Wednesday, May 21 through Saturday, May 24, 2008
The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
Open Source as Technology and Concept
In 2006, Blackboard purchased WebCT, its closest competitor in the CMS market, and also filed a suit against rival Desire 2Learn, Inc. on a controversial claim of patent infringement. In response, at its October meeting Educause issued an open letter urging Blackboard to abandon its suit on the grounds that the suit will stifle collaboration and innovation; this interchange has, in turn, prompted renewed interest in the role that can be played by open source technologies and communities in the development of educational computing. The concurrent growth of open source LMC’s such as Sakai, Moodle, and OSP suggests that we have the opportunity now to reconsider even more broadly the reigning corporate models for educational technology, models that can draw on and enhance values that are important to the computers and writing community and to composition pedagogy in general.
Open source development, as both a technology and a concept, is grounded in values of collaboration, interaction, and respect for the user; these same values have also informed writing pedagogy of the process and post-process eras. There is, therefore, an important and enduring connection between the values that inform open-source technology and composition pedagogy.
We invite papers concerning the relevance of open source technologies to writing practice and pedagogy; on the philosophy, ethics, and politics of using writing technologies within the academy and other workplaces; and on all topics relevant to computers and writing. We encourage participants to range beyond the narrowest definition of “open source” to explore the values and practices such collaborative ventures promote.
Update: the conference deadlines have been announced. Proposals will be accepted beginning December 3, 2007, and the deadline for submissions is January 24, 2008, at 11:59 pm EST. Proposals will be submitted via the conference site.