WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.879 You know, there's a saying that we have all heard, 00:00:01.879 --> 00:00:04.440 I mean, a million times. There is no such thing 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:06.799 as a free lunch. It's a classic for a reason. 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:09.740 Usually when something's presented as free, you 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:12.419 are the product or there's a catch so big it 00:00:12.419 --> 00:00:14.419 just ruins the whole deal. Exactly. And that's 00:00:14.419 --> 00:00:16.420 really where I want to start today because we're 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:19.600 looking at a topic that on the surface claims 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:21.839 to break that rule. We're talking about open 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:24.219 source technology. Right. And if you're listening 00:00:24.219 --> 00:00:27.079 to this thinking, OK, great free software, I 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:30.239 can save 50 bucks. I just, I need you to pause. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:32.060 Right, because if you're only looking at this 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:34.460 through the lens of your wallet, you are missing 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:38.579 the entire point. So we're jumping into a deep 00:00:38.579 --> 00:00:42.079 dive on this really fascinating 2025 analysis 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:45.899 by Gary Ackerman over at hackscience .education. 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:48.920 He revisits years of research on tech in schools, 00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:53.159 and what he finds is, well... It's complicated. 00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:56.439 It is. It's a story about freedom, about control, 00:00:56.780 --> 00:00:58.939 and a really strange paradox that's happening 00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:02.259 in, of all places, rural America. It is. And 00:01:02.259 --> 00:01:04.840 our mission today is to take you past that free 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:07.900 beer headline. We need to understand the two 00:01:07.900 --> 00:01:11.939 pillars of open source, the real ones, transparency 00:01:11.939 --> 00:01:15.489 and freedom. And Ackerman uses this analogy that, 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:17.549 I'll be honest, I can't stop thinking about it. 00:01:17.790 --> 00:01:20.310 He says, we need to stop looking at software 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:23.909 as a product we buy off a shelf and start looking 00:01:23.909 --> 00:01:26.709 at it as a community cookbook. It's a brilliant 00:01:26.709 --> 00:01:29.390 comparison. And I promise, by the time we wrap 00:01:29.390 --> 00:01:31.909 up, that cookbook idea is going to completely 00:01:31.909 --> 00:01:33.909 change how you look at every app on your phone. 00:01:34.069 --> 00:01:35.870 OK, so let's get the definitions out of the way 00:01:35.870 --> 00:01:38.049 so we get to the good stuff. When we say open 00:01:38.049 --> 00:01:41.650 source in this context like formal education 00:01:41.650 --> 00:01:44.480 enterprise systems, What are we actually talking 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:46.299 about? Is this just, you know, piracy with a 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:48.579 better marketing team? No, definitely not piracy. 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:51.700 It's actually highly regulated, but in a completely 00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:53.980 different way than we're used to. Ackerman, he 00:01:53.980 --> 00:01:56.040 breaks it down into three key characteristics. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:58.799 The first one is the one everyone knows. Free 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:01.340 use and acquisition. Which means zero dollars, 00:02:01.379 --> 00:02:03.959 the free part. Basically, you don't buy a license. 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:06.700 You don't pay a subscription fee. You can go 00:02:06.700 --> 00:02:10.120 online, find a massive platform for, say, online 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:12.509 learning and just... Take it. You just download 00:02:12.509 --> 00:02:15.210 it. Install it. It's yours. OK, so that's the 00:02:15.210 --> 00:02:17.629 free beer part. But you said there were two pillars, 00:02:18.289 --> 00:02:21.110 transparency and freedom. How is that different 00:02:21.110 --> 00:02:24.710 from just free? This is the critical shift. Think 00:02:24.710 --> 00:02:28.030 about the software you use at work, a big proprietary 00:02:28.030 --> 00:02:30.669 system. It's a black box, right? You press a 00:02:30.669 --> 00:02:33.150 button and the machine does something, but you 00:02:33.150 --> 00:02:35.710 have no idea how it does it. You can't see the 00:02:35.710 --> 00:02:38.509 code. The hood of the car is welded shut. Right. 