[ecrea] Free Technology Academy and Free Software Foundation Partner

>Permanent links:
>   - http://www.fsf.org/news/free-technology-academy
>   - http://ftacademy.org/announce/fsf
>
>
>AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- Tuesday, October 26, 2010 -- The Free
>Technology Academy (FTA) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
>announced today their partnership in the FTA's Associate Partner
>Network. The Network aims to expand the availability of professional
>educational courses and materials covering the concepts and applications
>of free software and free standards.
>
>The FTA consists of an advanced virtual campus with course modules which
>can be followed entirely on-line. The learning materials are all
>published under a free license and can be accessed by anyone, but
>learners enrolled in the FTA will be guided by professional teaching
>staff from one of the three participating universities. The FTA aims to
>enable IT professionals, students, teachers and decision makers to
>undertake accredited professional education modules in free software
>studies.
>
>One of the FTA objectives is to establish a strong relationship with the
>free software community and to turn the FTA course materials into an
>essential reference. The FTA seeks to educate and promote the adoption
>of free technologies without losing sight of the free software
>community's core purpose of freedom and social transformation.
>
>Wouter Tebbens, president of the Free Knowledge Institute and director
>of the FTA, explains: "We are building this master's programme on free
>software with the support from relevant organisations and community
>members. And in this sense it is an honour for us to have the support of
>Richard Stallman and the FSF. We hope to be of use to the community and
>we invite the community to participate in our courses and review our
>materials."
>
>Richard Stallman, leader of the free software movement and president of
>the Free Software Foundation, said, "The FTA course materials teach
>people to use GNU/Linux; more than that, it teaches them to recognize
>why this is important."
>
>Details of the Partnership:
>
>       * The FSF will provide special video guest lectures in FTA courses.
>       * The FSF will encourage volunteers to collaborate in the
>maintenance of existing materials and the production of new courses.
>       * The FTA will provide the FSF Associate Membership
>(http://www.fsf.org/associate/) with 30 discount vouchers for FTA
>courses each trimester.
>
>Enrollment for 2011 courses is now open, and students can register at
>http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme/2011.
>
>
>== About the Free Technology Academy ==
>
>A Consortium formed by the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), the
>Open University of the Netherlands and the University of Agder (Norway)
>and led by the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), the FTA has started up -
>with support from the EC's Lifelong Learning Programme - an
>international educational programme on Free Software. The courses are
>taught completely online in a virtual campus based on the Campus Project
>interoperability framework.
>
>Following the Free Software and Open Educational Resources movements,
>all learning materials are freely available through the Internet. The
>use of Free Software (also referred to as Open Source software or Libre
>Software) is rapidly expanding in governmental and private
>organisations. However, still only a limited number of ICT
>professionals, teachers and decision makers have sufficient knowledge
>and expertise in these new fields. The Free Technology Academy aims to
>address this gap by providing high level courses that fit into larger
>Master Programmes at the participating universities.
>
>       * More information: http://www.ftacademy.org
>       * Contact information: contact[AT]ftacademy.org
>       * About standards: http://ftacademy.org/standards
>       * About FTA Associate Network:
>http://ftacademy.org/about/associate-network
>       * FTA Study Programme 2011:
>http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme/2011
>       * FTA Community Portal: http://campus.ftacademy.org/community/
>
>
>== About the Free Software Foundation ==
>
>The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
>computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
>computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
>in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
>GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
>also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
>freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
>and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
>
>       * More information: http://www.fsf.org
>       * Contact information: info[AT]fsf.org
>       * FSF's Membership: http://www.fsf.org/associate/
>       * Donations: http://donate.fsf.org

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