Hi all.

>From Oct 30th to Nov 1st LPI participated at .org-Pavilion at 
LinuxWorld Conference & Expo on Frankfurt Fairgrounds in Germany. 
We had a nice, free of charge booth with internet connection
which we owe K+S Messe-Ausstellungs-Kongress GmbH.
During three days of exhibition 13.000 visitors came to
learn about Linux, and another 7000 people came to visit the
bank it fair which took place next to LinuxWorld. (Some bank
it managers might also have visited the Linux expo, as the 
tickets were valid for both shows.) Most of the visitors 
were business related.

Running the booth was only possible because I was
assisted by two German volunteers:
Martin F. Krafft and Florian Kalhammer 
Both of them worked in the booth for all three days. 
They spent not only their time but also a certain
amount of money for parking fees, transportation and 
accommodation, and I'm very grateful for this magnificent 
assistance.

We had a lot of private Linux users who stumbled over
the LPI booth for it was located in between the
popular KDE and the Gnome booths. They all were
interested in LPI when we told them about what LPI is
all about. The facts that LPI is community
driven and vendor neutral were most appealing to them.
They liked the thought of having confirmed their current 
Linux knowledge, and of filling in some remaining gaps by
studying exam objectives. Especially when we showed them 
the available books preparing for LPI exams, which are listed
in the brochure, they were really convinced that LPI is 
worth a closer look. 

Some it managers using windows asked about certification
and training, as they want to introduce some Unix knowledge.
They want to be prepared for Linux and they understand that
Unix basics are also valuable for working in a windows
environment. 

In Germany there are many courses teaching unemployed people
Linux systems and network administration skills, that
are sponsored by the government. Florian teaches such 
courses, and there were many students of such courses
who visited our booth. This shows the potential of
training in Germany, and for the first time I realized 
that German exam objectives, study guides, and tests will
be a big step forward for LPI in Germany. 
I'm convinced that Linux admins have to know English very
well to cope with security news, up to date instructions, and
newsgroups, and I'm sure that someone who's only able to pass
the German test, isn't a good admin, BUT passing the German
test is a start, and he might become a Linux professional
with English proficiency soon. And with German courses
available there will be more government support, books,
students, ergo more Linux users.

Once again the LPI booth was a big step to spread the
word about LPI in Germany. Furthermore I met many German 
LPI volunteers, and I'm looking forward to keep on 
working together with them.

Regards,

Torsten

-- 
Torsten Scheck, LPIC-1
Software Engineer     | private
S.O.T. GmbH           | PGP ID: 0x69ABDD54
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