A week in Finland
24-April-2005
permalink comments (1) forum (1) email this- English language web pages
- TEKES
- Flosseposse
- Mediamaisteri Ltd in Tampere.
- Interaktiivinen Tekniikka Koultutuksessa konferensi
- pre-conference workshop
- here
Have been in Finland since Monday. Interesting week - despite the weather. The Finns have a word which means 'backwinter' - the winter that returns (every year) after it should have gone and it should be spring.
Have been in Finland since Monday. Interesting week - despite the weather. The Finns have a word which means 'backwinter' - the winter that returns (every year) after it should have gone and it should be spring. Its about -3 outside and snowing.
Anyway back to business. Monday I was one of two guest speakers (the other was the marketing manager for Nokia) at the - TEKES FENIX conference in Finland. TEKES is the funding body for Finnish technology development and FENIX is the programme for interactive technologies. According the the organisation's English language web pages, the "FENIX programme focuses on research and development on software technologies and applications where interaction between end-users and information systems has a significant role."
"The main goal is the development of user-friendly application technologies and products/services for consumers, corporations and public bodies. Instead of one-off projects, the programme targets product-based businesses and projects which contribute to competitiveness and know-how in the long run."
It was a big conference - more than 200 in the audience - they gave me three quarters of an hour to speak on Knowldge Creation in the Open Content Arena and a big, big screen. Had to go soon afterwards - hard to know what people made if it though some people I have seen since were kind enough to say I had inspired a lot of discussion- I am not sure if it was a bit radical for them but seems to have created a bit of a stir on the Finnish blog sites - see here for example (I have no idea what she or he is saying).
I like speaking at these big events - but am very cynical as to the value. I think more knowledge comes of the more interactive sessions in smaller venues.
Wednesday I did have such an opportunity to speak at a workshop and a great event it turned out to be.
I spoke at a pre-conference workshop on Open Source Software organised around the Interaktiivinen Tekniikka Koultutuksessa konferensi - Interactive Technology in Education Conference.
The conference is big - according tot he English language pages of the web site it is the largest conference in Finland about information- and communication technology in educational use. "ITK'05 -conference asks "Pedagogy - where can it be found? ITK'05 is searching for the best practices and teachers’ point of view on eLearning. New theoretical models and research projects are in the interest of ITK as well."
The workshop was great about 20 people interested and asking questions. The speaker after me was Timo Valiharju from Mediamaisteri Ltd in Tampere. He gave an excellent talk on how expertise was being developed in the Open Source industry. Mediamaisteri support Moodle and have two employees in the core development group. sadly I could not stay longer as had to finish a report but did get the chance in the bar to meet Teemu Arina from the Flosseposse (well worth keeping an eye on their shared blog) in Helsinki who were behind the Fle 3 project.
One thing we talked about is whether the phenomenal success of Moodle is holding back the development of other and more innovative OSs applications in education. Teemu seemed to think there was room for Moodle as a fully finished and stable product as well as other more experimental applications.
Today have been meeting with Pekka Kamarainen - who says he is going to start a blog - right on Pekka - and his colleagues form Jyveskula Polytechnic. More on that in another entry.
Extended text for this entry:
The workshop was great about 20 people interested and asking questions. The speaker after me was Timo Valiharju from Mediamaisteri Ltd in Tampere. He gave an excellent talk on how expertise was being developed in the Open Source industry. Mediamaisteri support Moodle and have two employees in the core development group. sadly I could not stay longer as had to finish a report but did get the chance in the bar to meet Teemu Arina from the Flosseposse (well worth keeping an eye on their shared blog) in Helsinki who were behind the Fle 3 project.
One think we talked about is whether the phenomenal success of Moodle is holding back the development of
other and more innovative OSs applications in education. Teemu seemed to think there was room for Moodle as a fully finished and stable product as well as other more experimental applications.
Today have been meeting with Pekka Kamarainen - who says he is going to start a blog - right on Pekka - and his colleagues form Jyveskula Polytechnic. More on that in another entry. But first it's time for a pint.
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1 FLE3 etc.
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