Why don't we make an agenda

[jfrorie]

Magnus has done the hard work of setting up communications. So until someone steps up to run this things, let do a little work ourselves.

What would you guys like to see on the agenda? Support? Migration? Advocacy?

My thoughts:

A) I'd like to see what people are doing regarding migration. I'd like to see some examples of windows substitute apps and how they working. (Quicken/gnucash, word/writer, etc.)

B) Advocacy. I'd like to hear stories about conversions. Help with convesrions and generally spread the user base. I personally did two last week, so I'm stoked.

C) I would assume that since the are geographically local groups, there should be some desire to have meetups. Perhaps we could have some type of meetup night once a month over several regions. All connected by IRC, skype or something.


Opinions?

Jim

[kfbishop]

I regards to advocacy, I'd like to see an effort to reach out to local schools to help encourage the adoption of Ubuntu and other OSS.

Maybe we can put those case stickers to good use as swag and local computer meetings as well!

[keithk]

I agree advocacy is important. Spread the word

[jfrorie]

I agree advocacy is important. Spread the word

I think one of the keys to advocacy is junk hardware. Everyone has it. We all have stuff sitting around. A has a Motherboard, B has a drive. I personally have about 4 computers sitting around of various capabilities. On most of these systems, Linux is the only thing that would perform.

The question becomes, what to do with them? I've upgraded every person in my circle. I could donate them, but they could be formatted and replaced with M$ devil spawn OS.

Any suggestions?

Jim

[jfrorie]

I agree advocacy is important. Spread the word

In addition, we should think about a little guerrilla marketing. Example, make up some business cards. Pin them to BBoards at Office Depot and such. "Tired of MS WhaleWare?" or something to that effect. Give them either a url or other method of contact. Stick em everywhere. Keep some in your pocket whenever you leave the house.

[markthecarp]

Magnus has done the hard work of setting up communications. So until someone steps up to run this things, let do a little work ourselves.

What would you guys like to see on the agenda? Support? Migration? Advocacy?

Advocacy leads to Migration which leads to Support.

My thoughts:

A) I'd like to see what people are doing regarding migration. I'd like to see some examples of windows substitute apps and how they working. (Quicken/gnucash, word/writer, etc.)

B) Advocacy. I'd like to hear stories about conversions. Help with convesrions and generally spread the user base. I personally did two last week, so I'm stoked.

C) I would assume that since the are geographically local groups, there should be some desire to have meetups. Perhaps we could have some type of meetup night once a month over several regions. All connected by IRC, skype or something.


Opinions?

Jim

Great thoughts sir. On point C I'm willing to drive 2 hours for a meetup. From Winston I can be in Asheville, Raleigh, Charlotte or half way to Richmond, VA in two hours.

I've long thought that the public school system a great target for advocacy. I think the first point should be cost; perhaps security a strong second. I'm at a disadvantage on this front not having school aged children. I do have some experience lobbing local elected officials from the '05 fight to get voter verifiable paper trail voting machines required in NC.

Hardware: I have a collection of sparc 5's and 20's; six of each make two working machines; two monitors and assorted mice and keyboards. These things are so heavy that shipping costs outweigh their "ebay value". The working one's have Debian installed. Want some command line experience? You'll get it with these babies! Anyone know of a good home for these old pizza box machines?

-mark

[jfrorie]

I've long thought that the public school system a great target for advocacy. I think the first point should be cost; perhaps security a strong second. I'm at a disadvantage on this front not having school aged children. I do have some experience lobbing local elected officials from the '05 fight to get voter verifiable paper trail voting machines required in NC.

I was talking to my sister who is an Avid teach and had an idea. It's kinda rough, but:

I posted about what to do with old hardware. How about a contest? Get a small school system involved. Students write an essay on open source, liberty or related topic. Winner gets a refabbed system w/ Ubuntu (or other distrib) preloaded. I'm sure we could scrounge up a good 1.5-2Ghz system from junks bins. Something with a new case and some of those bright and shiny Linux Inside stickers.

Should get local press coverage for both Linux and Open Source Movement. Gets a lot of students involved. Raises awareness. Could get some corporate donations if successful.

Hardware: I have a collection of sparc 5's and 20's; six of each make two working machines; two monitors and assorted mice and keyboards. These things are so heavy that shipping costs outweigh their "ebay value". The working one's have Debian installed. Want some command line experience? You'll get it with these babies! Anyone know of a good home for these old pizza box machines?

Don't temp me. I want one just because.

Jim

[markthecarp]

I was talking to my sister who is an Avid teach and had an idea. It's kinda rough, but:

I posted about what to do with old hardware. How about a contest? Get a small school system involved. Students write an essay on open source, liberty or related topic. Winner gets a refabbed system w/ Ubuntu (or other distrib) preloaded. I'm sure we could scrounge up a good 1.5-2Ghz system from junks bins. Something with a new case and some of those bright and shiny Linux Inside stickers.

Should get local press coverage for both Linux and Open Source Movement. Gets a lot of students involved. Raises awareness. Could get some corporate donations if successful.

I like this contest idea. Hum, there are several rural counties between you and me. Hum2, Forsyth County, Winston-Salem and NC just shelled out a lot of tax breaks to get a Dell plant. Pondering on that, not sure what it would take to get the dough boys to play; PR and another tax deduction might work.

Don't temp me. I want one just because.

Jim

Come on, you know you want them! There's a fully functioning apache install on one of the sparc5's! On a 2 gig scsi hd, I switched my lame dothomelinuxdotorg site between that one and a dual proc P90 for a year or so until I acquired some decent pc hardware.

-mark