Hello all; I'm just back from a stimulating weekend in New York City,
addressing college radio students at the annual conference for the
Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS). One of my workshops - "Run Your
Entire Station on Free Software" - was accompanied by a weekend-long running
demo of Rivendell (the RRABUNTU version) on a refurbed HP dual-core computer I
picked up for $135. The machine was propped up on a table in the common area, a
short 12-minute looping music & promo log was loaded up (as were a dozen or so
goofy sound effects and popular movie soundbites on the Panel), and a sign
beckoned students and advisors alike to click away at anything they wanted to.
There were some objections, of course ("No one knows anything about Linux",
"The IT people wouldn't let us connect this up", "We're happy with Simian",
etc) but needless to say, folks were interested. Watch for a spurt of downloads
over the next couple of weeks to addresses ending in "edu".
There are a number of positives to be considered when using Rivendell in an
academic setting -- not the least of which is that today's youngsters are used
to free software and apps: First, there's always going to be an enthusiastic
penguin-head somewhere on campus who can be tapped as a tech guru (give him his
own copy of RD and a pizza, then watch the fun begin); Second, student radio
stations cannot always swing thou$andS to buy a commercial system and so end up
using WinAmp or the iTunes player as their audio management system. Knowing
that an Open Source pro-level system is available, they will be interested; and
Third, colleges everywhere have pallets full of retired computers from other
departments (considered "too slow to run Windows"), piled up and waiting for
surplus sale or recycling. Ask the department in charge if they'd send three of
the old junkers over to the station for free -- preferably dual-core or better.
All that remains is the sweat portion: load RD and
music, hook into the LAN and go.
Since I am invited to this conference every year, RD will now be making the
trip along with me every time. And I encourage any users who read and post to
this discussion to make a case for it at an educational venue near you.
-AP
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