On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:08 AM, Jacob G Podipara <[email protected]> wrote:
> Here goes a small para on Linux; ... snip ... Others have given feedback on your text and I will not go into that. Instead I am suggesting to rethink the entire event. I have been a Linux/open source evangelist to crowds that had little or no idea about Linux/open source. After a couple of sessions where I went through a lot of text based slides (and bored the crowd), I realized the crowd was not interested in knowing the history. They were more interested in "What can I do with it?" This is what you need to focus on. My suggestion - 0. Do **not bore** them with tech jargon. 1. Limit your slide presentation to a bare minimum. 2. Put pictures (rather than words) of the major contributors to the open source movement (Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens, Ian Murdoch etc.) 3. In the present day context - show pictures of where Linux is used (e.g. Nokia 900, Android phones/tablets, home routers, wifi aps etc.). 4. Jobs Opps -- mention companies like Yahoo!, Hotmail (who started with a *BSD platform), Facebook, Google, BIG ISPs that open source in their org. The above should be no more than 5-10 mins. Follow it up with contextual demos! - the "What can I do with it" angle -- Demo LibreOffice, GIMP, VLC, Scribus, Inkscape, GCompris, Kstars, Kgeography etc. (tools that they can use for their class work). Discuss career opps (plant the seed early that indeed it is possible to make money and also get fame in open source) - reiterate the list of companies above as places that hire such skills. Finally, **open** up the discussion with Q&A from the kids and encourage them to ask questions. You never know you may end up inspiring a few youngsters into embracing open source and future contributors. Pls. do share your experience after the event and also your presentation. Remember - to make an impact - you need to *connect* with your audience, get them excited. They will do the rest for themselves (with a little help from you) Best, -- Arun Khan _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
