[Gllug] Open Source for beginners

[paul]

On Thu, 2008-01-24 at 22:20 +0000, Chris Bell wrote:

>    I am trying to convince the local council that they should provide help
> with OSS as well as M$. They provide a range of courses aimed to teach users
> how to use M$ mouse buttons, but little else. I do not care whether initial
> help is in the form of formal courses or simply help towards a user group,
> but if they can provide help for a commercial enterprise which ought to
> provide its own tuition from the fees charged, then they should do at least
> the same for FOSS.


Do you mean help or direct provision? The latter is less likely but
there are certainly examples I know of councils cooperating with, and
possibly funding*, third parties that promote FOSS and/or provide FOSS
based training. I was getting paid for a while to teach similar courses
at a Learndirect centre, entirely on Linux/FOSS software. This was
funded by central government, but indirectly via grants which we were
then subcontracting for, essentially (as a voluntary sector group). I've
taught higher level courses at arts organisations as well, but again any
direct funding likely came for outside though their may have been local
government support for the organisation itself. 

You can find details of the current projects of the groups I worked with
here: http://www.bristolwireless.net/wiki/index.php/Projects
They were also a partner in the Connecting Bristol project (lead by
Bristol City Council) -- a top ten finalist in the Government's Digital
Challenge project. 


Paul M 

*Probably actually council supported but grant funded 

 
 

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