00:02:38.509 --> 00:02:40.509 And if the engine starts making a weird noise, 00:02:40.889 --> 00:02:44.150 I can't fix it. I have to call the dealer. Precisely. 00:02:44.330 --> 00:02:46.889 Open source relies on transparency. You get access 00:02:46.889 --> 00:02:48.610 to the source code. You can pop the hood. You 00:02:48.610 --> 00:02:51.530 can see every single gear and piston. Which I'm 00:02:51.530 --> 00:02:54.349 guessing leads to the third thing. Freedom. And 00:02:54.349 --> 00:02:56.729 this is the big one. Freedom here doesn't mean 00:02:56.729 --> 00:02:59.490 freedom from payment. It means the freedom to 00:02:59.490 --> 00:03:02.449 create what are called derivative works. Derivative 00:03:02.449 --> 00:03:05.129 works. That sounds like a lot of legal jargon. 00:03:05.610 --> 00:03:07.530 Can you break that down for us? It means you 00:03:07.530 --> 00:03:10.449 can change the recipe. If you download this software 00:03:10.449 --> 00:03:12.810 and you hate the way the gradebook looks, or 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:15.250 maybe you need it to run on a very specific old 00:03:15.250 --> 00:03:18.150 server you have in the basement, you have the 00:03:18.150 --> 00:03:20.250 legal right to go in and rewrite the code to 00:03:20.250 --> 00:03:22.729 make it do that. You're not just a consumer. 00:03:22.949 --> 00:03:26.370 You can be a co -creator. That is a massive shift 00:03:26.370 --> 00:03:29.150 in the power dynamic. You go from, I hope this 00:03:29.150 --> 00:03:31.930 app updates soon to fix this bug to, I'm going 00:03:31.930 --> 00:03:34.389 to fix this bug myself. That's it. But I can 00:03:34.389 --> 00:03:36.449 just hear the skeptics listening right now thinking, 00:03:36.710 --> 00:03:38.590 wait a minute, if everyone is just rewriting 00:03:38.590 --> 00:03:41.590 the code, doesn't that just create chaos? It 00:03:41.590 --> 00:03:43.930 does sound a bit like the Wild West. And it would 00:03:43.930 --> 00:03:46.629 be, if not for the licensing. Ackerman points 00:03:46.629 --> 00:03:49.490 this out very clearly. This isn't lawless. It's 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:52.050 governed by things like the GNU general public 00:03:52.050 --> 00:03:54.430 license or the Apache license. I've definitely 00:03:54.430 --> 00:03:56.189 seen those names in the terms and conditions 00:03:56.189 --> 00:03:58.389 that I scroll past without reading. We all do. 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:01.009 But those licenses are basically the constitution 00:04:01.009 --> 00:04:03.889 of this world. They say, you're free to use this 00:04:03.889 --> 00:04:06.610 and you're free to change this, but often you 00:04:06.610 --> 00:04:09.229 must share your changes back with the community. 00:04:09.669 --> 00:04:12.219 Ah, so it keeps the ecosystem healthy. It does. 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:14.740 It prevents it from splintering into chaos. Okay, 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:17.379 so we have the theory. We have transparency, 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:21.160 freedom, the right to tinker. Let's bring this 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:24.519 down to Earth. The source material focuses so 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:27.079 heavily on this divide between rural, suburban, 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:31.019 and urban schools. Why rural schools specifically? 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:33.819 Because context is everything. I mean, a rural 00:04:33.819 --> 00:04:35.680 school leader is playing a completely different 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:38.240 game than their urban counterparts. The most 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:40.620 obvious factor is just the budget. I imagine 00:04:40.620 --> 00:04:43.399 the tax base in a small farming community looks 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:45.279 a little different from downtown Chicago. Night 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:48.180 and day. So on the surface, open source looks 00:04:48.180 --> 00:04:50.519 like the holy grail for these schools. Minimal 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:52.779 costs. Exactly. If you can get an enterprise 00:04:52.779 --> 00:04:55.180 level system for zero dollars, well that frees 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:57.540 up money for teachers, for books, for heating 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:00.000 the building. It seems like a no -brainer, but 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.959 I want to get specific here. Ackerman lists three 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:05.540 case studies in the analysis like actual examples 00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:08.350 of schools using these tools. I think we should 00:05:08.350 --> 00:05:10.110 walk through them because they highlight that 00:05:10.110 --> 00:05:12.910 this isn't just about saving a few bucks. No, 00:05:12.910 --> 00:05:15.670 not at all. These examples prove that free can 00:05:15.670 --> 00:05:19.029 actually mean better. So first up is Moodle. 