austraLasia
1573
F'OSSERVATORE - a new service is
born
ROME: 3rd June 2006 --
Personal experience over a number of years including some particular experiences
in parts of the world where software piracy rates are high, the
growth of a massive global movement, a maturing Salesian awareness of the
ethical, educational and practical issues at stake (cf AGC 390, Letter of the
Rector Major): these are three motivations that bring me to launch a new item of
service called F'OSSERVATORE for use by members of
the Salesian Family. For further comment on that title, and a direct
invitation to make your contribution to the service, contact the author via the
bosconet admin address below.
F'OSSERVATORE is all about uniting principle with
practice. As one of the leading exponents of Free and Open Source
Software, staunchly Catholic Marco Fioretti, regular contributor to Newsforge
(the online 'bible' of the FOSS movement) put it to me recently, "in today's
world, everyone's quality of life is influenced by the software being used
around him/her". We Salesians have been encouraged to 'learn the new
digital languages'; we are educators, we have also been reminded to play our
part in overcoming the digital divide. These phrases with the word
'digital' in them are not simply throwaway lines or recent fads. What they
talk about is here to stay. Our task is to understand what is at stake and
to try to do our little bit in the new culture they are
creating.
F'OSSERVATORE is not
austraLasia. I am using this starting point, however, given the thousands
that already read austraLasia. The latter has readers in East
Asia-Oceania, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, which are also areas where
software piracy is high.
F'OSSERVATORE will only go to those who ask to receive it -
so (1) please let me know if you wish to be on the list and (2) feel free to
pass this item on to someone who you think might wish to be on the list, letting
them know that they need to positively indicate this themselves through an
email. But F'OSSERVATORE is more than an
e-letter: it is also a wiki, and the 'click here' can take you to that site
whenever you wish - I will include it from now on with
austraLasia.
F'OSSERVATORE's
aim is entirely positive. I mentioned 'piracy' above, just to indicate a
certain reality that we cannot and should not ignore. But the e-letter and
the wiki intend to focus on positive responses to a set of needs: the need to
establish clear links between the Church's teaching and the use we make of
digital culture's 'gateway' - software; the need to ensure that our approach to
these issues is an educational one; the need to be
practical.
F'OSSERVATORE the
e-letter, will be weekly. It will deal with the ethical, the
educational, the practical - and will point to the developing discussion in the
wiki by the same name. The wiki enables anyone to join in and offer their
own experience, ask their own questions, provide their own answers. For
the moment it and the newsletter will be in English, but if anyone wishes
to offer help in other languages, feel free. FOSS is a global question,
across languages and cultures. I can help in English, but my Italian is an
embarassment, my Spanish babyish, my French and German minimal, my Fijian of
little use outside Fiji - so any assistance by others in these or other
languages will be welcome.
Don't forget to let me know if
you wish to receive copy #1 of F'OSSERVATORE
(which should be due out by Wednesday 7th. I was
looking for a Saint's day then realised we will be in the Octave of Pentecost -
what could be better for such a
venture!).
____________________________________________
AustraLasia is
an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also
functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries
please
contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out
BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to
www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm
A separate service entirely is called
F'OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in
the digital world.