Scott McNealy, Sun chairman, has started working with an educational initiative called the Global Education and Learning Community (GELC), a non-profit organization with a mission to make open-source software available to the world's kids for free. A recent Forbes article discussed the project.

"McNealy's vision is worldwide access to a free Web site for kindergarten-to-12th graders (K-12)," according to the Forbes article. He envisions textbooks created by techers specifically for the Web.

McNealy talked with CNN reporter, Maggie Lake, more about the value of open source, saying "By opening our interfaces, opening the source code and getting involved in these shared communities around community development we can leverage and partner with smart people no matter where they are. We are open sourcing our fast new T1 microprocessor."

He also expanded more on the software as a service idea: "the beauty of that is you use it and then unplug. Kind of like you get in a cab you go somewhere you pay your money and you leave. You don't have to house it, you don't have to wash it, you don't have to maintain it, you don't have to upgrade it, you don't have to depreciate it you, don't have to insure it, you just use it and leave where the barrier to exit is near zero."

On his leadership style, he characterized it as "random, certainly not very textbook a little bit ranty and a little bit unorthodox. But you know it is all driven by a passion and compassion a belief set that just says that sharing is a good thing and you can profit by monetizing a large community."

The Global Education and Learning Community (GELC) website is currently holding a contest to change its name. They are looking for something that better suggests the meaning of open source curriculum.

The mission of the GELC is to improve global education by empowering teachers, students and parents with self-paced, web based, free and open content (curriculum resources, assessment) combined with best practices for advancing student achievement world wide.

The web site offers information for every level of education, from primary to graduate. Take a look around and see the resources. [...read more...]

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