Adam, I'm not sure if you understand the scope of the PLLUG's mission.
The PLLUG's mission is to have public libraries treat free and open source software just as they do other public domain and government documents, and place them on their shelves for all patrons to check out and use. Free software should be freely available. The reason this is needed is that the majority of personal computer users have a dial-up connection to the Internet, and for those people curious about Linux, the effort to find, download and successfully burn CDs of free and open source software can be daunting. The key to starting this is to have *NIX user groups, LUGs, and motivated advocates make copies of well-known distributions that have a publicly available md5 checksum and donate those copies to public libraries. Ideally, the CDs will have some sort of "PLLUG" label for consistency and easy verification. The mission of PLLUG is not to directly advocate that public libraries _use_ free and open source software. That effort is well underway on a grassroots level and at http://www.oss4lib.org. Of course, we would gladly encourage public libraries to use free and open source software and I think that PLLUG's mission will certainly help make the broader case for it. Our missions are very closely related. The PLLUG's mission can be thought of related to the Linux advocacy movement with a dual-purpose of informing more people about the nature of free software. Could you tell us more about these statewide Linux webservers? I'm very interested. I will try to visit with the state library soon. A meeting between these people and the PLLUG once we have a solid plan is definitely needed. BTW: http://www.state.lib.la.us/Dept/CompServ/index.htm is a IIS server?!? :) Thanks for the info, John Hebert --- "Adam J. Melancon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I know both the head of computer services and the > network administrator at > the state library. They are the ones who sent all > of the linux webservers > out to the parishes. I'm sure that if you go down > there and talk to Sarah > Taffae or Ian Barnett they may be able to tell you > what libraries already > have linux in their circulation and how they are > using linux to provide > services to the libraries in the state. Linux has > been running the email > server that most of the libraries in the state use > for many years now. > > Here is the link to the computer services department > at the state library > http://www.state.lib.la.us/Dept/CompServ/index.htm > > If someone goes down there to talk to them, just say > that you heard about > their linux usage from Adam in Vermilion. They know > me :) > > > > Adam Melancon, Systems Administrator > Vermilion Parish Library > http://www.vermilion.lib.la.us > 200 N. Magdalen Square > PO Drawer 640 > Abbeville, la. 70510/70511 > 337-893-2655 > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN > Hotmail. > http://www.hotmail.com > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com
