Your post and Jim’s comment have me thinking about a few things:

1. We need to make the Open Source panel an annual tradition at the CUNY IT Conference;

2. We need to establish an online directory of all open-source projects in the CUNY system, in an attempt to create a better sense of community among those of us experimenting with such technology in the classroom;

3. We need to get you onto this panel next year!

Reply to Matt

I have gone on record  ove rthe alst two years saying that I bleed CUNY.  And in many ways I think CUNY, with all its myriad challenges, would be a fascinating space to open up the work being done within and between departments on individual campuses as well as between campuses.  You suggestion here Luke is a powerfully promising one.

I also agree that this year's conference had better turn out for Open Source, and the next may suggest an even greater gravitational pull, but this would require some work on a number of people's part -particularly the students and faculty.

Here is a nice coincidence that might suggest something larger afoot at CUNY. Independently of the conference,  someone at Brooklyn College was put in touch with me by a mutual friend regarding WPMu. This person is interested in pursing open source alternatives for faculty and students to publish online for teaching and learning and more.  He has to approach the IT department with a proposal of some kind, and WPMu was one of the tools he is interested in.

All this to say,  I think CUNY may be ready to explore other possibilities, and with the range of students and experiences that walk through the halls of any given campus, what a beautiful matrix of thoughts, reflections and ideas would come out of such projects.  It truly excites me to no end. 

I haven't been on the CUNY dole for years now, but I would gladly work towards thinking through the possibilities of all these tools at any number of these campuses. because I believe it is both important and potentially revolutionary in very subtle ways.  The plain fact is, the BLSCI with the work Mikhail, Tom Harbo, and yourself are doing is unquely poised to show them how this all works.

But to do this you need to act quickly, have very little administrative overhead, and run the thing wherever you can.  It doesn't have to  seem"official" it just has to be compelling enough to show all the folks around the CUNY system that it can work and it is a viable alternative. It also means sales pitching a few really good faculty who can make this fly as a teaching tool.

I really believe you are all at crucial point of making in-roads and building on the work you have all already done.  It only takes a couple of compelling projects to capture the imagination of a community. More than that, it would only take a small fraction of the thousands and thousands of students in the CUNY system to make a radical impact on the internet mediaated educational network in NYC. 

Make the myths, Morrison!

Reply to Jim