3) some organizational structure where my students can contribute on
their level

I write "me". Perhaps I should write "teachers" instead.

-- 
Morten Bo Nielsen
ass. professor, IT engineering
Lillebaelt Academy
University of applied sciences
Web: http://eal.dk
Email: mon@eal.dk