OSDL launches new college affiliate program

Hi Jonathan,

FYI, OSDL announced today a new college and university affiliate program.
Marist College, Oregon State, Stanford, Tokyo University and Waseda
University are first to join. Release is below my sig.

Thanks,

Bret Clement
Page One PR
303/462-3057
bret@pageonepr.com

FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

OSDL Creates New College and University Affiliate Program

Leading international Linux advocacy consortium targets higher education.
Marist College, Oregon State, Stanford, Tokyo University and Waseda
University first to join

BEAVERTON, Ore.   June 30, 2004   The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL),
a global consortium of leading technology companies dedicated to
accelerating the adoption of Linux, today announced a new Lab membership
initiative dedicated to supporting qualifying institutions of higher
education.  

The new program is designed to attract affiliates among colleges and
universities interested in Linux research and deployment. The first
institutions joining OSDL under the new program are Marist College, Oregon
State University, Stanford University, Tokyo University of Technology and
Waseda University in Japan.

"Higher education is the incubator for tomorrow's technology breakthroughs
and this is especially true for Linux," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL.
"We want to encourage broader deployment of Linux among colleges and
universities as well as to facilitate research to drive advances in Linux
technology.  This new affiliate program will make it easy and attractive
for colleges and universities around the world to join OSDL and
participate in our initiatives."   

Linux itself began as the project of a computer science student, Linus
Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in 1991.

Under the new program, accredited universities and colleges can join OSDL
as Affiliates and participate along with their corporate peers in
initiatives such as the OSDL Carrier Grade Linux, Data Center Linux and
Desktop Linux working groups.  The goal is to provide a forum where
commercial Linux vendors and the academic Linux community can come
together to share ideas and address common problems.  In addition,
university researchers can access the OSDL's data center computing
facilities in the United States and Japan.

"Joining OSDL is an important strategic move in supporting further
innovation, research and competitiveness in open source development," said
Dennis J. Murray, president of Marist College.  "Through cooperation with
OSDL, Marist can expand our work with businesses, government agencies,
Linux developers, IT vendors, and other universities to help prepare our
students to take advantage opportunities presented by the global growth of
Linux."

"Our students and faculty benefit from using Linux and we're pleased to
join OSDL to contribute back to the Linux community," said Joe Little,
principal systems architect, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. 
"We anticipate that interaction with IT vendors, Linux developers,
corporate end-users, and other universities will be beneficial to our
university community."

OSDL is working with participating colleges and universities on a program
to advance Linux by:

 	Providing a vendor neutral environment for collaboration
 	Linking universities with industry to improve opportunities
         for research projects and student placement
 	Creating a forum for cross-institutional sharing of curriculum
         and other academic issues related to open source
 	Providing insight on open source projects that are well suited
         for higher education development
  	Fostering dialog between University and Commercial CIOs

Beyond working group participation, college and university affiliates will
participate in a "Linux in higher-education" forum hosted by OSDL.  This
program will begin as an on-line forum, but is expected to expand into
regularly scheduled conferences hosted at member institutions' campuses.
This forum will allow member institutions to exchange information on a
range of topics including:

 	Discuss issues and topics specific to academia
 	Propose projects for grant consideration by other members
 	Solicit guest lecturers

About Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) 
OSDL - home to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux - is dedicated to
accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux. Founded in 2000 by CA,
Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel and NEC, OSDL is a non-profit organization at the
center of Linux supported by a global consortium of more than 40 of the
world's largest Linux customers and IT industry leaders. OSDL sponsors
industry-wide initiatives around Linux in telecommunications, in the
enterprise data center and on corporate desktops. The Lab also provides
Linux expertise and computing and test facilities in the United States and
Japan available to developers around the world. Visit OSDL on the Web at
http://www.osdl.org/. 

OSDL is a trademark of Open Source Development Labs, Inc. Linux is a
trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property
of their respective holders

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
                            
Bret Clement for OSDL
Page One PR 
+1 503.675.7988
bret@pageonepr.com