I am encouraged by Dell’s recent decision to partner with Ubuntu and Canonical to propose that staff, students, and faculty get together to talk about how these and similar trends could effect life on our campus. Although many in the Linux community decry the Dell-Ubuntu partnership (sell-out!), I think most in higher education will be compelled to understand Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth's interpretation of this move: linux OSs are not competing with Microsoft; rather, they offer a different set of tools altogether. Because USF has a partnership with Dell already, it seems such a simple step for USF St. Petersburg to actively affirm the Dell-Ubuntu partnership, as well.

These trends in business and technology are also part of the "scene of writing" today, and this scene is also a primary site of my research into/with multimedia/multi-modal composition. Indeed, my colleagues and collaborators in the division of Languages, Literature, and Writing are at present working to make multimodal outcomes an important part of our curricular development efforts, and this plan is moving forward, this summer. If we were to participate in an a Dell-Ubuntu or Edubuntu initiative on our campus, then, interested professors could collaborate with Campus Computing to create opportunities for students, regardless of computing experience (always conditioned by vectors of access, race, and class) and writing ability to experience, learn about, and compose in Windows, Mac, and Linux environments, on campus. Therefore, I propose an open forum where all can gather and brainstorm on this together, and meet soon to discuss how we might cooperate and coordinate in our shared efforts to sustain a secure AND playful learning environment on our campus.

Many are beginning to speculate that [

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/01/1353237 Dell's next move] will have them offering Ubuntu on their servers, as well. This Fall, I am running version of ENC 6931 that will have students installing and maintaining servers and labs off-campus. It would be ideal to have, at the very least, a small and also secure-enough pilot version for the students to use as a template and resource in the course. I think it could be a fantastic learning experience for all involved, and I think our campus is well-suited for a LSTP pilot. Success stories abound here, so there must be a way to do this without jeopardizing USF server security: http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/SuccessStories

USF could

-offer dell linux laptops at discount for students?

-campus event? fall?

feedback with me,

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