On Apr 14, 2008, at 5:16 PM, Doug LaRue wrote:
Moving the next stage to a meeting room is a good idea but I sure wish
Josh would chime in and direct some of this since he's the guy
who'll make
the choice of what/where/when and how it all happens.
Chiming in. :) I'm glad this discussion got started without me, and
I'm sorry it took me this long to catch up on it... as it now seems to
have headed in a direction away from where I was intending.
I'll be clear about this - Linux advocacy is the job of KPLUG, not
SDCS. Something along the lines of Linux CD distribution, even of the
educational sort, may very well be worth discussing but not as a SDCS
project. This is not to say that a SDCS project wouldn't involve the
use of Linux, but if the biggest topic of discussion is about the OS
choice, then we're not thinking big enough.
I view SDCS as an OS-agnostic organization whose strength is in its
volunteer resources and community contacts. Unfortunately those
strengths have diminished significantly over the last ~10 years. The
big question is whether or not it's worth putting effort into
exercising what's left (including a reasonable size treasury made up
of donations that were already given to the SDCS in good faith) and
maybe rebuilding the enthusiasm that has been lost. I believe it is,
but am still working to develop my vision of exactly how and where.
I keep asking myself two core questions:
1) What can we do?
2) Who can we do it for?
I think collecting a reasonable brainstorm about #1 is the first
step. What can a group of volunteers of varying technical
capabilities reasonably do? Once we have a small sample selection of
things that we *can* do, I don't have any problem spending some hours
on the phone introducing SDCS to anyone in need who will listen to a
~30-60 second elevator pitch. And we may not even wind up doing
anything that was on the original list, but having such a list will
get the listener's brain juices flowing about what might be useful for
their particular organization.
I don't think getting into the administrative front-office network is
wise, but Lan is starting down a good "who" track with his post about
the California public schools needing help due to restricted funding.
Merge that with Doug's "what" suggestion about an in-school online
forum and I think we're getting somewhere. Think harder about the
"use" picture - students and/or teachers having a digital
communication tool that they wouldn't otherwise have. Think instant
messaging or voice messaging mixed with a collaborative learning
website. Maybe a streaming video server for reviewing class lectures
at leisure. I may be wildly off base, but this are the general sorts
of ideas I'm looking for. I don't want implementation specifics...
those come later. Yes, I can see FLOSS projects being central to all
of the above ideas, but that's just a natural function of "build
something digital in the year 2008 with the best bang for the buck."
So help me do some more brainstorming... WHAT CAN WE DO? Think of
SDCS as a business that needs a few bullet points for its marketing
brochure.
--
Joshua Penix http://www.binarytribe.com
Binary Tribe Linux Integration Services & Network Consulting
--
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