Re: case studies and school counts + one idea ( Re: [seul-edu]School Count new page)

["Prevett, Larry" <Prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us>]

>> Jen, Karl, Bill, et al.,
>> 
>> Now that I think
>> about it, if all the entries in your school count also had submitted
>> case studies, we could generate the school count from the case study
>> database.  That would keep you from having to manually update it.  Jen,
>> Karl, would you consider merging these two efforts?  It looks to me as
>> though they're prime candidates for such.and sharing the administrative
>> load means less work for each of you!

> At this point, Doug, and Jennifer, I think merging our two efforts is the
> only thing that makes sense, especially with the benefits of gathering and
> listing our case studies and school count stats under
SchoolForge.Net.Karl,

I would like to see the Case Studies increase but I
would also like all the diversity of everyone's efforts
preserved also. Isn't there some way you can collaborate
and share information without combining the two lists
into one?

I just want to say a few things about this efficiency business
in the interest of putting the best foot forward (and not
getting it stomped on.) My motivation for a lot in this
message comes from an experience with Mathworld.

Mathworld (which I am happy to say is back again)

http://www.mathworld.com

went down for a whole year because of a lawsuit.
It was probably one of _the best_ resources for math
around (it was so good that someone decided to take
them to court.) What good was Mathworld when everyones
links were broken for a whole year? There simply
weren't any other resources like Mathworld around.
Mirror sites would not have solved the Mathworld problem -
what was needed was other resources like it, but separate
from it.

Separate sites duplicating information, but with different
emphasis and for different reasons, continue to allow
access to the basic information in the case of power
outages, server crashes, and (yuk) lawsuits.

What happens if the Schoolforge site goes down?

-----
I also want to say that there is something else of
very great value that gets communicated in efforts
like Jennifers school count.

When I see a list like Jennifers, I see evidence that
*people* care enough about Linux to put this kind of
energy into the effort. If you see one grand glorious site
with every kind of button to click on, and counters, and
flashy graphics, well, great. That comes across as a well
done organizational effort. No problem with that.

Efficiency is one thing, but I like Jennifer's list because
her list puts things in a personal context: someone cares
enough about this issue to put some energy into it?
That's an incredibly valuable statement to make about
Linux in schools. While I agree it's important that
organizations and corporations take an interest, it's
even more important to me (as a teacher) that lots of
*people* have a interest in Linux. That tells me that there is
something there of value that I as a *person* can relate to
and get involved in.

If Jennifer wants to do the work then let her do it.
That is evidence of a kind of 'value' associated with 
an issue that organizations try very hard to create,
not to get rid of. Maybe someone from Spain or Italy
will see Jennifers list and decide to do one for their
own country. Students, for instance,  might not get that
kind of motivation from looking at a very polished site - 
they might think they have to BE an organization to take 
on such a project. They will be much more likely to get
contributions and create more resorces that Schoolforge
can draw from. It is not a good idea for members of
Schoolforge to suggest that everyone merge there projects  
into one big list. They should find ways to share resources
but not combine them (except for special cases) - something
of value is bound to be lost that way.

By all means, cross-reference the links and share
information - maybe even search for more 'efficient'
ways to manage the 'shared' information. But don't
combine the two lists in a way where one eliminates
the other.

I can think of at least two ways that getting rid of
Jennifers list, or the list at a lug, etc., in the interest
of 'efficiency' can work against you:

1) if the list goes down  your effort is lost
(how 'efficient' is that?)

2) you might end up killing the enthusiasm you are trying
to protect and foster - (the emphasis gets shifted to
efficiency and organization, away from people and their
interests.)

You might think: "well ok, Jennifer's list is nice because
it abbreviates the school count list in a way that is
different from full-blown case histories. So let's put
a feature in the Case Histories at the Schoolforge site
that implements that." (That would be a great idea - in fact,
it's an idea that might not have occurred if Jennifer hadn't
done it in the first place.) Implementing new features
and reaching a higher level of content and efficieny is important,
but that's not what I'm talking about.

The point is that it is _her_ list: here is evidence of
a single person, not associated with any organization, a
student perhaps, that felt strongly enough about the idea
to put some energy into it. I think that SEUL and Schoolforge
should find ways to preserve and highlight evidence of that
kind of energy and interest. In any case, I hope that Jennifer 
doesn't stop maintaining her list. I hope she keeps making the list
bigger and bigger until it crawls out onto the street and 
takes over the world.

L. Prevett
Mathematics Instructor
Cochise College, Sierra Vista, AZ, US
prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us