On Thursday, April 25, 2002, at 05:49 PM, Warren Togami wrote:
This is exactly my idea with Linux Thin clients for schools. The
potential
benefit far outweighs giving computers to individuals (that can come
later).
Instead, hundreds and thousands of students will be using Linux every
day,
and it will be far easier for us in the Linux community to support
because
they are in few locations.
Yes, Warren, it is my knowledge of your successes at Mid-Pac that
convince me that this is possible. I completely agree that targeting our
schools would be the best first step.
We have plenty of storage at Mid-Pacific, so I would suggest that we
use the
school as a central location for refurbishing and deployment.
Surely this is more convenient for most of the community. Sounds
great. As good as a Windward depot sounds, it would probably be more
convenient for most to go to Mid-Pacific. This would be a noble and
worthy contribution for the school to make. I imagine that there will
be times when we can collaborate and accomplish some things on the
Windward side as well.
On campus, we are almost ready to deploy another 20 thin clients in
classrooms. We have another thin client server ready for this purpose,
but
we need to buy PCI network cards and monitors for the computers. We
could
use a more computers and parts too.
Yes. Your work at Mid-Pac is the best local model, so we should
reciprocate the school's kindness by channeling some worthy hardware
(once we begin to collect it) to your deployment. 20 more. Go Warren
Go.
The next phase after this would be to identify another school that wants
this. I think Kalani High School would be the next logical candidate
because they already have a large number of computer savvy students.
Once a
school wants Linux thin clients, we would need the following things in
order
to make it happen:
Excellent.
* Volunteers for computer refurbishing, wiring and initial setup.
we sure seem to have that.
* Roughly $4,000 for a powerful server with backup drive, ethernet
cable,
network cards, monitors, etc.
Hopefully schools will have some resource. I think this is wishful
thinking, though. A future success for us would be to secure a grant or
private funding to buy this one component for each school as required.
I will have to learn more about some options. If we are fortunate
enough to generate more publicity than Warren or that name, then it is
possible that someone would reach out and help. There is a lot of
wealth on the islands interested in helping a worthy cause.
* Donated computers
seems like these will come.
But the most important part
* People familiar with the system to maintain and support, only a phone
call
away.
* Free labor for support initially. We need to prove the system works
and
has value. Only after that we should charge.
I sort of see it the same way. This is like a club activity. It should
be free. I suppose that inevitably some project will be large enough
that they will want someone to come around and help. Either we leave it
to the community to do it, or perhaps they hire one of you. This would
hopefully not create a situation where someone felt slighted, etc. I am
working on a business plan in my MBA program that addresses customer
service while employing my Democratization of Capitalism concepts. I
intend to share it. You can check out the concepts of the DOC at
http://www.democratizationofcapitalism.org/. Well, someday you will be
able to, I haven't really figured out how to make a web page without
frontpage, and, well...
Anyone want to meet about this? I can explain how all the pieces of it
work
together so more people can be familiar with Linux Thin Clients, then
we can
talk about strategies in promoting this and getting funds to deploy in
schools across the state.
I really want to. A funds strategy ultimately sounds smart. Between
then and now, we should all keep an eye out for good, old hardware.
There are people slipping through the proverbial cracks each day we fail
to act. I have covered the CBA at UH. If any of you get around any
other campuses here on the island, find who has the power and press our
case.
