[GUFSC] Linux Advocacy Consortium Targets Higher Education

[Rafael R Obelheiro]

[http://www.centerdigitalgov.com/international/story.php?docid=90722]

Linux Advocacy Consortium Targets Higher Education

News Story, July 2004


The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium of
leading technology companies dedicated to accelerating the adoption of
Linux, last week announced a new lab membership initiative dedicated
to supporting qualifying institutions of higher education. The new
program is designed to attract affiliates among colleges and
universities interested in Linux research and deployment. The first
institutions joining OSDL under the new program are Marist College,
Oregon State University, Stanford University, Tokyo University of
Technology and Waseda University in Japan.

"Higher education is the incubator for tomorrow's technology
breakthroughs and this is especially true for Linux," said Stuart
Cohen, CEO of OSDL. "We want to encourage broader deployment of Linux
among colleges and universities as well as to facilitate research to
drive advances in Linux technology. This new affiliate program will
make it easy and attractive for colleges and universities around the
world to join OSDL and participate in our initiatives."

Under the new program, accredited universities and colleges can join
OSDL as affiliates and participate along with their corporate peers in
initiatives such as the OSDL Carrier Grade Linux, Data Center Linux
and Desktop Linux working groups. The goal is to provide a forum where
commercial Linux vendors and the academic Linux community can come
together to share ideas and address common problems. In addition,
university researchers can access the OSDL's data center computing
facilities in the United States and Japan.

"Joining OSDL is an important strategic move in supporting further
innovation, research and competitiveness in open-source development,"
said Dennis J. Murray, president of Marist College. "Through
cooperation with OSDL, Marist can expand our work with businesses,
government agencies, Linux developers, IT vendors, and other
universities to help prepare our students to take advantage of
opportunities presented by the global growth of Linux."

"Our students and faculty benefit from using Linux and we're pleased
to join OSDL to contribute back to the Linux community," said Joe
Little, principal systems architect, Electrical Engineering, Stanford
University. "We anticipate that interaction with IT vendors, Linux
developers, corporate end-users, and other universities will be
beneficial to our university community."

OSDL is working with participating colleges and universities on a
program to advance Linux by:

    * Providing a vendor neutral environment for collaboration

    * Linking universities with industry to improve opportunities for
      research projects and student placement

    * Creating a forum for cross-institutional sharing of curriculum
      and other academic issues related to open source

    * Providing insight on open source projects that are well suited
      for higher education development

    * Fostering dialog between University and Commercial CIOs

Beyond working-group participation, college and university affiliates
will participate in a "Linux in higher-education" forum hosted by
OSDL. This program will begin as an online forum, but is expected to
expand into regularly scheduled conferences hosted at member
institutions' campuses.

OSDL -- home to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux -- is dedicated
to accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux. Founded in 2000 by
CA, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel and NEC, OSDL is a non-profit organization
at the center of Linux supported by a global consortium of more than
40 of the world's largest Linux customers and IT industry leaders.
OSDL sponsors industry-wide initiatives around Linux in
telecommunications, in the enterprise data center and on corporate
desktops. The Lab also provides Linux expertise and computing and test
facilities in the United States and Japan available to developers
around the world.