Below is the promised content from Jean-Francois' messages. CCing
Dave again as many of these topics will no doubt be of interest to C4C
and its members, and there is opportunity for co-sponsored events.
Speaking of which, J-F floated the idea that one type of OCLUG-C4C
event could be a workshop teaching folks how to do computer
refurbishing/repairs and GNU/Linux installations. C4C has an
excellent beginner-friendly process for this, which is being used to
fix up used computers and install Ubuntu on them so they can be
donated to people who can't afford a computer. The valuable skills
gained at such a workshop would include hardware basics,
troubleshooting techniques, GNU/Linux installation and configuration,
and a process for switching from Windows. Participants could bring
their own computers to work on if they like, or refurbish a C4C
computer and start accruing volunteer hours for a free computer.
Workshops like these could be done several times a year... attracting
new people to both of our groups, helping Ottawans switch to free/open
software, and benefitting the community. No doubt many OCLUGers have
a wealth of knowledge to share or would like to build upon their skill
sets.
Here's J-F with more:
I think we need to cover subjects that REALpeople are interested in.
Many subjects are elitist subjects for those with very specific
needs, and very advanced knowledge of it.
There are many subjects that can be covered for beginners or starting
users, without touching command line, or touching technical topics
such as networking.
What about:
- Comparing office suites
- Comparing different graphic solutions
- Solving wireless issues ?
- configuring your hardware for your requirements (touchpad, keyboard, etc.)
- resetting a user configuration
- understanding the file structure of Linux system
- understanding the different file systems, and their use
- whats the difference between gnome and kde ?
- Which browsers are available under Linux ?
- etc.
When I was talking about subjects for future meetings, my main point
was to have ground-up subjects, those that are actually affecting a
majority of users. Those can also be titled as
questions such as:
- How to get Linux and Windows to co-exist ?
- How to get my peripherals working under Linux ? (This one could take
a full two hours, if we want)
- What happens to my email and my documents under Linux ?
- Running Windows software under Linux. This is something that stops
many users from going to Linux. They are stuck with Windows-Only
applications.
- Internet Security under Linux. How, What, When, Why ? Why is Linux
safer, or why not ?
- What is a distro ? Why so much choice, and to pick the right one for me ?
- What's the difference between Gnome, KDE, xfce ?
- What are the available applications under Linux for:
= email (Thunderbird, Evolution, etc.)
= browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Flock, etc.)
= office suites (OpenOffice, LibreOffice, kOffice, etc.)
= media players / recorders / cd burners / ???
= editing and managing pictures
= games
= education software (Someone mentionned it last night)
The point is to have topics that will reach a mass of users, whether
those are regular USERS, students, kids (weekends), or older people.I
know that many will say that those topics are for dummies and most
of the users from last night would say that they are already above
such levels. But the majority of the public out there, who go to
Future Shop/Best Buy and have no idea how to build a computer from
parts, will say otherwise.
Topics such as clustering of PS3 is a great application of Linux on
cheap hardware, but this is not something that reaches home users,
whose priority is surfing the web, listening to Youtube and music,
shopping, reading email, doing Facebook. If the goal of OCLUG is to
have very specific subjects that could reach 1% of the population,
fine. But if you want to increase thenumber of attendants, you need to
reach the masses.
About the mailing list, which is almost dead, the point yesterday
night was that email is no more the way to reach end-users for
discussions and threads. Such emails are lost in the middle of so many
more emails of all subjects, including fighting with SPAM. There are
web-based applications that could run under LAMP for web-based forums,
where users, with a single URL can get to the forums of their
interest, find the latest entries, and add their own replies and
questions. I will try to find where such engines can be found.
That's it for now. I have to get back to work.
On 10 January 2011 14:06, Lisa L exexp...@gmail.com wrote:
Yes, definitely great stuff Richard. The Mini-Maker Faire was an
awesome thing. Doing something along the lines you suggest would be a
fun way of introducing free/open software to the next generation and
getting them excited about what it can do. CCing Dave Sampson, as