00:05:19.850 --> 00:05:22.029 I feel like anyone who's been near a university 00:05:22.029 --> 00:05:24.829 in the last 10 years probably knows Moodle. It's 00:05:24.829 --> 00:05:27.209 a powerhouse. It's an LMSL learning management 00:05:27.209 --> 00:05:29.810 system. And in this case study, a school switched 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:32.670 to Moodle to replace a proprietary system. But 00:05:32.670 --> 00:05:36.670 the backstory is it's terrifying. Let me guess. 00:05:36.939 --> 00:05:39.839 They were using the free version of a paid product. 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:42.279 Exactly, and we've all been there. You sign up 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:44.139 for the free tier and then you realize all the 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:46.000 features you actually need are locked behind 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.839 a paywall. Upgrade to Pro to export your data. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:51.819 That classic. It was so much worse than that. 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:54.759 This school faced actual data loss. They had 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:57.420 no support. Can you imagine being a principal 00:05:57.420 --> 00:06:00.019 and telling your teachers, sorry, all those grades 00:06:00.019 --> 00:06:02.519 and lesson plans you uploaded, they're just gone 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:04.060 and the company won't pick up the phone because 00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:06.040 we're not paying customers. That is an absolute 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:08.100 nightmare. So they switched to Moodle. They did. 00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:11.300 And because Moodle is open source, they own their 00:06:11.300 --> 00:06:16.069 instance. No data limits, no premium tiers. They 00:06:16.069 --> 00:06:18.870 used it for everything, online classrooms, professional 00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:21.649 development, and they even customized it to integrate 00:06:21.649 --> 00:06:23.930 perfectly with their Chromebooks. So they didn't 00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:27.170 just save money, they regained control. That's 00:06:27.170 --> 00:06:29.250 the key takeaway, security through ownership. 00:06:29.589 --> 00:06:33.170 Okay, example number two, Mahara. This one I'm 00:06:33.170 --> 00:06:35.829 less familiar with. Mahara is an e -portfolio 00:06:35.829 --> 00:06:38.350 platform. It's a place where students can showcase 00:06:38.350 --> 00:06:41.509 their work over time. And this example is interesting 00:06:41.509 --> 00:06:44.490 because it shows the power of connecting the 00:06:44.490 --> 00:06:47.050 plumbing. What do you mean by that? Well, have 00:06:47.050 --> 00:06:49.410 you ever tried to get two apps from two completely 00:06:49.410 --> 00:06:51.509 different companies to talk to each other? It's 00:06:51.509 --> 00:06:53.689 usually impossible. Or you have to use some weird 00:06:53.689 --> 00:06:55.990 third -party glue that breaks every other week. 00:06:56.149 --> 00:06:59.149 Right. So this school used Mahara alongside Moodle. 00:06:59.410 --> 00:07:01.610 Because both are open source, they could actually 00:07:01.610 --> 00:07:04.129 go into the code and build a bridge between them. 00:07:04.509 --> 00:07:06.930 They created what they called a single online 00:07:06.930 --> 00:07:09.709 space. So a student submits a project in their 00:07:09.709 --> 00:07:11.949 Moodle class, and it just flows right into their 00:07:11.949 --> 00:07:14.920 portfolio in Mahara. Seamlessly, that's a user 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.180 experience that even some of the really expensive 00:07:17.180 --> 00:07:20.579 proprietary suites struggle to deliver. And they 00:07:20.579 --> 00:07:22.860 built it themselves because they had the freedom 00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:25.379 to modify the tools. That's really impressive. 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:28.920 OK, the third one. It involves something we all 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:32.879 got very, very familiar with in 2020, video conferencing. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.959 The tool is called Jitsi. Jitsi, yes. It's an 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:40.480 open source alternative to Zoom or Teams. This 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.980 case study was about a school alliance that needed 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:45.720 synchronous distance learning. Now usually I 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:47.920 think people assume the open source video tool 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:51.939 is going to be, you know, grainy, a bit glitchy. 