[GLLUG] GLLUG and Software Freedom Day

[Sean O'Malley]

Let me throw in two cents and since I am out of the loop most of this will
seem repititive, but maybe there is something new..

First I applaud the LCC idea.  I know there are lofty goals, but keep in
mind a lot of people are not even comfortable installing their own
software, so it is a HUGE win if you can get them to install it, and =try=
it muchless use it. So the KISS philosophy applies, keep it stupid simple.
Make sure it works, and don't get too fancy. IE don't get in a huge debate
between GNU/Open Source, don't get into a distribution debate and shy away
from the M$ vs open source debate, etc. Don't give them too many options
it becomes overcomplicated. And if they aren't willing to change let it
go, just make sure they understand other options are available to legally
try for free. And remember "it just works".

I wouldn't mind seeing an "open source for education/educators-lowering
the cost of education/how to integrate" and/or an "open source for
students" modules.

A presentation in a video format available online and/or a standalone,
unmanned presentation machine. It could also double as a burn station for
students to burn cd's to take home with them for people on slower
connections. Integrated with LCC courses, and say "you can use this
software with xxx class" would also be huge.

A "help sheet" for configuring the programs to LCC specific things, say
Thunderbird for LCC's mail system and documentation on the LCC website on
how to do it.

Availability of "cheat sheets" for OpenOffice, etc, are extremely
helpful.

A "how you can help as a non-programmer", that lists among other things,
places for bugs reporting, and feature requests.

Documentation on the "next" step. Mozilla, and OpenOffice work for me and
I don't want to pay for Vista..

That is a summary of my initial thoughts.


On Sat, 11 Aug 2007, Clay Dowling wrote:

> On Saturday, September 15th GLLUG will be holding an Open House on the
> campus of Lansing Community College from 1pm to 5pm for Software Freedom
> Day.  This event is a good opportunity for business owners, executives,
> computer users and students to see how free and open source software can
> reduce costs and improve productivity.
>
> We are planning four 10 minutes presentations which will be repeated
> during the day:
>
> * What is Open Source? *
>
> A brief overview of what open source is, with a short history and some
> prominent examples.
>
> * Why Open Source? *
>
> What are the benefits of using Open Source software, with examples.
>
> * Open Source for the Home User *
>
> A brief look at open source software for the home user, including
> current trends and examples of how people are using it.
>
> * Open Source for the Business User *
>
> How open source software is helping business by reducing costs and
> making new things possible.
>
>
> While this is being presented by the Greater Lansing Linux User's Group,
> I would like to emphasize that we will be presenting tools and
> technology that is available to users of all popular operating systems,
> including Windows, Macintosh and Linux.  You do not need to convert your
> home or office to Linux to take advantage of the tools we will be showing.
>
> In addition to the presentations we will have the Burn Box available.
> For those who are not familiar, the Burn Box is a CD Burning Kiosk that
> lets you create CDs of popular software distributions including Linux,
> FreeBSD and utility CDs.
>
> There will also be machines on site where visitors can see open source
> software in use.  To that end, if people can volunteer to bring in their
> machines and talk about the software they're showing, that would be great.
>
> Obvious candidates are Firefox, Thunderbird (possibly with the Calendar
> extension, which makes it play nice with Outlook's calendar features)
> and Open Office.  The Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus (page layout software) and
> various media software are also good things to show off.  Games might be
> good to show the home users (my wife loves the variety of Solitaire
> games).  I plan to bring in a Windows machine and show PostgreSQL and
> the Code::Blocks IDE with the source of a commercial application that I
> sell.
>
> We could also use some corporate sponsorship to make this event better.
>  If your company or your employer would be willing to provide $50
> towards paying for refreshments we will happily give them space to
> advertise their products and services.  If they can speak to visitors
> about how open source software has helped their business that would be
> even better.
>
> Before the list gets flooded with suggestions to do this on the MSU
> campus: we considered that first.  MSU has a home game that day, and if
> you aren't familiar with MSU on game day, there is no parking to be had
> for love nor money, making it somewhat difficult to get visitors to our
> event.  Speaking of which, if someone could bring a MythTV setup that is
> showing the game, that would be really cool.
>
> Clay
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