Dear Barbara/ Leslie/ Stevan/ Shaddy/ Senthil, Nancy: We should write to Sun folks to promote OA along with OS initiatives! And seek Sun's participation in Mission 2007. Arun -----
From Peter Suber's blog
More on Sun's open-source education initiative Darryl K. Taft, Sun to Open Source Education, ExtremeNano, March 7, 2006. Excerpt: Sun Microsystems is taking a cue from its successes with open source to help shape the future of education and bridge the digital divide, according to the company's chief executive, Scott McNealy. In a speech at Sun's WWERC (Worldwide Education and Research Conference) here [in NY] on March 7, McNealy said Sun has spun out its GELC (Global Education and Learning Community) effort into a nonprofit organization aimed at aimed at delivering self-paced, Web-based, free and open content --including curriculum, resources and assessment-- for the K-12 segment. Or, as McNealy put it, GELC is "open-sourcing education." McNealy said, "[The] opportunity here is to apply all the community development to textbooks, curriculum and assessment for K-12. So with the help of some folks at Sun we created the GELC, with 2,700 members worldwide and 370-plus projects."
From a Sun press release (March 7, 2006):
Sun broke new ground in free and open-source computing in the creation of this non profit which aims to meet the needs of students by sharing best practices globally. The group named an executive director at the conference, Dr. Barbara "Bobbi" Kurshan, formerly President of Educorp Consultants Corporation, and co-CEO of Core Learning Group, Private Equity Fund. The director will lead an advisory board with representatives from nearly every continent to extend the vision for this group. The GELC Executive Director directs all activities of the GELC, including managing the various working groups, monitoring technical developments, overseeing the education community process, managing the creation of GELC specifications and representing the GELC to external organizations.