Tigraine

Daniel Hoelbling-Inzko talks about programming

Why the secrecy?

Posted by Daniel Hölbling on March 25, 2009

Although I am still actively working for Pixelpoint, running strong on finishing my projects, I also went back to Klagenfurt University to finally finish my computer science bachelor degree.

Only problem being that (since I am now caught up somewhere between work and university) I can’t fit any lectures into my schedule. I can barely attain courses that require me to do so, so lecture slides are a rather vital part of my studying right now, and not being able to access them is really a showstopper.

What really bothers me is that a university professor who is teaching computer science, doesn’t get the concept of an open exchange of information and knowledge!

All educational material for courses by the syssec group is accessible through an external website that is password protected and where username/password combination is only given out during lectures.

Why?

We are talking about slides for a university lecture, by Austrian law a public event that anyone can attain (yes! every person who wishes to can simply sit in there and listen). Anyone who wants to can simply walk into the ÖH office and can buy a printed copy of exactly those slides for less than 1€. Heck, everyone can get to those slides anyway so why are we keeping people out?

I’ve seen them, there are no state secrets in there. To be honest: I don’t even like these slides too much (they were meant to be presented by a professor mind you). Still they are a valuable source of information that I believe shouldn’t be kept away from anyone.

On the other hand there is O. Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Laszlo Böszörmenyi who manages to somehow have ALL of his course material be publicly (and freely) available to anyone. So, I doubt there is any legal reasoning behind locking away the course material and I demand that those password protections for the lecture slides are released. A university ought to be a place where knowledge is shared, so why stop at the boundary of a small institution like the University of Klagenfurt?

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