i find myself in a strange position. or perhaps not so strange. this pure:dyne mailing list is becoming a place in the world where i feel like my voice is heard, and there are people from various points on a spectrum all working in their own ways to create an environment which supports the creation of various types of art. some are more users of the environment to create various arts and some seem to be more contributors and creators of the environment itself. obviously this is an example of new, or not so new, ways of using and making technology and art.
i find myself in a position on that spectrum of an amateur, and somewhat of an outsider. i live in lincoln, nebraska, in the middle of the Great Plains, i come from a very small town and have only a curious nature to account for the knowledge and skill i have as an artist/inventor/user/hacker/whatever. i've had an interest in music which lead me in many directions, including computers and electronics, but never lead me to any type of 'career' or 'specialization'... i'm not a musician and i'm not an engineer. i'm not sure where everyone else falls on this spectrum, and i was kind of wondering. personally, i am starting to see myself as an educator/artist perhaps, with the two being combined into a 'career' and also just expression and experimentation/exploration. being from nebraska, there isn't a lot going on in my neighborhood, at least that i know of. it seems like a lot of people on this list are from some place in europe, where the open source world seems to be a bit more active that where i'm from. however, i am extremely interested in the possibilities of 'free' software and the models of open source collaboration. pure:dyne seems like one manifestation of the energy surrounding this electronic world. i find that i agree with and enjoy the people who contribute to this list, and find the pure:dyne environment an exciting one to work in and to show other people. in thinking about how i can contribute to the project, i find my role as an amateur a bit strange because i don't have the skill or knowledge to actually help work out bugs on the computer side of things, and my depth of knowledge about the individual software packages for creating media with is limited. i have been spending a lot of time learning how to use things however, and think that is giving me a good idea of what a new user might experience coming to the pure:dyne (and linux/FLOSS in general) experience. in the long term, i am hoping to start some kind of educational center or program focused on the study and creation of media which would be open to all who had an interest. right now it is just an idea, and i bet it isn't an uncommon one. but i do see that there could be a reality to creating some kind of living for myself as an educator, ideally outside of the public and collegiate system here in the US. a free school if you will. i was wondering if anyone here had any input and/or interest in developing some kind of educational modules that could be shared and implemented by anyone with the drive and motivation to do some kind of education with people who want to learn. i think that any of it could be part of pure:dyne documentation and might just help newer users get past some of the more arcane tasks involved with creating in this environment. i think it is consistently getting better, but the learning curve is still steep in a way, i feel like i could help carve some steps to make it easier for people to learn. ideally, i'd love to teach classes on a whole range of user side elements of open source computing. i know i'm saying a lot here and need to actually start doing some of these things, but i was interested in seeing what others thought. i've been enjoying the various non-technical discussions on the list lately and thought i'd initiate a possible topic. -grant
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