> > As an organization, what should HOSEF strive to be? I'm not sure. The only thing I think is "wrong" with it is that too much of the organizational burden has been placed on you (Scott).
> > How can we better lobby the DOE and State to adopt more > > open-source solutions? Why are these the main targets? Are they really the low hanging fruit? What really is our goal? To me, HOSEF has been about our noticing and exploiting a single opportunity - various organizations with slightly obsolete hardware who are willing to donate an LTSP net to schools and charities. We are the middlemen that turn the obsolete equipment into the LTSP net. Lobbying and evangelizing are a side-line. Perhaps our problems is that there are more donors/donations than there are willing, able and deserving recipients? > > Do we want to provide open-source development and training? I like the idea of training, what do you mean by development? Various other organizations offer training. What is our comparative advantage? I enjoyed the sysadmin class at McKinley, but I think the classes there should generally be considered not a big win, since it semed like not many students signed up and there was a problem getting teachers. There needs to be more demand? > > What aspects should be out of scope for HOSEF and left to other > > organizations? Is this a big problem now? The narrow mission of refurbishing computers to put in LTSP nets seems very clear, but I don't see any obvious reason to rule out other projects, so long as they have something to do with OSS and someone is interested in doing them. I guess I see HOSEF as sort of a modular umbrella organization with various OSS projects fitting underneath the umbrella. LTSP is the largest and most well focussed current project. I don't have any ideas for new projects, but would welcome them. > > Do we want to become an open-source clearinghouse for state? Not sure what that would mean. We come up with custom distros? Local repository? Training? Hard for me to imagine them outsourcing this to us for long. I think we can be a catalyst for change, but once the state really accepts OSS, they will want to hire their own in-house experts. (If they hire HOSEF volunteers, all the better, but I doubt they will leave the relationship informal.) Dave
