Re: [OSS] Re: Open Source debate (from South Asia)

Hi all, [Stefan: if they are not on OSS already, can you add the above?]

Stefan Probst wrote:

> Prof. Ngoc (Thang Long University) says, that Universities lack teachers.
> How should they get more without outside, e.g. government help?
> And - reality check in Vietnam: How do you get Universities to change their
> curricula without government push - or at least some directive?

Undoubtedly your first point is true. Your second is wrong and dangerous in any
society, including socialist societies in which the Intelligencia are expected
to be the revolutionary vangaurd. In practice, 'directives' do no good if they
are not well thought out and if resources for implementation do not follow ...
one might ask, whither Unicode as an example. How many Ministries have complied
with that directive?

I see three separate questions here. The first concerns the capacity of Government
to deal with complex technical issues. Their job should be to make policy based on
the advice of professionals, in this case, business, academics, telecoms people.
If the latter have low capacity as you suggest, then the former are not able to
develop good policy.

Thus, issue two is the capacity of universities in particular to foster an
environment of first class learning. We haven't explored that issue yet but I
think we should. I am hearing about a lack of linkage between universities and
the jobs students may expect to get after graduation. How can this be improved, given
that the student body in IT studies will be the source of an ongoing open source
development community. Students must become innovative, group-minded, goal focused,
all the things that we hear about the emergence of collaborative learning in other
countries. A change in this arena is critical to open source and the other elements
of the strategy to make IT a leading industry.

I am not ignoring institutes. They are vital to this picture. But they will need
good quality students and an excellent network environment to contribute their part.

So, issue three, where do you put your emphasis (and your money). I think you have
got to get academia involved first or the whole show will collapse. With all
deference to my Government colleagues, decrees are toilet paper if they cannot be
implemented.

Now, I would very much appreciate it if this discussion included a lot more
university IT teachers, particularly those expected to handle open source teaching
and workshopping. LAst year several of us were at a MoET conference on IT and
education which new ways of teaching IT. One good question would be what progress
has been made in the last year to do this?

Cheers, Vern

> > This has nothing to
> >do the Government and everything to do with how academics drive the agenda
> >for change themselves. And not just academics per se, but the activits in our
> >community (some of whom are on this list) who are prapared to put themselves
> >into the fight.
> >
> >The second point we have discussed before, the need for dependable OS software
> >that people can use without fear.
>
> I run yesterday a quick test of the new OpenOffice 1.0.2 and on a first
> glance it looks like the issues which made it unusable for me the last time
> seem to have gone with this release :)

I have had problems with 1.0.1 as well and I'll download the new one. Thanks.
Not that many of you will be interested, but Open office is now available for
for the Macintosh Unix layer running Darwin or X11. It is scheduled to be available
for the Mac GUI perhaps by the end of the year.

> > Then the distribution will be no problem
> >since the local CD burning business community would be happy to flog OSS for
> >a dollar or so and everyone would be happy.
>
> I hope so.
> More details about that later.

;-)

--

Vern Weitzel (Mr.), Webmanager
<weitzel@undp.org.vn> or <webmanager@undp.org.vn>
United Nations Development Programme
address: 25-29 Phan Boi Chau; Ha Noi, Viet Nam
postal address:
UNDP Viet Nam One UN Plaza New York, NY 10017 USA
UNDP Viet Nam Palais des Nations 1211 Geneva Switzerland
UNDP Viet Nam GPO Box 618 Bangkok, 10501 Thailand
tel: +84-4 942-1495 (ext 135) fax: +84-4 942-2267
http://www.undp.org.vn and http://www.un.org.vn
home address: Apartment 504-505, Block A4 Giang Vo
[opposite UN Int. School] tel: +84-4 846-1751
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