00:07:52.019 --> 00:07:54.100 That's the stereotype. But in this case, they 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:56.319 switched to Jitsi because the proprietary tool 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:58.540 they were paying for was failing them. They were 00:07:58.540 --> 00:08:00.860 getting unclear visual and audio transmission 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:03.079 and couldn't get the two -way communication to 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:05.779 work reliably. Wait, so the professional expensive 00:08:05.779 --> 00:08:07.939 tool was the one that was glitchy. In their specific 00:08:07.939 --> 00:08:10.279 network environment, yes. And because Jitsi is 00:08:10.279 --> 00:08:12.819 open, they could likely go in and tweak the transmission 00:08:12.819 --> 00:08:14.879 settings to work with their specific bandwidth 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:17.360 constraints, something you just cannot do with 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:19.959 a locked down commercial app. That is such an 00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:22.160 important point. It wasn't just a cheap knockoff. 00:08:22.259 --> 00:08:24.480 It was a functional upgrade for them. It was 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:26.660 a better solution. So I'm listening to all this 00:08:26.660 --> 00:08:30.730 and I'm sold. You save money. You own your data. 00:08:30.949 --> 00:08:33.730 You can customize the code to make it work better 00:08:33.730 --> 00:08:36.029 than the expensive stuff. It sounds like every 00:08:36.029 --> 00:08:37.870 rural school in the country should be running 00:08:37.870 --> 00:08:40.549 an all open source stack. It does sound that 00:08:40.549 --> 00:08:42.509 way, doesn't it? It seems like the perfect solution 00:08:42.509 --> 00:08:45.210 for these budget strap districts. I feel a butt 00:08:45.210 --> 00:08:48.669 coming. But here's the plot twist. Ackerman's 00:08:48.669 --> 00:08:51.309 analysis highlights this massive contradiction. 00:08:52.029 --> 00:08:55.250 Despite all the clear cost benefits, rural schools 00:08:55.250 --> 00:08:58.009 are actually less likely to use open source software 00:08:58.009 --> 00:09:01.470 than suburban or urban schools. Hold on. That 00:09:01.470 --> 00:09:04.029 doesn't make any sense. If I'm broke, I buy the 00:09:04.029 --> 00:09:06.710 generic brand. Why are the schools with the least 00:09:06.710 --> 00:09:09.070 money avoiding the free software? It brings us 00:09:09.070 --> 00:09:10.970 right back to the free lunch concept. The software 00:09:10.970 --> 00:09:14.330 is free. The license is free. But there's a hidden 00:09:14.330 --> 00:09:17.509 cost. And it's a cost that is absolutely crippling 00:09:17.509 --> 00:09:20.909 for rural areas. What is it? Expertise. Ah, human 00:09:20.909 --> 00:09:24.289 element. You see, installing an enterprise -level 00:09:24.289 --> 00:09:27.679 LMS like Moodle. It's not like downloading Candy 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:30.259 Crush. You don't just tap install and walk away. 00:09:30.299 --> 00:09:32.559 Right. You need to configure a server. You need 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:34.919 to manage a database. You need to secure the 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:37.639 network ports. You need a chef. A chef. To go 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:39.759 back to that analogy, you have all the ingredients. 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:42.620 But you need someone who knows how to cook. And 00:09:42.620 --> 00:09:46.279 in the tech world, that chef is a skilled systems 00:09:46.279 --> 00:09:48.460 administrator. And I'm guessing those people 00:09:48.460 --> 00:09:51.059 are pretty hard to find in a town of 800 people. 00:09:51.379 --> 00:09:54.639 It is incredibly difficult. Rural districts really 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:57.379 struggle to recruit and retain high -level technical 00:09:57.379 --> 00:10:00.200 talent. If you're a wizard at configuring Linux 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:02.539 servers, you can probably make six figures working 00:10:02.539 --> 00:10:04.759 remotely for a tech giant. Or you move to the 00:10:04.759 --> 00:10:07.659 city. It's hard to convince that person to work 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:10.480 for a rural school district salary. So the real 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.039 barrier isn't the cost of the software. It's 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:15.840 the cost of the human you need to run it. Exactly. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:18.700 And this leads to what the source calls the risk 00:10:18.700 --> 00:10:21.480 of abandonment. That sounds ominous. It is. It's 00:10:21.480 --> 00:10:23.840 the bus factor. The bus factor. It's a morbid 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:26.779 old project management term. How many people 00:10:26.779 --> 00:10:29.159 on your team can get hit by a bus before the 00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:31.860 entire project fails? And in many of these schools, 00:10:32.139 --> 00:10:35.139 the bus factor is one. It's one. There's one 00:10:35.139 --> 00:10:37.620 IT person. The one person who knows how it all 00:10:37.620 --> 00:10:40.000 works. Right. They set up a server, they customize 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.820 the code, they know where all