Mike Burns, Junior Computer Science major, Oregon State University, transferred in from Chemeketa Community College program in Network Technology. Attended McNary High, just north of Salem.
"When I graduated form high school, I wanted to do computer stuff but not necessarily computer science, so I tried a program at Chemeketa Community College focused on Network Technology; it’s an interesting field but very specialized and I ended up wanting a more general computer science education, so I transferred to OSU."
"I got involved over a year ago. It’s about using technology to make better textbooks and use computers to be better tools to teach children ideas. They’re making an educational laptop entirely in the open through open source programming. It is a very humanitarian thing to make the world better with more educated people."
Listen to Mike Burns on One Laptop Per Child
"It’s like a grandmother who shares her cookie recipe with all her friends, so they can compare notes and come up with a better cookie in the end. Open source got me excited about working on real projects in the real world without having to have my degree. You are allowed to contribute regardless of your background."
Listen to Mike Burns on Open Source Lab
More on the Open Source Lab (OSL): "The Open Source Lab actually does as much (or more) hosting for Open Source projects as they do development. Instead of writing the software, as our development team has done with the 'Watch & Listen' media player, the student system administrators provide infrastructure (run ~100 servers, monitor network connections, maintain databases) for large, external software projects. We host much or most of the infrastructure for the fastest growing open source projects (Firefox, Linux, Apache, Drupal), all of it provided at no charge to community developers. It is a pretty great place to get involved in Open Source."
"I got a job at a small nonprofit group run right here at OSU that hires about 20 students and their job is to create and help out Open Source. It is a paid student job but you get to work on real live production machines, you are not treated as a student, but as a professional. That responsibility and trust in undergraduates is really important. This group has been doing the media player for the One Laptop Per Child Project."
Biggest challenge in college: "Throw away programs, assignments that you turn it in you get a grade, then you move on, never build off of it. Sometimes the homework may not be that exciting but how you use it can be satisfying."
Recommended website: "Go to osel.oregonstate.edu and a website that is talking about how students can get involved in open source."
Free time: "I’m a big baseball fan. I also do a lot of long boarding and bicycling around campus."
"Don’t believe the stigma that computers are for geeks and people who don’t have a social life. Really, it’s just solving problems and that has nothing to do with being geeky and being social or not. Also, the myth that girls aren’t good at CS is inaccurate. Some of the best students I’ve met have been women students."
Listen to Mike Burns on Computer Science Myths
What I’m reading: "The Scifi classic Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein. He coined a term called “grok” which is to understand completely."
Music I like lately: "Joshua Radin"
Person most interested in meeting: "Paul Graham, a famous computer hacker out in Boston. He has written a series of my favorite books, and wrote the original company that yahoo bought."
Favorite quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world." Ghandi.