June 2007 - SFD-discuss - lists.mailman3.com

Re: [SFD-discuss] SFD Geek Exchange Program?

by Janet Hawtin

On 6/13/07, Matthew Davidson <mjd(a)almatech.net.au> wrote: > It occurred to me that it would be nice to encourage some people from > further afield to come up (or down) to Coffs to give presentations on > whatever cool things they're doing with free software. In fact, beyond > my own selfish need for new speakers at our own event, there may be > quite a few people around the world willing to travel a bit to spread > the word beyond their usual circle on whatever they're doing. I'm > thinking that it would be generally useful if people based in major > metropolitan areas offered their services to teams in more regional > areas, even if it's just the next town up the road. Kim and I are heading to Mt Gambier in SE SA so its a thought we've been having over here too. There might be some folks in other regional areas that might like to see Coffs in the Spring. You're welcome in SE SA if you'd like a change of scenery yourself. Cheers Janet

June 13, 2007

SFD Geek Exchange Program?

by Matthew Davidson

Hi All, We're seriously getting down to planning the Coffs Harbour (NSW Australia) event for this year, and given this is our third year of running a casual seminar-type event, trying to work out how to add some novelty. Lord knows everybody's sick of the sight of me. It occurred to me that it would be nice to encourage some people from further afield to come up (or down) to Coffs to give presentations on whatever cool things they're doing with free software. In fact, beyond my own selfish need for new speakers at our own event, there may be quite a few people around the world willing to travel a bit to spread the word beyond their usual circle on whatever they're doing. I'm thinking that it would be generally useful if people based in major metropolitan areas offered their services to teams in more regional areas, even if it's just the next town up the road. But before I started cross-posting to half a dozen LUG lists offering sofa space*, I wanted to check whether this might be considered poor etiquette or just a bad idea. Perhaps it could be considered inter-team poaching? Matthew. * Incidentally, I have two of the most comfortable sofas known to mankind, and live half a block away from a rather splendid pub. -- Alma Technology - The future is free and open http://www.almatech.net.au ... (02) 6658 1607 ... 0419 242 316 -- http://computerclub.cex.com.au http://www.clublinux.org.au -- "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me." - Thomas Jefferson http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html

June 13, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Janet Hawtin

I dont know how the SFI is funded. I do know some folks in AU are thinking of doing a run of openCDs for other purposes. Just for curiosity's sake how many openCDs are needed for an SFD run? How many TShairts are required. If I did a run of openCDs in Adelaide for the two SA events I could possibly do a sister city thing and send openCDs to them. Would that help?

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Douglas A. Whitfield

Aren't the same people that have trouble buying t-shirts going to have trouble buying CDs to burn to give to people? I totally agree that CDs are more important. And I also totally agree on having a standalone DVD readable format video too. In our case though, I think we'd need fewer of those though since everyone on our campus has a laptop with a DVD player. You could, potentially, make all the orders special orders. Have a form online and give the groups $X and let them spend that money however they best see fit. This would be more work for SFI, of course, but I think it would ensure happier groups around the globe and would allow the groups to tailor the situation best for their situation. Alternatively, you could have 3 packages to pick from. A package with/out shirts and with/out non-computer DVDs and so forth. That would cut down some of the work on the SFI. Trying to lump everybody together is going to leave some groups without their best situation. That being said, I'll be happy with whatever we get! Douglas A. Whitfield UNC SILS MSIS Class of '08 Cell: 919-360-0306 AIM: DouglasAWh Carolina Open Source Initiative Co-President Carolina-opensource(a)listserv.unc.edu http://www.softwarefreedomday.org Janet Hawtin wrote: > On 6/12/07, Rafael Carreras <rafael.carreras(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> 2007/6/12, Janet Hawtin <lucychili(a)gmail.com>: >> > On 6/12/07, Ben Powell <ben(a)geonetrix.com.au> wrote: >> > >> > > I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it >> on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help >> fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be >> happy to pay for a T-shirt! >> > >> > +2 on that thought from Adelaide. >> >> I'd be happy to pay for T-shirts too, but I understand that paying 10 >> €/AU$ is quite difficult in many countries, it's something to keep in >> mind. >> >> -1 on that thought from Barcelona. :-) >> >> -- >> Rafael Carreras Guillén | gpg.id 2C1AF9C5 >> http://rcarreras.blogspot.com