the digital bodies 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:45.279 are buried. And if that person takes a new job? 00:10:46.579 --> 00:10:49.379 or wins the lottery. The school is left with 00:10:49.379 --> 00:10:52.259 a highly customized complex system that nobody 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:54.960 else knows how to use. If it breaks, there is 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:57.799 no 1 -800 number you can call. There's no customer 00:10:57.799 --> 00:11:00.299 success manager. You are completely on your own. 00:11:00.679 --> 00:11:02.899 That's a huge gamble for a superintendent to 00:11:02.899 --> 00:11:05.500 take. Hey, let's bet the entire school year on 00:11:05.500 --> 00:11:08.179 Dave not quitting. Right. And that fear, it drives 00:11:08.179 --> 00:11:10.480 them right back to proprietary software. Because 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:12.419 even if it's expensive, even if it has limited 00:11:12.419 --> 00:11:14.539 features, even if they hold your data hostage, 00:11:15.019 --> 00:11:17.440 At least there's a support line. It feels safer. 00:11:17.580 --> 00:11:20.379 That's tragic in a way. The very thing that could 00:11:20.379 --> 00:11:22.740 level the playing field, this open technology, 00:11:23.220 --> 00:11:26.000 is inaccessible because of a lack of human capital. 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:29.000 It's the rural paradox in a nutshell. So are 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:31.679 we stuck? I mean, is this just a dead end? Or 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:34.320 does Ackerman offer a way out of this trap? There 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:38.519 is a path forward, but it requires a real change 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:41.419 in mindset. The source says successful deployment 00:11:41.419 --> 00:11:44.919 has to be a collaborative and iterative process. 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:46.740 Collaborative and iterative. Okay, are those 00:11:46.740 --> 00:11:48.860 just buzzwords or is there a real substance there? 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:51.220 No, real substance. It means you can't just hire 00:11:51.220 --> 00:11:53.860 a Dave and lock him in the server room. The deployment 00:11:53.860 --> 00:11:57.019 of the software has to be a conversation, a real 00:11:57.019 --> 00:11:59.080 back and forth between the technical experts 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:01.100 and the educators who actually use it. So the 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:03.080 teachers need to be involved in how the software 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:05.379 is built and changed. Yes. Because remember, 00:12:05.500 --> 00:12:08.639 with open source, you can change the tool. If 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:10.320 a teacher says, you know what, this button is 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.759 in the wrong place, the IT team can actually 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:15.820 move the button. Wow. And Ackerman notes that 00:12:15.820 --> 00:12:18.919 when this happens, educators become more sophisticated 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:21.139 users of technology. Because they understand 00:12:21.139 --> 00:12:23.980 the why. They're not just passive users clicking 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:26.480 buttons. They are helping design the cockpit. 00:12:27.019 --> 00:12:29.700 Exactly. And this brings us full circle, right 00:12:29.700 --> 00:12:31.779 back to that community cookbook analogy we teased 00:12:31.779 --> 00:12:34.019 at the start. I think now it'll make total sense. 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.500 OK, let's break it down. OK. So imagine a community 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:38.759 cookbook. First, you've got the ingredients. 00:12:38.899 --> 00:12:41.000 The software. Right, the open source software 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:45.500 itself. It's commodity stuff. Flour, sugar, code. 00:12:45.820 --> 00:12:48.399 It's free. Got it. Then you have the recipes. 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:51.340 That's the source code. Because of transparency, 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:53.960 you can read the recipe. You know exactly what's 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:55.860 in the dish. And because of freedom, you can 00:12:55.860 --> 00:12:58.360 tweak the recipe. You can say, add more salt, 00:12:58.659 --> 00:13:02.200 remove the nuts. But, and here's the rural paradox 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:04.799 part, just giving someone a sack of flour and 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:07.379 a recipe card doesn't guarantee a good dinner. 