Hi all, I have made a basic web site for the Open Source Technology Centre. It is hosted on my web server in the office on a 128Kbps connection. Check it out and let me know what you think.
http://ostc.dyndns.org It still needs some work, but you get the basic idea. At the meeting last night, some people asked if they could be paid to teach courses at the OSTC. Initially I said that I had no problem with people negotiating an extra fee with the course participants. I have had a think about it and I have decided it is a bad idea. The idea of the OSTC is that it is a Knowledge Sharing community. The fees that members will be paying is not for the information that is exchanged, but to cover the costs of the facilities. I want the OSTC to run just like the rest of the Open Source community. Take Linux for example: Thousands of people have spent millions of hours developing code that you run on your machine for free. They don't ask for any compensation, they do it for the good of the Open Source Community. Other people contribute by offering support on lists like this one. I haven't seen anyone asking for compensation for any of the support they have offered on any of these lists. I am not a programmer, and I don't contribute to this list much, so I want to contribute in another way. The OSTC is my contribution to the Open Source Community. I would make exceptions for courses that run over several sessions, like a beginners course for linux, or a course in a programming or scripting language, etc. I do like the idea of giving some sort of recognition to those who donate their time and expertise. I intend to add a list of trainers and courses they have taught to the contributions page of the web site. I will probably also put a feedback section on the forum (when I get it installed). Please let me know your thoughts on this. Later David Kirk
