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FTA Announcement #7: "Study Programme 2011 published and registrations open"

Submitted by wouter on Sun, 08/01/2010 - 12:01

The Free Technology Academy does not only continue after the initial period supported by the EC's Lifelong Learning Programme, we also expand the number of courses available! We hope to keep growing and are working towards a complete International Masters Programme. In this newsletter the tentative programme for 2011, our discount policies, news on the fascinating lecture by Jon 'maddog' Hall and an introduction to our future plans.

WARNING: the date of this post is approximate! All announcements from 2008 to 2013 have APPROXIMATE, guessed dates, because restored from a partial backup, to document the history of FTA.

1. FTA Programme 2011

The Free Technology Academy offers three rounds of courses in 2011. Registrations for these courses are now open! The programme is tentative and subject to changes. Should a module be cancelled by the FTA, tuition fees will of course be fully refunded. In the following list you will find all the courses available:

  • The Concepts of Free Software & Open Standards
  • GNU/Linux Basic
  • GNU/Linux Advanced
  • Free Software Utilities
  • Network Technologies
  • Web Applications
  • Software Development
  • Implementation of Free Software and Case Studies
  • Economic Aspects of Free Software
  • Legal Aspects
  • Software Architecture
  • Assessment of Free Software Projects (Quality Metrics)
  • Free Software in Public administrations
  • Software Engineering in Free Software Environments

For the full details, including trimester starting dates, please visit: /content/programme-2011

2. Discounts available!

To facilitate the participation of a great number of students, we offer a range of discounts that are described below:

  • Course Package deal: register now for at least 3 courses of the 2011 programme and you get 1 course fee waived for a course in 2010 (for the third trimester, i.e. from September till December 2010). We appreciate it if you already commit to follow FTA courses next year and in return we offer you this special package deal. We hope you like it!
  • Early bird registration: 10% discount for registrations up to 2 months before the scheduled start of the FTA 2011 courses.
  • If you want to participate in the third run of 2010, you can register now and receive 25% discount on available courses: "The Concepts of Free Software and Open Standards", "Legal aspects of the Information Society" and "Network Technologies". The discount counts for completed registrations up to 2 months before the scheduled start of each course.

Notice that different discounts are not cummulative. See for more details the General Conditions: /general-conditions

3. Jon 'maddog' Hall lecture and interview

The famous Jon 'maddog' Hall recently popped in and gave a really interesting lecture for the FTA students. Now we present the lecture to you and anyone is able to watch it and re-use it.

Jon 'maddog' Hall is the Executive Director of Linux International, a non-profit organisation of computer vendors who wish to support and promote Linux-based operating systems. The nickname 'maddog' was given to him by his students at Hartford State Technical College, where he was the Department Head of Computer Science. He now prefers to be called by this name. According to Hall, his nickname "came from a time when I had less control over my temper".

The video lecture is available to watch and download from our site, under a Creative Commons BY-ND-NC 3.0 license. You can access the material by visiting: Guest Lecture by Jon Maddog Hall

We have also published an interview with Jon in which he gives us his opinions on the "Open Source" term, Free Software specialists, markets and the future. Read it and spread it! Interview with Jon Maddog Hall

4. Working towards a complete International Master Programme

The FTA has as a long term goal to offer a complete International Master Programme in Free Software. For that purpose it has recently set up a taskforce with representatives from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Open Universiteit Netherlands, Universitat Rey Juan Carlos, University of Agder and the Free Knowledge Institute. The study programme for 2011 has been established in collaboration with the taskforce and forms an important step towards a complete programme.

See for more information: /taskforce-international-master-programme-free-software

5. 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 received the support from the EC's Lifelong Learning Programme to set up 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 Open Educational Resources movement, 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.