00:13:07.659 --> 00:13:09.990 No. You need the chef. You need that technical 00:13:09.990 --> 00:13:12.769 expert who has the skill and the time to gather 00:13:12.769 --> 00:13:15.029 the ingredients, follow the recipe, and adapt 00:13:15.029 --> 00:13:17.009 it to the local taste. And if you don't have 00:13:17.009 --> 00:13:19.370 the chef, the free ingredients are pretty much 00:13:19.370 --> 00:13:22.370 useless. Worse than useless. They just make a 00:13:22.370 --> 00:13:25.250 mess. But here's the beautiful part of the community 00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:28.629 aspect. In a true open source model, you aren't 00:13:28.629 --> 00:13:31.090 just cooking alone in your kitchen. You're sharing 00:13:31.090 --> 00:13:34.309 recipes with the next town over. So if one rural 00:13:34.309 --> 00:13:36.850 district figures out a great way to configure 00:13:36.850 --> 00:13:40.240 Moodle for bad internet. They can share that 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:42.940 recipe with another district. Exactly. They can 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:44.919 share the code. They can share the knowledge. 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:49.019 That is how you overcome the expertise gap by 00:13:49.019 --> 00:13:51.480 pooling resources, not just hoarding them. It 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:54.299 shifts the entire focus from buying a product 00:13:54.299 --> 00:13:56.879 to building a community. It really, really does. 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:59.419 Wow. This has been such an eye -opener. I mean, 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:01.120 we started by talking about free software, but 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:03.620 we ended up talking about labor economics and 00:14:03.620 --> 00:14:05.840 community building. It is never just about the 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:08.490 code. So let's wrap this up with the key takeaways 00:14:08.490 --> 00:14:11.389 for you listening at home. Sure. I'd say first, 00:14:11.730 --> 00:14:14.649 open source is powerful. It offers that transparency 00:14:14.649 --> 00:14:17.429 to see the code and the freedom to change the 00:14:17.429 --> 00:14:19.909 code. You can solve problems that proprietary 00:14:19.909 --> 00:14:22.730 software just can't. But takeaway number two, 00:14:23.210 --> 00:14:28.279 free is... Very. Free comes with a high implementation 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:31.440 cost. You need expertise. And for rural areas, 00:14:31.779 --> 00:14:34.220 that scarcity of human talent creates a massive 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:37.200 barrier. The bus factor is real. Which leads 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:39.200 to the final point. It's not about the tool, 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:41.740 it's about the people. The chef is just as important 00:14:41.740 --> 00:14:44.679 as the ingredients. Maybe more so. You know, 00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:47.039 this leaves me with a really heavy thought to 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:50.320 end on. We talk so much in education about the 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:52.980 digital divide the equity gap and usually we 00:14:52.980 --> 00:14:55.980 mean Who has a laptop or who has high -speed 00:14:55.980 --> 00:14:59.120 internet right the hardware gap? But listening 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:01.399 to this I'm wondering if the real gap of the 00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:04.460 future isn't about hardware at all I mean if 00:15:04.460 --> 00:15:07.580 the most powerful most flexible tools require 00:15:07.580 --> 00:15:11.070 high -level human expertise to run Are we moving 00:15:11.070 --> 00:15:13.629 toward a world where the rich districts are the 00:15:13.629 --> 00:15:15.789 ones who can afford the freedom of open source 00:15:15.789 --> 00:15:18.629 while the poor districts are stuck renting rigid 00:15:18.629 --> 00:15:21.490 proprietary software just because it's safer? 00:15:22.269 --> 00:15:24.990 That is a profound question. Are we moving from 00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:28.169 a divide of digital capital to a divide of human 00:15:28.169 --> 00:15:30.450 capital? If you can't afford the chef, you can't 00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:31.929 use the cookbook. That's something I'm going 00:15:31.929 --> 00:15:33.750 to be chewing on for a while. It's not about 00:15:33.750 --> 00:15:35.710 buying the program anymore. It's about hiring 00:15:35.710 --> 00:15:37.919 the human. Absolutely. Well, on that cheerful 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:40.019 note, we want to thank you for joining us on 00:15:40.019 --> 00:15:42.000 this deep dive. It has been a real pleasure. 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:44.620 We hope next time you open an app or log into 00:15:44.620 --> 00:15:46.960 a piece of software, you'll take a second and 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:50.679 just wonder, who holds the recipe? And do I have 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.179 the ingredients to change it? Or at the very 00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:55.960 least, do I know a good chef? Exactly. Thanks 00:15:55.960 --> 00:15:56.899 for listening. Take care.