Apereo Foundation invites you to join us for our monthly micro conferences!
Apereo Foundation’s MicroConferences bring together leaders from across open source education technology to discuss the latest topics and trends impacting higher education.
Each month, leaders and influences in the open source world will speak about topics ranging from research and community building to policy shifts impacting the world of open source and education.
This free service provided by the Apereo Foundation and our partners requires registration to attend the live event. Contact registrar@apereo.org to join the invitation list. All are welcome!
December 2024
Date: December 11, 2024
Time: 11 AM Eastern
Speaker: Dr. Manuel Hoffmann, postdoctoral scholar at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard
Talk Topic: The Value of Open Source Software
Talk Description:
We all know OSS is valuable, but exactly how valuable? While we intuitively understand its importance as the foundation of modern technology, quantifying its economic impact has been challenging due to its free nature and decentralized usage patterns.
- The bare cost to create popular OSS packages: $4.15 billion
- The economic usage value delivered: $5.25 trillion to $88 trillion (depending on whether one firm recreates and resells the software or each firm recreate the software themselves in autarky)
- Without OSS, corporate software spending would need to triple
In other words, OSS isn't just "free as in freedom" - it's delivering massive economic value that dwarfs its development costs by orders of magnitude. The research finally puts concrete numbers behind what OSS advocates have argued for years.
More about our speaker:
Dr. Manuel Hoffmann is a postdoctoral scholar at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, which is part of the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard Business School. He is also affiliated with Stanford University.
Dr. Hoffmann's broad research interests lie in the domain of technology and innovation management, focusing on the social and behavioral aspects of artificial intelligence and open source software. His work aims to better understand how both can be leveraged by large enterprises, medium-sized firms, and entrepreneurial ventures to more effectively compete in the market while adding value to society. He is particularly interested in the strategic implications of digital tools for open source software, a critical public good that underpins the modern economy. His previous research experience in labor and health economics has equipped him with the analytical tools to address managerially relevant questions within this dynamic and expanding field.
Past Micro Conferences
November 2024
Date: November 13th, 2024
Time: 11 AM Eastern
Speaker: Karen M. Sandler, Executive Director of Software Freedom Conservancy and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School
Talk Topic: Building a Thriving Community: The Software Freedom Conservancy’s Approach to Sustaining an Engaged Community
Karen Sandler, Executive Director of Software Freedom Conservancy and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School introduced us to SFC, her work, and FOSSY.
We explored SFC's approach to community building and delved into their "Sustainers" program.
October 2024
Date: October 9, 2024
Time: 11 AM Eastern
Speaker: Emmy Tsang, Engagement Lead at Invest in Open Infrastructure
Talk Topic: Invest in Open: The State of Open Infrastructure
September 2024
Join the Apereo Foundation as we welcome Martin Dougiamas, founder of Moodle and OpenEd Tech, who will share his session, Open EdTech in an AI Future.
Date: September 11, 2024
Session Title: Open EdTech in an AI Future
About Martin
Martin Dougiamas is a highly influential figure in online education. He is known jokingly as “that Australian guy who founded and led Moodle,” an open-source learning management system that revolutionized online learning. Martin’s roots are in higher education. He developed Moodle while working at Curtin University, aiming to make education more accessible and collaborative. His vision grew into a global movement, with Moodle now used by millions of students and educators worldwide.
In recent years, Martin has shifted his focus to Open EdTech, an international association founded in 2023 dedicated to developing and promoting open source educational technology. They focus on creating a trustworthy, sustainable, and interoperable ecosystem that supports educators and community developers with enhancing lifelong learning opportunities.
May 8 - Dr. Heidi Ellis and Dr. Greg Hislop
Wednesday, May 8th, 2024
Dr. Heidi Ellis, professor of Computer Science at Western New England University, is one of the founding members of the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) project, which focuses on involving students in FOSS projects that improve the human condition. And...
Dr. Greg Hislop is a professor in the Information Science Department of the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University. Dr. Hilsop is an advocate for the educational and societal benefits of the free and open source movement. He facilitates the coordinating committee of Teaching Open Source, a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy.
Dr. Ellis and Dr. Hilsop will join the Apereo community to discuss Teaching Open Source.
April 10 - Vicky Brasseur
Wednesday, April 10th, 2024
Time is 2 PM, US Eastern Time
Topic: Open Source Governance By Example
Speaker: Vicky Brasseur, author of Forge Your Future with Open Source, the only book detailing how to contribute to free/open source (FOSS) projects.
March - Ben Cotton
Wednesday, March 13th, 2024
12 PM Eastern U.S./6 PM Central European
Speaker: Ben Cotton, a longtime contributor to the Fedora Linux project and author of Program Management for Open Source Projects: How to Guide Your Community-Driven, Open Source Project
Topic: Coopetition: open source projects working together.
February 14, 2024
Time: 10 AM Eastern U.S./4 PM Central European
Speaker: Philippe Krief, Director of Research Relations at Eclipse Foundation, France
Topic: Research @ Eclipse: 10 Years of commitment and support
Contact: registrar@apereo.org
January 17, 2024
Time: 1 PM Eastern U.S.
Speaker: Simon Phipps, Director of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation
Topic: Discussion ranging several open source topics such as:
- Do open source projects need foundations to host them?
- How should projects and adopting organizations respond to the coming waves of software regulation?
- What impact will/does open source have on AI, IoT and Cloud?
Contact: registrar@apereo.org
December 13, 2023
Speaker: Wayne Mackintosh, managing Director of the OER Foundation headquartered at Te Pūkenga – the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and holds a UNESCO Chair in OER
Topic: Reflecting on anomalies in OER: Is ‘Open’ broken, and if so, can education fix it?
November 2023
Speaker: Anne-Marie Scott, Board Chair of the Apereo Foundation
Topic: OSPOs in the Academic World
September 2023
Speaker: Georg Link, Open Source Strategist and Founder of Linux Foundation's CHAOSS Project
Topic: Project Health in Academic Open Source
August 2023
Speaker: Samson Goddy, co-founder of Open Source Community Africa
Topic: From Users to Contributors: Strategies for effective community management
June 2023
Speaker: Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Topic: Defining an Open Source AI
May 2023
Speaker: Mike Milinkovich of the Eclipse Foundation
Topic: Government Regulation of Open Source Is Here
April 2023
Speakers: Wes Turner, Senior Lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director of the Rensselaer Center for Open Source (RCOS); Alice Bibaud, RCOS Student Leadership team member
Topic: Getting Students Involved in Open Source Software
March 2023
Speaker: Hong Phuc Dang, Founder of FOSSASIA; Open Source Business Alliance Board Member; Vice Chair of the Open Source Committee, IEEE SA OPEN; Innersource Manager, Zalando SE
Topic: Opportunities through Open Source in Education in Asia
February 2023
Speakers: Deb Nicholson, Executive Director of the Python Software Foundation, and OW2 CEO Pierre-Yves Gibello
Topic: Open Source 2023 - Professionalization Benefits and Challenges
January 2023
Speakers: Dr. Cable Green, Director of Open Knowledge at Creative Commons, and Deb Bryant, former senior director in Red Hat's Open Source Program Office and current policy director for the Open Source Initiative and Eclipse Foundation
Topic: Open Source 2023 - A short list of important trends in open source software + public policy