Dear Colleagues and Friends of Free and Open Sources in and for Education:

This is the first newsletter of http://flossed.org for 2010 -- a long time coming.

A number of you were at the conference which KIS International School hosted in Bangkok last year (Halloween!).  That date was chosen as appropriate to the anniversary of the famous Microsoft Halloween Letters.  http://catb.org/~esr/halloween/index.html -- a good read for a laugh and background info.

***** FLOSSEDBK 2010? Timing and Call for FLossEd Supporters to Complete the Survey *****

This year, we know that in Thailand, the international schools have decided to have their conference at roughly the same time. 
Help us figure out a time for a conference that is useful to you by filling out the survey.  We really need to know your schedules:
http://www.flossed.org/survey

***** Help Test the New Forum to Mail; Mail to Forum *****
http://www.flossed.org/flossedforum

We have been working on a nice hook-up between the Web site and the mailing list to make it easy for you to post on one and also on the other effortlessly -- to get the greatest readership possible.

It would be great if you would help us by posting your latest questions, news, responses to this post either on the forum or on the mailing list (flossed@iteachnet.org -- because that's where I have a stable, working copy of "mailman," the fantastic GNU mailing list app that is used all over the Web). 
So, please post

***** Your FlossEd Blogs on FLossEd.org + Others via Feeds *****

The FlossEd.org site is great for blogging -- not difficult.  All you have to do is create an account and give it a try.  Use it for your findings, questions and suggestions re. Floss for schools.

***** Blog Feeds *****
http://www.flossed.org/flossedblogs

Your blog will show up in the FLossEd.org feeds available on the http://flossed.org/flossedblogs page (Click on "Flossed Blogs" in the menu).

We are looking for blogs from around the Web to include as feeds on this page -- Please suggest yours or others that you think are relevant to the site's purpose of fostering the use of free and open sources in education. 

***** News Feeds *****
http://www.flossed.org/newsfeeds

Likewise, we have added feeds from various important FLOSS projects relevant to our education-related purposes.  If you know of another that could be included, let us know via the site or this mailing list.

***** Web Links *****
Finally, links to useful sources are always important.  So, please, include the ones you like.  If you are logged-in, you can add links.

***** Photos ******
Of course, there are photos from the conference in the gallery on the site.
http://www.flossed.org/gallery

Again, if you have a FlossEd meeting where you are, do post your photos.

***** Your own FlossEd Chapters *****
Which brings me to an important idea:  You should either attend the local Bangkok FlossEd Meetings (Next one is Sunday, February 28th: http://www.flossed.org/feb2010flossedmeeting ).

If you can't make it in Bangkok, I encourage you to start your own group and use the site for your planning, discussion and reports.  We have group-space you can use for helping each other with FLossEd.

***** The fun part for last *****

One thing you could do at your local meeting would be to discuss the video of Richard Stallman's speech at the FLossEdBk conference.  He spoke on October 30th, and, thanks to the KIS team, we have finally gotten at least pieces of the videos they took.  You can see them on the site.
His ideas are uncompromising and therefore make good discussion starters.  Hold your own ideas up to his litmus test.  Do what you can; do your best to help schools walk more like they talk: make their use and teaching of and about software (and other sources) fit their ideals.

Best wishes,

David Bucknell
FlossEd.org Fomenter