[Bradford] Proposed Bradford GNU/LUG FOSS day for Bradford CVS members

[David Carpenter]

A couple of us had a chat about the following. Thanks to John for
putting this together. Please remember this is no more than an idea at
this stage, and that we haven't approached any of the parties mentioned
below as yet.

Please post responses, and we can follow it up at the meeting next week.

Thanks!
David



Proposed Bradford GNU/LUG FOSS day for Bradford CVS members


Why?When the Bradford GNU/LUG was set up, there was quite a lot of
discussion about publicising Linux. Now that we are a regular feature at
CVS, it might be worth taking advantage of the relationship to publicise
what we are doing to our hosts.


What?A weekday event, probably in September, open to all members of
Bradford CVS at which they would be able to drop into the centre and see
a range of FOSS software and applications running and talk to a range of
Linux users about how they use FOSS software and what the possibilities
might be for their voluntary organisations.


I would see the day being a joint effort between those of us who are
users and those for whom Linux is a livelihood; indeed, having a number
of different businesses represented might reinforce the idea that those
who choose to adopt FOSS will not lack local support.


How?Discussion of the feasibility of the event among members; we would
probably need at least six users and six from businesses to have enough
resources to put on something worthwhile but, if there were more, people
could give a half-day commitment because I think that, once we got above
about 15 involved at a time, coordination could become a problem.


Discussion with the Centre about whether they would welcome such a day
and within what parameters it could be set up; essentially, I hope they
would provide the centre facilities free for a day and we would provide
the additional equipment, publicity material, expertise, handouts and
distros for people to take away and try.


We might also need to discuss refreshments for those attending.


Discussion among ourselves about the arrangements for facilitating the
day.


The day itself – possibly 10-4:

      * Half a dozen timed presentations spread over the day on
        different types of FOSS software, some of which might be
        repeated.
        
      * Booths/areas in which business users could meet potential
        customers.
        
      * A number of continuous displays of particular software, e.g.
        continuously running Impress presentations
        
      * Examples of hardware, e.g. netbooks
        
      * One Windows machine running FOSS software
        


My assumption would be that most people from the voluntary organisations
would pop in for an hour to an hour and a half to see what was
available.



-- 
David Carpenter

nornir

E: david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk
Skype: carpenter.david

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