[HLUG] Something to think about over Christmas

[Julian Robbins]

tundish wrote:

> Hi, all,
>
> Friday at last! Merry Christmas to all you LUGgers!
>
> Had some very interesting conversations over the meal the other week.
> Lots of people here with very diverse interests. We all like Open 
> Source because it's honest, it belongs to everyone and it (usually) 
> works. And if it doesn't work you can fix it, thus making the world a 
> better place.
>
> Right at the end of the evening, Peter Linnell expressed some 
> interesting ideas, but this was in the car park when we all had to go.
> I suggested we continued it on the list. It was about how to spread 
> the word to a wider audience. To act locally to bring about some 
> change somehow.
>
> So the question is; in what way could the skills we have in the LUG be 
> made to benefit the wider community? Would we be able to bring 
> positive benefit to Charities, or Local Government, or Schools? Where 
> are the people that need us, and how can we help them?

Hi Dave

Well the good news is that the LUG has already helped Community First, a 
Herefordshire based charity to help get the most out of IT for voluntary 
and charitable groups. Sian Basker, (a member of HLUG), last year asked 
me if the LUG could help with a project she started where 6 low spec 
'redundant' PC's, could be re-invigorated with Linux then either sold 
very cheaply, or freely to charities or organisations around the county. 
The PC's were fairly low spec, 350 PII, and only 64MB RAM, but after a 
while, myself and Matt RR got them set up with Vector Linux, a distro 
especially for low spec PC's.

Altogether, the PC's went quite well, with full web and email access, 
graphics and word processing capabilities for no cost. The setup was the 
most difficult and time consuming part. One went to a community group in 
Hinton and another to a playgroup, not sure what happened to the others .

So, all in all a successful project.

Sian is _very keen_ on promoting OSS, and this featured in her ICT 
Conference that I attended on behalf of the LUG a few weeks back. She is 
hoping to get more funding to allow another stab at the Linux PC's 
project with better spec PC's - RAM was the biggest issue.

The feedback on the 'Introduction to Open Source' was especially 
positive at the Conference, and there is another event solely about Open 
Source in Hereford on January 26th, check out www.most.org.uk/events for 
details. M.O.S.T. - Midland Open Source Technology - a not for profit 
organisation set up to encourage the use of Open Source throughout the 
Midlands. A bit like Open Advantage, but for the Voluntary and 
Charitable sector. Hopefully, a few HLUG members can go along - should 
be interesting.

Hopefully, Sian, ( a very busy lady ;-) ) will have time to add any 
comments to this thread, as i know she still reads many of the postings 
to the list.

In my opinion, you must strike at the easiest targets first. Many of the 
Schools sadly have Microsoft  as absolute bed fellows, and there is only 
limited interest in OSS here it seems, at present.

Charities may be the best target, led by groups like Community First and 
Herefordshire in Touch (HIT), with local 'grass roots' groups like ours 
to help support where we can. Charities usually have low IT spend, and 
need to get high value for money. With MOST now around, the excuse 
'there is no local Linux Support avaialble' isnt so true.

OpenOffice is the easiest way to demonstrate why you really don't need 
to shell out your hard earned cash, and yes; 'Free Software' doesn't 
necessarily mean 'crap software'.

But there is generally so much resentment of Microsoft these days by the 
public, that Linux *is* getting a small foothold. I was talking to a 
mechanic at Ace Motors in Hereford, who mentioned that he had tried a  
Live Linux CD and was really impressed, and didn't have too many good 
things to say about Micro$oft. Again, please, if you're in this 
situation, mention about the LUG, and the growing community we have in 
the County; it helps make newcomers feel that Linux usage isn't so 
nerdy, unusual, or isolated as they might think.

Another tried and tested route into making Linux more widely known, is 
through the use of a 'Linux Install Day'. The Shropshire LUG have done 
this, and if its well organised, can be useful. Something we could think 
about .... ??

Julian

>
> Peter also mentioned that European funding is available if a case can 
> be made. We normally don't think about money much, because our 
> software comes at no cost. But how would we use funding if we had it?
>
> If over the festive season you get bored with Carol Vorderman's DVD 
> Cluedo and you need to escape the family members you've been avoiding 
> all year, come and post on this thread about how we can use all this 
> energy.
>
> Right, I'm off to grab the sherry bottle. Have fun!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dave.
>
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