Hello, all,
For those that weren't at the LUG meeting tonight, Carol Rutz, my wife
Sarah, and myself announced our intention to organize an event at the
Fort Wayne Public Library (downtown branch) aimed at getting Linux a
bit of exposure amongst the absolutely non-technical general
population.
Our target audience is the sort of people who don't care what an
"Operating System" is, and glaze over when you start enumerating the
four freedoms. We're not looking to evangelize to the unready so much
as hoist the banner and sound the call for those who would be
interested if they knew there was an alternative.
Tonight's meeting was a perfect example of why the FWLUG, while an
excellent resource for us geeks that have already drunk the kool-aid,
is pretty intimidating and probably more harmful than useful for the
less-than-geeky that might be interested in experimenting with Linux,
but aren't yet ready to inhale.
So far our idea is to hold an event that features some (interactive)
talks BY beginners and FOR pre-beginners raising awareness that there
is an alternative to the proprietary software culture.
Some ideas we've tossed around for talks include a tour of the default
desktop ("Here's how I browse the web, check my e-mail, write letters
to my mom on a word processor, balance my checkbook on a spreadsheet,
chat with my friends on AIM...and play mahjongg!"), maybe a talk about
"What is Free Software?" or "How can all this great stuff be Free?" or
something explaining the basic differences between the free and
proprietary software worlds in a totally practical, beginner-friendly
way, and a demonstration of the installation process at the end.
Having a booth out front to catch the curious, answer questions, and
let them know they're welcome to come on in would be good.
We'd also like to have a hands-on demo "lab" so that people can sit
down and play with a running Linux system while they're listening to
the talks.
We're planning to use Ubuntu for a) its general beginner-friendliness
and b) the fact that both of us are Ubuntu users and active Ubuntu
LoCo members. We're not interested in dissing the other distros, and
this sort of event is not the time to throw the rainbow of choices at
people.
We want to make sure interested people leave with a CD and some
literature as a) a physical reminder of what they saw/heard b) a
starting point for their personal experimentation and c) information
on how to get a hold of help when they need it.
It would be really cool coordinate this with a FWLUG InstallFest
(haven't had one of those in a while) that we can advertise at the
event for anyone who's interested in making the switch and doesn't
have the confidence to go through an install alone.
We're totally willing to drive this so we're not asking anyone else to
take point on it, and we would love your help. So far, we're still in
brainstorming, information gathering and planning mode, but have never
planned something like this and would appreciate any ideas, guidance,
and experience.
For instance, we'd like to have a decent, coordinated marketing effort
for about a month before the actual event (no date planned, yet,
probably early 2009) to get the word out, and aren't sure of all the
media outlets we should target and such.
Also, we'd like to pick a good, high-traffic time at the library to
attract the innocent by-standers but aren't sure when would be best.
As far as day-of help, we'd like to get some of you who aren't
uber-geeky to participate, to be the face of this. People who think
ways of creating hash tables in bash are cool tend to scare off our
target audience. ;-) (No offense, Rob. I think it's pretty neat, too.)
Anyhow, I just wanted to throw this out there to stimulate thought.
We'll be hitting up the library soon to get clear about how that part
of the equation will work; how to request the facilities, what we can
do, what kind of space we'll be able to use, etc.
I'll keep the list updated on how this vision develops.
Sleep well, especially those who have work meetings at 7:20 tomorrow
morning... ;-)
Simón
P.S. James brought up the excellent point that this sort of thing
would be more effective as a repeated series so as to generate buzz
with the first ones and attract more people for the subsequent events.
We're kind of leaning towards organizing one to begin with and seeing
what the reaction was, and where we go from there. I'd like to hear
your thoughts one way or another on this.
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