About BOSI
The Barre Open Systems Institute of Vermont (BOSIVT) is an educational community dedicated to the promotion of the development of open source practitioners. open knowledge/learning and open community and youth initiatives that will enable Barre Vermont and its citizens to grow and develop open source as a local community resource.
There is currently a trend in the economy, society and industry to privatize, compartmentalize, classify and restrict many areas of civic life - everything from genes, file formats and research to educational opportunities and public services. This is not to say that this is a prevalent trend in Vermont or that all restriction and private action runs counter to community well-being. However, in many cases, privately-developed and copyrighted software, information and knowledge places individuals, organizations and communities like Barre in a precarious position - as life-cycle consumers of expensive and ill-adapted solutions for communication, data, education, local administration, professional collaboration and for civic action. In some societies, closed technologies, information and knowledge-sharing policies can run counter to community development itself.
As in other communities, a digital divide runs through Barre. Inaccessibility to technology - the art of technology development, as opposed to appliance usage makes it somewhat difficult for our citizens to economically adapt new organizational administrative and education systems. While great strides have been made to improve technology access, the price tags are always high -- and social inclusion has been less than complete.
Many Vermont organizations, small businesses, schools, and local administrations face difficult decisions as to how to upgrade their older technologies, databases, communications and management systems. They seek new, more efficient modalities for teaching, learning, collaborating, managing and organizing collectively. Many transitions are difficult to make. Newer systems often run in parallel with older systems. In some cases, the pool of fixed capital assets is discarded, when in fact, some assets could be put to alternative uses or recycled. And in transition, citizens and employees may need resources, training and differential levels of support.
In all instances, the challenges are not simply technological. Ultimately, they are about how the citizens of Barre and Vermont want to build community.
BOSIVT supports a three-fold community development ideal: that technologies be open-source, that the Barre community open itself to other communities worldwide by mobilizing its cultural diversity and by employing technology and that teaching and learning be open and knowledge shared.
BOSIVT operates with the core belief that an education in open source technology development is fundamentally different from being educated to use appliances. We believe in objectification and abstraction are tools to reveal not weapons to obscure for control and power.
Barre has always had the reputation for independent artistry and craftsmanship. This tradition is manifest in the customized engines of Thunder Road as well as the granite artistry that adorns the country emanating from Barre. Imagine how fast that stock car could go if when it was delivered to the team the hood was welded shut?
BOSIVT also maintains that youth is where this philosophy of open system development begins. Not everyone is destined to become a developer of Open Source Software, but understanding the communion of thought necessary to cause this to happen is the goal and purpose of this institute. This indeed may be the conceptual the key to building an "Open Barre," in which all capable of innovation and invention
Please join BOSIVT in this community education initiative. Transit to Barre Libre. It's just past Monopoly. And thanks for visiting our site.