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Janet Hawtin

On 6/12/07, Rafael Carreras <rafael.carreras(a)gmail.com> wrote: > 2007/6/12, Janet Hawtin <lucychili(a)gmail.com>: > > On 6/12/07, Ben Powell <ben(a)geonetrix.com.au> wrote: > > > > > I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! > > > > +2 on that thought from Adelaide. > > I'd be happy to pay for T-shirts too, but I understand that paying 10 > €/AU$ is quite difficult in many countries, it's something to keep in > mind. > > -1 on that thought from Barcelona. :-) > > -- > Rafael Carreras Guillén | gpg.id 2C1AF9C5 > http://rcarreras.blogspot.com dang fair point I guess we were thinking that the tshirts are not the core purpose of the event and if something had to go it would be better to make our own tshirts and still have the opencd to share. We are talking about what we can do locally. Will have a think.

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Rafael Carreras

2007/6/12, Janet Hawtin <lucychili(a)gmail.com>: > On 6/12/07, Ben Powell <ben(a)geonetrix.com.au> wrote: > > > I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! > > +2 on that thought from Adelaide. I'd be happy to pay for T-shirts too, but I understand that paying 10 €/AU$ is quite difficult in many countries, it's something to keep in mind. -1 on that thought from Barcelona. :-) -- Rafael Carreras Guillén | gpg.id 2C1AF9C5 http://rcarreras.blogspot.com

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Janet Hawtin

On 6/12/07, Ben Powell <ben(a)geonetrix.com.au> wrote: > I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! +2 on that thought from Adelaide.

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Ben Powell

Hi All, Just a few comments about the proposals for CDs. The idea of a set of open source documentaries and resources is great - maybe it is wise to burn them in such a way that they can be played on a dvd player (with menus, etc) so when we make copies we can give them to people to play in their dvdplayer as well (many people don't use their computer for this task). On the issue of the single master copy of the OpenCD, I don't think this is such a good idea. From my experience on the organising team for SFD Hobart for the last few years the main thing that we have discovered each year is that people are interested in free software much more than they are interested in Linux itself. People were very keen on the OpenCD which we've given away for the last couple of years (luckily we got hold of some professionally done openCDs last year from a surplus that Open Source Tasmania had after a conference they held), both during the SFD displays and the radio show that we do on the local ABC (statewide) radio. To me it is extremely important that we have professional looking OpenCDs to give away during SFD, much more than Ubuntu CDs. There reasons are as follows: People are very interested in FOSS that they can run on their computer - that often means a windows computer. Generally the people who come to our SFD (and I suspect SFDs elsewhere) are not techs, they don't really know what an OS is or what it does, they are not interested in changing OS (yet), but they are interested in Free software. First they are interested that its free as in beer but when you explain the free as in speech they are amazed and impressed (I've found it really is the hook into FOSS for most people!). This is why its really important that the cds look professional - it conveys that this is professional freely licensed software, not the equivalent of that copy of MS-Office they have from their nephew with the serial number written in black pen on the CD. Its very important to distinguish "free" as in pirated and free as in freely licensed and the professional look helps this. For SFD teams to produce professional looking CDs from a single master is expensive and time consuming - many of us are sinking quite a deal of time and cash into SFD already and more expenses makes a high barrier to entry for SFD teams. I know we are getting professional Ubuntu CDs but as I stated earlier - Linux is not the draw-card, if anything its OpenOffice that really catches people's attention as they often have a legit copy of windows (usually came with their computer) but a dodgy copy of MS-Office or the very frustrating MS-Works package (no excel or powerpoint). Having software that works on pretty much everyone's computers without too much hassle is the best way of promoting free s/w - the LiveCDs are great but they don't always work first time, they require people to understand what "booting off a cd" actually means (many don't) and if people either have problems or are too apprehensive about booting off a live cd or don't know how to do it, then another person doesn't experience FOSS. Most people know how to install software, so with an OpenCD they will install and try FOSS - which is the best way of promoting it. I understand that the funding is an issue but please don't cut it on the openCD, if anything ditch the T-shirts or use them to help fund the sending out of CDs by charging for them - I know I'd be happy to pay for a T-shirt! This also does not create a barrier to entry for SFD teams - if they know they can get the give-aways for free then they can run a successful SFD (the give-aways are really important to get people along and make sure that they experience FOSS for themselves). The T-shirts are neither here nor there for the running of a successful SFD - you can use nametags, etc to distinguish organisers if need be. Anyhow that's my $AUD0.02 worth - sorry for the long post :) Cheers, Ben (organiser for Hobart SFD).

