From emcnabb at cs.byu.edu Tue Sep 2 13:06:58 2003
From: emcnabb at cs.byu.edu (Evan McNabb)
Date: Tue Sep 2 12:07:00 2003
Subject: [uug] Upcoming UUG Schedule
Message-ID: <20030902180658.GB2708@medusa.byu.edu>
We have posted the events/meeting schedule for September/October. We
have a booth and installfest coming up next week (Sept 11-12th booth,
Sept 13th installfest). This was the only time that would really work
early in the semester with the football schedule.
I've posted dates for the upcoming meetings. We have the topics selected
but we still need to match the topic with the dates. We'll do this in
the next few days.
I'm excited about the upcoming semester and think it will be a lot of
fun.
-Evan
--
/********************************************************************\
Evan McNabb: <emcnabb@cs.byu.edu> <evan@mcnabbs.org>
http://evan.mcnabbs.org
System Administrator, CS Department, BYU
GnuPG Fingerprint: 53B5 EDCA 5543 A27A E0E1 2B2F 6776 8F9C 6A35 6EA5
\********************************************************************/
From mike at halcrow.us Tue Sep 2 15:47:43 2003
From: mike at halcrow.us (Michael Halcrow)
Date: Tue Sep 2 13:49:13 2003
Subject: [uug] Upcoming UUG Schedule
In-Reply-To: <20030902180658.GB2708@medusa.byu.edu>
References: <20030902180658.GB2708@medusa.byu.edu>
Message-ID: <20030902194743.GD15011@halcrow.us>
On Tue, Sep 02, 2003 at 12:06:58PM -0600, Evan McNabb wrote:
> We have posted the events/meeting schedule for September/October. We
> have a booth and installfest coming up next week (Sept 11-12th booth,
> Sept 13th installfest). This was the only time that would really work
> early in the semester with the football schedule.
Forgive the repost, but I got absolutely zero comment on it when I
first posted it (I figured nobody cared at the time, since Fall was so
far away :-). I touched it up a bit too (added questions). I
basically suggest baiting them with OpenOffice, and then moving on to
other Free Software as time or circumstances permit. Feel free to
comment on it this time, especially if you will be manning a booth.
---
Here we go again. Fall semester's coming up, and students all over
campus will be lining up to dump money into their shiny brand new
copies of Windows and Office XP to get them ready for their college
adventures to come. Booths fill up quickly (if they are all not
already reserved). The critical time for the UUG to raise awareness
of OpenOffice and GNU/Linux is in that *first week*, when students are
finding their way around and getting settled. So let's make sure that
we get those booths and get them manned. [Done: Sept. 11th and 12th]
Perhaps the most visible component of the booth should be something
portraying this message:
- The Cost of Windows and MS Office: $500 (and your freedom)
- The Cost of GNU/Linux and OpenOffice: $0 (and you get to keep your
freedom too)
This would lead to interesting discussions as people pass by and
wonder, ``What do you mean, freedom?'' As we give them a copy of the
SSS CD, we can explain how with Free Software, they can copy it and
give it to their friends without worrying about violating any
licenses. Their freedom to copy - the most visible and pertinent
freedom to the non-programmers - is protected. They also can avoid
paying large amounts of money for costly proprietary software while
they go through college. Something like this might work:
``This semester, would you rather spend $500 on computer software or
$500 on prospects for eternal marriage?'' (or food, rent, etc...)
The idea is to get their interest with the monetary cost factor, and
then help them understand the freedom cost factor with proprietary
software licenses when they stop to find out more. OpenOffice's
compatibility with MS Office documents is also an important
consideration for most students, and we should make that visible too.
In any case, we should be encouraging them to at least give the
software a try before they run off and purchase MS Office.
Ideally, several actual reports and technical papers written by
members of the UUG from past semesters could be up on OpenOffice, and
students should be invited to see for themselves that it is capable of
doing the job. Some questions to ask my include:
- ``So why do you keep buying and using MS Office, anyway?'' (get
down to the specific features in OpenOffice if need be; make it
clear in their minds that OO has all the features that they will
ever use - well, of course this isn't true for some exceptional
cases, but feel it out on a case-by-case basis).
- ``Did you purchase a legit copy of MS Office, or did you copy it
from a friend?'' (get at their conscious; let them know that they
can dump their unauthorized copy and get a perfectly legit copy of
OO instead. Many students don't even know that their copies are
not legit; fill them in on this if it is the case!).
- ``Why are you spending so much on computer software? Wouldn't you
like (more RAM|bigger disk|more toys|more food|...) instead?''
- ``Do you have any idea what you agreed to when you clicked the `I
Agree' button for the EULA for MS Office??'' (be careful here, or
you could easily lose their interest with inane babbling :-)
- (fill in the blank)
Oh, and I think it would be appropriate to consider including software
written by BYU students on the SSS CD. Geneology software and
Church-related software should be on there too.
We should have an Install Fest lined up the second or third week into
the semester to invite people at the booths to come and have Linux
installed [NOTE: Done! Set for the 13th]. This should, of course, be
announced in all freshman-level CS/EE courses (and as many upper-level
CS/EE courses as possible too). Those hanging around in other
departments can make announcements. In any case, make sure to pass it
by the professor beforehand.
Mike
--
------------------------------------------- | ---------------------
Michael Halcrow | mike@halcrow.us
Developer, IBM Linux Technology Center |
|
What's another word for synonym? |
------------------------------------------- | ---------------------
GnuPG Keyprint: 05B5 08A8 713A 64C1 D35D 2371 2D3C FDDA 3EB6 601D