Adventurer rides to ‘Share the Knowledge’

Adventurer Max Peer arrives Friday, July 19, 2013, at Central Michigan University on his round-the-world bicycle and canoe trip. Peer is promoting free education materials produced by the world’s technological elite. Sun photo by MARK

By MARK

An adventurer on what’s planned to be a round-the-world bicycle and canoe trip to promote free educational materials stopped in Mt. Pleasant Friday to talk to Central Michigan University students.

Austrian-born rider Max Peer brought what’s being billed as the Share the KnowledgeTour to CMU and met with students who are part of the university’s SAP University Alliance. SAP is enterprise software used by many large organizations to manage business operations and customer relations.

SAP AG, the software’s maker, is sponsoring the tour. It promotes the efforts of the Denmark-based Interaction Design Foundation, a nonprofit new media publisher of educational materials.

“Good education can change a lot of things,” Peer said.

“We want to support and leverage SAP’s marketing resources to make a difference by giving more students and design professionals free access to high quality textbooks and online education materials,” said Rikke Friis Dam, co-founder of the foundation, in a statement.

“Students and universities will be one of the key channels for innovation within and together with the SAP ecosystem,” said Ann Rosenberg, Global head of SAP University Alliances.