June 12, 2007

Re: [Spam:11.5] [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Robert Schumann

Sometimes, people would just like to listen to music - particularly members of the public who are frequently the target audience of SFD events. And if you can tell a member of the public that the music is "open" in the sense that the music can be distributed, sampled and mixed with the artists' blessing, it does bring home in a much more direct manner what software freedom is all about. Plus, we like music :-) (although not necessarily Sex Pistols and death metal, which we will try to avoid) Robert. On 11/06/07, Douglas A. Whitfield <whitdoug(a)email.unc.edu> wrote: > > What exactly is the point of the music? I can see videos and such being > educational/useful, but are the Sex Pistols going to do their rendition of > "God Save Microsoft"? Don't get me wrong, some death metal grunting about > FOSS would float my boat, but I fail to see the value in this when it comes > to SFD. I could see examples of music created in open source software being > useful, but that kind of seems like a niche. Plus, just having the music > doesn't tell the individual how hard/easy it was to create the piece in the > software. > > > > Douglas A. Whitfield > > > > IT Student Assistant > > Mon, Wed, Thurs 9-5 until July 30th > > Development Office > > 208 West Franklin Street, CB# 6100 > > The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill > > Office (Server Room): 919-84*3-3226* > > Cell: 919-360-0306 > > > > Carolina Open Source Initiative Co-President > > Carolina-opensource(a)listserv.unc.edu > > http://softwarefreedomday.org/ > > http://www.ibiblio.org/cosi > ------------------------------ > > *From:* sfd-discuss-bounces(a)sf-day.org [mailto: > sfd-discuss-bounces(a)sf-day.org] *On Behalf Of *Robert Schumann > *Sent:* Monday, June 11, 2007 5:05 PM > *To:* Fabian Rodriguez > *Cc:* Team discussions about SFD > *Subject:* [Spam:11.5] [SFD-discuss] Re: [SFD-announce] CDs to be > dispatched to SFD teams > > > > To be clear, the suggestion is that the CD we send doesn't contain any > software: it will likely contain only music and video footage. > > Thanks everybody for your suggestions - keep them coming. It is very > helpful for us to get an idea of what teams are looking for from us. > > Robert. > > > > _______________________________________________ > SFD-discuss mailing list > SFD-discuss(a)sf-day.org > http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/sfd-discuss > >

June 12, 2007

Re: [SFD-discuss] CDs to be dispatched to SFD teams

by Bruce Kingsbury

> I'd have some misgivings about giving away home-made distro CDs to > newbies. The last thing you want is to have someone's first experience > of a free OS being a borked install process caused by dodgy media. It's > not so essential for something like the OpenCD to be bit-perfect. home-made CD's are just fine, as long as you don't use the cheapest possible blanks and burn them at 52x! Get a decent brand disk and burn them at about 12x (less if you can stand it) because some (usually older) drives can't boot or read them reliably otherwise. > Books > > * Three Novels by Cory Doctorow > * Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software > by Sam Williams > * We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People > by Dan Gillmor > * Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock > Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig > * Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing > * Free Software Magazine - Issues 0-6 > > Audio > > * Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock > Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig (and friends) > * LugRadio - 2 episodes I'm not sure this is a first impression we want to make :) > * The Dangers of Software Patents by Richard Stallman > * Copyright vs Community in the age of computer Networks by Richard > Stallman > > Video > From the Creative Commons Project > > * Creative Commons - Get Creative > * Creative Commons - Remix Culture > * Building on the Past > * CC Brazil > > From archive.org > > * Richard Stallman - Rome - Interview (4-1-2003) > > Some great ideas here; I think we need some software promo videos like the one for Tremulous too.. http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tremulous/tremulous-promo-II.avi?download Anybody know if there are more like this?

June 12, 2007