At the risk of sounding too PC, could we find another word besides "evangelism"? I personally don't care at all (it's true, after all), but it rubs certain people the wrong way, because they don't like Christian evangelicals much at all.
I suggest "advocacy" instead. If there are any specific funding needs, please send those out when you figure them out. I'd be happy to donate a few bucks to get more Linux on campus. Also, let use know about any really specific bits of work, I wouldn't mind helping out. Maybe you should toss up an issue tracker on the UMLUG site... -DMZ On Fri, 2006-02-10 at 11:43 -0500, John Demme wrote: > Last night was the discussion meeting on future evangelism. I'd like > to thank the very few people who showed up despite the cold. > > Here's what we've decided to do: > > We'll be forming two committees- an Evangelism committee and an > Education Committee. > > The Evangelism committee will be in charge of F/OSS and Linux > evangelism. The initial committee will be active for this semester, > all summer, and part of the beginning of the fall 2006 semester. One > of their first acts will be deciding on one or two CDs to be > distributing. We want one to be a CD of F/OSS software for Windows > and another to be a Linux boot CD. The obvious choice for the latter > is Knoppix, but they'll be evaluating multiple options. If both > Windows stuff and the Linux boot CD are available on the same CD, so > be it- easier for us. I'm told (by Anthony) that Ubunutu makes a CD > like this. It was also suggested that this committee coordinate with > the University Helpdesk to distribute F/OSS software- putting links to > applications like Open Office on the applicable Helpdesk pages. It > would also be desirable to get OIT to distribute our official CD en > masse to all of the incoming freshmen in the fall. Lastly, I would > like this committee to, in the early fall (when people are buying > their books and such), arrange to have some one to be at the campus > book store whenever they're open to dissuade people from buying > products like MS Office and instead offer them our F/OSS CD. These > are just some ideas to start with, and the committee will be > responsible for generating more ideas and implementing them. > > Next is the Education committee. They'll be responsible for educating > people about F/OSS and Linux. Although this overlaps a bit with the > Evangelism committee's mission, I feel that it's different enough to > warrant a separate committee. One of my biggest pet peeves is when > Professors distribute assignments and necessary material in MS doc > format, considering that anything slightly past text doesn't work in > OO half the time. One of the things the education committee would be > responsible for is educating the entire University faculty/staff (or > whoever will listen) on topics such as this, and alternatives to using > the doc format (such as HTML or PDF). A lecture on closed vs open > standards might be in order. > > I am (as of now) looking for people to head each committee and staff > them. If you're interested, please send me an email telling me such. > > We also spent some time generating ideas for meetings. The > "Evangelism Trifecta" that we used last semester (Revolution OS, then > Intro to Linux talk the next week, then the Installfest the week > after) will fall under the domain of the Evangelism Committee and > we'll probably do it again this semester. We also thought about > running a series of "howto" tutorials on various topics- Samba intro, > Linux gaming, Xorg, apache, VPN, AFS, iptables, ect... These meetings > would probably fall under the domain of the Education Committee. Ajay > also suggested that we have sort of a "book swap" meeting and/or > website section. He'd like people to post IT/CS books (on to the > website) that they have and are willing to loan out. Also a meeting > where various people talk about what books they've read and would > suggest (especially if they're on Orielly Safari- free for University > people) is a possible meeting. > > I have also felt that we haven't had as many presentations at a more > abstract and complex level as of late. I'd like to have more > presentations like Rob's security research talk last semester. For > instance, I'd love to have a talk about how the Linux kernel is > structured and how it works. (Is there anyone here qualified to give > that talk?) Linux as an RTOS and an example of a Linux embedded > device might also be a cool talk. (Anybody for that one?) > > I'll be scheduling the next meeting soon with Peter as he'll be giving > a talk on the Campus VPN, and I'll probably add on to his talk with > something on OpenVPN, since it's applicable and I just finished doing > an OpenVPN roll-out. > > That's all for now- don't forget to let me know if you're interested > in heading or staffing a committee. I apologize for using the term > "committee" so many times. I cringed every time I typed it. > > ~John Demme > UMLUG President
