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\author{Peter J. Hutnick} |
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\title{The Free Curriculum Project Primer} |
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\date{\today} |
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\begin{document} |
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\maketitle |
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%\tableofcontents |
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\section{What is the Free Curriculum Project?} |
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We want to tell you what the Free Curriculum Project (FCP) is, but we |
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have to explain copyleft first. Copyleft serves as the core idea of the |
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project. |
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\subsection{Copyleft} |
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The Free Software Foundation, the author of the license we use, says |
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the following about copyleft (at |
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http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html): |
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\begin{quote} |
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To copyleft a program, we first state that it is copyrighted; then we |
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add distribution terms, which are a legal instrument that gives everyone |
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the rights to use, modify, and redistribute the program's code or any |
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program derived from it but only if the distribution terms are |
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unchanged. Thus, the code and the freedoms become legally inseparable. |
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Proprietary software developers use copyright to take away the users' |
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freedom; we use copyright to guarantee their freedom. That's why we |
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reverse the name, changing ``copyright'' into ``copyleft.'' |
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\end{quote} |
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This refers specifically to software, but the concepts all translate |
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directly to any copyrighted work. |
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It is important to understand that all materials contributed to the FCP |
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remain the copyrighted work of the \emph{original author}. |
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\subsection{Our Vision} |
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FCP aims to create a truly first rate curriculum and accompanying course |
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materials, and distribute it Freely under the terms of the GNU Free |
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Documentation License. So the FCP consists of people who spend some time |
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creating a Free set of Kindergarten through High School course |
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materials. |
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\subsection{Free?} |
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You might have noticed the unusual capitalization of Free in the |
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previous section. The Free Software community has adopted this |
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colloquialism to mean free as in freedom. |
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When you see Free, think \emph{liber}, when you see free, think |
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\emph{gratis}. Sometimes we say, ``free as in freedom.'' We often |
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illustrate the difference by saying, ``free as in free speech'' as |
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differentiated from ``free as in free beer.'' We often drop the second |
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free, like: |
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\begin{quote} |
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``Is Internet Explorer$^{tm}$ free as in speech?'' |
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% Can anyone tell me how to make letters upright in math mode and/or how |
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% to do a superscript outside math mode? |
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``No, but it is free as in beer.'' |
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\end{quote} |
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In speech we often pronounce Free as, ``Capital `f' free.'' |
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\section{How Can I Help?} |
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\subsection{Time} |
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Anyone with a reasonable command of the English language and even a |
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passing interest in education can help the FCP. |
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Proofreading has the lowest barriers to entry. We actively seek advice |
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from teachers and parents who homeschool. Anyone who knows (or is |
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willing to learn) \LaTeX{} and is willing to donate some time can help |
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with assembling documents from unformatted submissions. |
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We hope to find sources of public domain materials we can use to |
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kick-start the project. We need researchers to track such materials |
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down. |
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\subsection{Texts} |
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The single biggest task we face is writing textbooks. Everyone has some |
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topic in which they are particularly interested or skilled. We gladly |
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accept submissions of any scale. If you only have time to write a |
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treatment or an outline, or if you only have the expertise to write a |
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single chapter we will gratefully accept it. You needn't have a |
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master's degree. We don't reject submissions that aren't masterpieces. |
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\subsection{Join Us} |
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If this sounds interesting please visit us at http://www.nongnu.org/fcp |
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where you can get the latest information about our project. Becoming a |
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member is easy; subscribe to the mailing list and introduce yourself. |
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\bigskip |
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\bigskip |
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\noindent Copyright \copyright{} 2004 Peter J. Hutnick. |
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Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in |
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any medium, provided this notice is preserved. |
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\end{document} |
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