[Sussex] Promoting SLUG

[Nicholas Butler]

Steve cheers for doing this... been a little busy lately what with "things"

Steve Dobson wrote:

>At the last Moot those members present discussed some ideas for promoting 
>the group.  Here are my notes on that discussion.  I will, in the next
>  
>
We want to  promote the group ... why ?
    we want more members to here how much fun SLUGS could be !
    more members = better content  ( see OSS development )

>A proposed method for supporting and prompting the Sussex Linux User Group
>(SLUG) and Linux in general.  Anyone wanting to try Linux should come
>along to the SLUG meetings (or join the ML) for "free" support.
>  
>
To be clear, im hoping to Promote, not Prompt... for those unclear , see 
mjost !

>The idea is that the club "purchase" stand space at various computer
>shows held in the area.  There is one every few weeks around Brighton and 
>Worthing.
>  
>
by club he meant nik and by various we meant those listed so far

>The stand should be populated by a minimum of four people.  The stand staff
>should include both technical experts and novices.  The technical experts are
>there to try and help any questions that my come from the show attendees.  It
>is also important to having at least one novice on the stand--being able to
>point to someone and say "Go talk with Big John (I'm not volunteering you
>John) over there, he's a shop steward and drives a milk truck for a living,
>he has no IT experience, but he run Linux" is important -- and will give
>confidence to any waverers
>  
>
Actually i would not qualify who/what the stand attendance should be, 
but sentences cohernet together stringing , wanted is .

>The stand should provide "free installs of Debian".  This is not Debian 
>trying to take over the SLUG, before Gentoo and other distro users get out
>their flaming throwers.  To "sell" Linux to the doubters a clear message
>needs to be presented, Debian is the best distro to provide that message
>for the following reasons:
>  
>
Because we need.
    1. a Message                                                     Use 
Debian
    2. a medium                                                       
Knoppix, Debian Based Live CDs
    3. the content to deliver over the medium     as the Message ... see 
above
    4. the reason to keep reading.                        Because 
UseDebian is a oligarchy joke and apropos


>1). We are targeting home uses - Debian is a "free" distro.  Commercial
>    distros do not give the same "Linux is free" message.  [Yes, I know
>    Gentoo is free, see the next point].
>  
>
or Home Users, or Homer Uses ! Actually we are not targeting, or maybe 
we are.. we are targetting ...
        Potential Slug members.

>2). Debian is a binary distribution and therefore quicker to install.
>    If we are installing systems at the show then we need a quick 
>    install process.  As Steve Dobson can provide a Debian Mirror 
>    network installation will be available and they can be very quick
>    indeed.  
>  
>
Use Debian, because Apt-Get has been gotten, were still waiting for the 
others to emerge.....hahaha I just kill me self.

>    For a new user to Linux showing them a distro that you have to compile
>    yourself does not project the "easy to use" message - and do we want
>    someones old 200MHz laptop taking three days to build the world?
>  
>



>3). Nik Butler has strong links with the Debian UK group and they should
>    be able to make merchandise available for us to sell - this could help
>    pay for the stand.
>  
>
for strong links ... read ... I bought some beer, people came.. there 
was drinking.


>4). We can give away (I would suggest that we ask [not demand] a one pound
>    fee towards the media and publication costs) Knoppix CDs.  As this is
>    Debian based it provides part of the same "clear" solution message.
>  
>

im not averse to selling on the stand... people are far more likely to 
NOT WASTE TIME if they are paying of it and there will be a lot of ALKs 
on site to discourage

>5). Once installed Debian is easy to maintain (apt-get is just so powerful).
>  
>
Damn I thought Use Debian would have been enough ...



>To promote that Linux is instalable we obtain (preferably by blagging) 
>various computer components from the various stands at the show, build the
>system and install Debian on it.  To anyone obtaining the same hardware and 
>bringing it to the stand we will build their machine for them and install
>Debian on it too.  Hopefully we can blag the components using the argument
>that we would be advertising where we got the components from.
>  
>

this is the interesting idea . we make a big A3 poster, where we list 
where we bought parts from the show to build a computer to turn into a 
Debian purposed box.


We also need to give little Slide Show talks about Linux over the day , 
cumulating with a demo build , install and delivery of Linux , with 
enough time following the demo for viewers to rush to those stands and 
buy the bits. hell we might also want to hand this out as a shopping 
list... e.g.

Part         Linux Driver         Stand         cost
video      video_driver            12               20

etc etc etc


Nik