New forum under Other Ubuntu Support ?!

[mips]

Hi,

I have a suggestion.

After reading this thread http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=29919 I came to the realisation of how many people in the math/scientific community actually use linux/unix. It seems like the defacto standard out there.

Would it not be nice for these people to have their own forum to discuss things that the rest of us would probably never look at.

If Ubuntu had such a forum specifically for Math/Science where these people could support each other it would be great.

These individuals usually work in an environment that is small/close knit and news spreads fast among them.

Imagine a few telling others, "Hey the Ubuntu forums have a section specifically for us". The lecturers/professors etc will learn to know about it. This in turn will get relayed to their students and will be kinda viewed as good advice etc.

This will get more people into Ubuntu and it helps to get them at a young age. Seeing this type of environment supports OSS it will lead to more people developing on Ubuntu.

Once they leave their educational establishment they will take Ubuntu with them into the workplace or so I hope.

What do you think ?

[mzilhao]

well... i'm a Physics student...
i think it could be cool...

[kassetra]

It's possible that maybe actually under the Edubuntu section - there could be a math/science area.... hmmm.

[mips]

It's possible that maybe actually under the Edubuntu section - there could be a math/science area.... hmmm.

Thanks for the fast reply.

Anywhere here would be cool. Edubuntu just kinda seems like it is for school kids seeing it is the Ubuntu Educational version which i don't think the Scientist/Math/Engineering People would use.

Unless it gets called something like Higher Education or something like that.

Maybe others have some ideas they would like to express.

[Klaidas]

I think this is A good idea. Maybe and "Education" forum with subforums "Edubuntu" and "Science" would do the trick?

[mips]

It would be nice to have all the stuff for University level & higher in one forum which could cover Math/Science/Biology/Engineering. No need for each of those to have their very own sub-section as I dont think the level of traffic would justify it.

Come on people, let your voices & ideas be heard

[mstlyevil]

I like the concept, but there would have to be enough of a demand to do something like that. I personally think the demand would be there for a subsection for science and math majors.

[kayas80]

I like the concept, but there would have to be enough of a demand to do something like that. I personally think the demand would be there for a subsection for science and math majors.

I agree, there probably would be demand for such a forum.

[5-HT]

I like the idea, but am not sure if a forum specifically for the sciences would be the best implementation.

From what I understand (please correct me if I'm missing the point here), it seems like such a forum would be for application help specific to maths/sciences, rather then a general 'education' forum where one would go for scholarship (not as in financial, but rather knowledge) related support.

For what it's worth, what about just making a forum for application support in general?

Instead of people posting in the GNOME/KDE desktop support (or other), all application specific questions/issues, including those related to maths/sciences could go into this new application forum.

That way, there would be a concentrated area for application issues in which the lines between GNOME/KDE/OTHER are not necessarily relevant anyway (well, there are cases in which they are...but that's getting a little too specific).

I do like the idea, but am just suggesting that perhaps the underlaying utility could be served in a more general 'application' approach in which there could be a concentrated community for maths/sciences, but also other fields and interests in general.

[ssam]

disclaimer: i am a physics student

i think it would be good to have a science forum:
there is demand:
* http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=29919 is nearly a year old, has 18 pages, and is still active
* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuScientists is a big page which many people have contributed to.

there a lot to talk about in terms of applications. a lot of science software is quite old and difficult to use. discussions about the best way to deal with certain data. advice on scientific programming (even at undergraduate level people have to write scripts and programs to handle data). interfacing with data logging equiptment.

at uni in the labs they have a few machines running something like redhat 5 for an astrophys experiment. if ubuntu was a great distro for science then maybe these machines could be upgraded and students might get tempted to try ubuntu.

how exactly to file the section into these forums is up to the wisdom of the forum gods. maybe there should be a set like musicians, graphic artists, scientists, programmers, etc for various user groups.