[SLUG] Library summary v2.0

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

The SLUG library display
========================

We are getting to the stage where some of these items can get done, so
we need volunteers throughout.

Dates and format:
-----------------

Bob has booked a library display from Tuesday November 29th to Sunday
December 11th. The photographs here
<http://www.johnallsopp.co.uk/slug/> (files starting imgp*) show a
three panel display, but we can have 6 freestanding boards (400mm x
600mm), possibly a header (200mm x 400mm) for the middle board and a
small table in front. We need to use velcro to attach our notices.


Our at-a-glance message:
------------------------

We need to deliver our message at a glance both front-on and as seen
from the entrance doorway. We wanted something that might work for all
our markets and so far we have these suggestions (and votes):

Scarborough Linux User Group - Free/Open Source Software for everyone	2
Scarborough Linux User Group - Free Software for everyone	2
Scarborough Linux User Group - Free your computer	1

Any improvement comments?


Display content:
----------------

The way the display is currently looking, we have essentially three
sides plus the back of one panel which faces the entrance (which will
just display our at-a-glance message).

The central panel will show our at-a-glance message at the top, and
then a main motivational poster, A3 or A2, which we'll get
commercially 'printed' and people will put in a £1 or so each to fund
that. Here, we'll answer the questions what is Linux, why does it
matter, and what can it do for you.

Volunteer required to design and print the poster:

Underneath that will be a wrapped box with a 'letterbox' opening, and
a questionnaire. This is the Linux challenge. The idea is that someone
who is interested in Linux and wants to know more about what might be
suitable for them can complete a form about their needs (what they
want to do with their computer) and we'll collaboratively work out a
recommendation for them and respond by email in due course.

Resonsible: JA

The left hand panel will contain pockets with trifold leaflets about
various aspects of Linux, for instance, 'choosing a distribution', or
'Linux for school and study'. What subjects need to be covered here?
Let's decide subjects then share out the writing of them.

Suggestions:
"Linux for the small business"
"Linux for music and musicians"
"Linux for video"
"Saving money with Linux"
"Linux at the cutting edge"
"Linux for games"
"Linux in education"
"A working computer for under £100"
"Why XML and OpenDocument are important"
"Free as in freedom - the ethics of free software"

These will be in A4 trifold format (making a document that's 210mm
high and 99mm wide), only six of which will comfortably fit on our
left hand panel (two rows of three). There are ten suggestions above,
which means we need to vote which to keep. Please send in your votes
for the six we should keep.

A volunteer who used to watch Blue Peter is required to make up
pockets that will contain and display these and that will velcro to
the panel.

The right hand panel (and I'm expanding a little on Al's thought) will
have a series of screenshots of our Linux machines together with a
paragraph about each of us (and a photo if you want). The idea is to
show Linux looking good and to show how we are real people not just
screenburned geeks. How many people are willing/able to produce an A5
like this about themselves, we need five at least?

John Allsopp
Al Girling
Stephen O'Neill

Responsible for producing the format for this: JA

We should have a bowl of business-card sized pieces of paper or
smaller along with a "please take one" sign (as if they were sweets)
which just contain the message that all this information is on our
website and giving our website address. Our website address across the
whole thing will be a variant on our normal address, eg.
http://www.scarborough.lug.org.uk/lib so we can see how many people
came to visit.

A volunteer is required to produce this (the bowl, the sign, the bits
of paper). JA will produce graphic guidelines.

We (Bob?) should investigate whether it's possible for the IT suite to
add an icon linking to our website for the duration of our exhibition.
The person who organises that might also discover what other events
are on at the library during our exhibition, then we might decide to
change the front message and/or staff the stand.

We might also provide some coverdiscs for people to take away. My
feeling is we'd be better to provide something like Knoppix or the
Open CD. Opinions? How do we get, say, 100 copies? Do we need some
text to go with it or does it say enough on the disc?

Opinions?


Staffing the stall:
-------------------

On the last day, the 11th December, the local Animal Rights groups has
booked the whole of the top floor for a Santa's Little Helpers
Christmas Fair from 11am - 4 pm with 'stalls, music, films, free food
tasting and much more'. Since there's an ethical side to open source
computing, maybe this is an opportunity to staff the stand, or at
least add to the door-facing part of the display the phrase "ethical
computing" or similar.

The stall needs to be created on the morning of the 29th November, and
decommissioned at the end of the 11th December. Those providing
materials need to check (weekly?) the stock levels of various items
and refill as necessary.

10-12 each Saturday could be usefully staffed too, maybe try the first
one and report back whether it was worthwhile. Steve might be
available for the first one.

Volunteers required.


SLUG graphic design standards:
------------------------------

In an effort to show a unified display, JA is suggesting we come up
with a set of design standards, which would mean every document we
produce looks like it comes from the same organisation, and the
display as a whole looks good. JA will attempt to carve out some time
to look at this. It's suggested this has links to the website.

A small amount of progress has been made with this.


Handling the resulting enquiries:
---------------------------------

Can we install Linux for people?

Steve and Ian have put their hands up as feeling capable of doing
this, although JA will probably feel capable of that soon. Steve is
under time pressure so may back out.

We find problems with installing at the person's home and with asking
them to bring their machine to one of our houses or to a meeting. Our
best bet seems to be an installfest style event at a venue which has
an Internet connection, the favourite being Scalby school.

Ideally, those wanting an install should prepare by backing up their
system and providing us with details of their hardware, so a sheet
explaining that and telling them how to get the information we need is
required. We can then prepare ahead of time, ideally letting them know
if anything they have is likely to pose a difficulty (eg. scanners,
sound cards). This suggests we would be able to book people into their
own hour-long (or whatever) slots.

We also need an easy to understand liability waver for them to sign ..
Ian suggests
* The donor of the computer shall not hold the installer responsible
for any loss of data or damage whatsoever
* The donor shall be responsible for backing up all data

There seems to be a consensus that we choose a distro that will suit
most people and get used to installing it and offer only that
(although a couple of other lines of thought came up .. matching the
distribution to the machine, and matching the distribution to the
installer). We need to choose a distribution and then our installers
need to do at least a trial installation. Who wants to recommend what?
Let's have this discussion and decide, since this is probably on the
critical path.

Votes so far are:
FC4	2
Mandrake 9/10	1
Debian	1
Slackware 10.2	1 (Bob does a good selling job on this with "Slackware
installs in about an hour and is traditional enough to work on most
computers. It has a manual and only needs 32M. It runs KDE 3.4 and
looks brilliant").
Ubuntu	1 (York chose that)

I don't know how to proceed with this. I haven't voted yet, and I have
to say I'm leaning towards Debian and the whole apt-get ease, although
I've never actually used it. Is Ubunto Debian based? If so, I might
vote that, and then we could have an FC4/Ubunto debate to decide.
Otherwise, any suggestions how we might resolve this?

Also Bob said "are we willing to try a dual boot with Windows?" I was
assuming every single machine would require that. Is that what the
installers were thinking, otherwise we are asking people to bring us
virgin or spare machines.

There's a suggested visit to the YLUG install-fest on the 12th Nov
<"http://www.york.lug.org.uk/installday2005/>,
<http://www.tuxx.homelinux.org/ylug/cgi-bin/view/Main/YLUGInstallDay05>.
Anyone fancy that?


HTH
J