Request for comments: .EDU Advocacy: Guiding Principles and Goals

Hey, everyone! I'd like to share some of the stuff I've been working
on (in terms of developing a game plan for Postgres .EDU advocacy)
with y'all; here for review/comment are my current working "Guiding
Principles and Goals":

* Guiding Principles:

o Due to its rich feature set, adherence to standards, open
licensing, well-commented code, and, of course, price, PostgreSQL is
an ideal fit for use in education, both in the curriculum and the
server room.
o We must not limit our advocacy to academic curricula in
computer science research at large universities; we must target
multiple programs, including the arts, sciences, the business schools,
instructional technology programs, and new media technologies, as well
as different types of institutions, from the universities through the
community/commuter colleges, the technical schools, and even secondary
education and computer clubs.
o We must find and promote the use of open source
applications to assist in the administration and daily tasks of
running educational institutions. Where PostgreSQL is not supported
in an application, we must port (or support the porting of) the
application to Postgres; where the ports already exist, we must
ensure the superiority of the Postgres port (where appropriate).
o We must support a PostgreSQL version of the Ubuntu Code of
Conduct (which the board has discussed implementing), being
considerate, respectful, and helpful at all times.
o We will always strive to do things correctly and well.

* Goals
o Short-term (now to 6 months)
+ Identify where PostgreSQL is already being used in curricula
# Network with Postgres curricula developers
+ Identify open source applications used in academia
# Find out which of them support Postgres (and why/why not)
# Build relations with the coding teams; try to
find out the lay of the land
+ Identify all major conferences (Educause, SIGCSE,
etc.) in .edu IT, including junior/community/commuter colleges,
technical institutions, and secondary schools
# Develop .edu contacts
# Ascertain .edu needs for open source (in
general) and Postgres (in particular)
o Mid-term (6 months to a year)
+ Determine priorities for software ports
+ Determine instructors for sponsorship
+ Determine priorities for presentation and publication
o Longer-term (one year to two years)
+ Implement ports of major apps
+ Start funding curricula development
+ Give presentations at major conventions (Educause,
SIGCSE, etc.) to gain support and network
+ Publish in major journals, where possible
o Future (more than two years)
+ Create (or support the Postgres port of) an
enterprise-class .edu suite (or suites) that could serve as a
replacement for Banner/PeopleSoft/WebCT for institutions (i.e.,
helping to improve the Moodle/Kuali/Sakai/dotLRN set of suites)
+ Create an entire undergrad database text and course
(or set of texts and courses), based solely on Postgres
+ Develop a web programming text and course (or set
thereof), based solely on Postgres (targeted at LAMP development
classes)

Thoughts/comments?

---Michael Brewer
mbrewer(at)gmail(dot)com