Hey folks,
The chat about this subject is pretty good. I will share some thoughts
and experiences.
First and foremost I am an open source geographer, so instead of
convincing people to move to Linux as a rebuke against the system I try
to expose other geographers and neo-geographers (all the folks that like
google earth and google maps etc) to the world of free software and free
data for that software. Now the projects I am interested in are all
cross platform, but their ancestors are from the Linux world.
In my journeys I have helped organize users groups and helped two like
groups in Ottawa merge into one.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Ottawa_Chapter the success of the merge
was based on the Open Geospatial foundation www.osgeo.org . the benefit
of this foundation is means to rally with other people and share
resources to promote open source geomatics tools. We focus on projects,
not necessarily OS's as we promote cross platform.
Also I found that a good way to get people interested in what you're
doing is spread the word through media streams that cover large sectors.
luckily we were approached by someone who heard about what we were doing
in our first users group. Check out the article here:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=1413&bSearch=True
Conferences are great places to network.
To get in with the schools and such... well that is a political game....
one that has to relate to money in the pocket...
get together with your local trustee and ask them how much surplus your
local board has. Then ask them to find out how much they pay in
licensing software and then they might be interested din hearing about
locost alternatives... The next big goal is marketability. If someone is
brainwashed into Linux and open source "how could they ever work in the
real world" so you need to draw parralells between software and how
concepts are shared.
getting in with a professor at a College or University is a great way to
get things going. Often you'll find a professor or two who use linux for
their reasearch (saves of Grant money) and sometimes some research
students also use it for their projects.
I was fortunate enough to come across a professor who used a lot of open
source GIS (geography geek stuff). Working with him and through our
users group het lead the charge to get a 30 seat Open Source GIS lab
going. Dual boot machines... The we ran clinics and workshops ofr the
general public, professional Geographers, students and others interested
in open source GIS. In Canada one third of the University mandate is to
foster community connections. A local users group is a perfect way to do
this... and if the prof doesn't have to do everything then you may find
they are willing to give access to space and machines.
From the practical standpoint supporting ubiquitous projects like
Firefox can demo how people may already be using open source tech. Then
they can become more familiar with other projects. The way i think
about it is look at every day activities. I don't know stats but I know
in my social and family circle people use powerful PC's to surf the web
and download music. So why not get people using Firefox and Gnutella.
then after they like those, teach people how to access their web mail
through POP3 addresses using Thunderbird. heck, Gmail provides those
instructions for you, I was impressed.
next they like listening to their music so why not one or two of the
open source media plugins (mplayer) and applications (Amarok)
Right their lets say 90% of their activities are not open source
supported by 5 projects... and they didn't even have to switch to a new OS.
Then expose them to other programs that still support their every day
activities.
1. DVD: whatever really
2. Banking: GNU Cash
3. Graphics: GIMP
4. Something for their digital camera.
Still no OS switch and they find programs that do what they are looking for.
THEN... a slow exposure to a new way of thinking.... maybe starting them
with
1. CYGWIN,
2. A live CD of sorts...
3. EASY dual boot setups
They they move over to Linux on their own because they don't need Windows.
All that to say that you can always think globally, but don't
underestimate what local involvement can accomplish.
And that's enough to say right there...
Guillermo Garron wrote:
On 12/31/06, Norm <maillist@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Guillermo.
Good to see that you are doing your part. I don't have any recycled PC
available at this time and none "promised". If I acquire several
(enough to make shipping them worth while) are you in a position to
distribute them?
Sure I can, I can work together with Universities, to make them help
me distribute them.
thanks a lot, and if you can that will be appreciated
Recently I found a well written howto on SSL certificates at
http://www.eclectica.ca/howto/ssl-cert-howto.php, He does have a Spanish
version on line already but it may be a good quick add to your site.
Thank you a lot, I will add both the English and the Spanish versions.
regards,
