An Open Letter to the Ubuntu-au Members

[Senectus .]

On 5/6/06, dave kempe <dave at solutionsfirst.com.au> wrote:
> Steven Tucker wrote:
> > Come on, really. If it fails at this most basic level, why is this
> > discussion even an issue?
>
> I agree entirely.
>
>
> > Who wants to help??
>
> me. lets do it. actions speak louder than words.

It just so happens that very recently on the PLUG (Perth LUG) and
Aus-Linux mail lists there has been two topics that have run pretty
hot about getting Ubuntu into schools and remote aboriginal
communities.

The PLUG discussion can be found here:
http://www.plug.org.au/archives/message/20060504.092052.2be82c18.en.html
This is something that a group of energized, focused and motivated
people could have a _huge_ impact on.
The problem for me is, where do we start and how to proceed?
I presume that the http://www.ubuntu.com.au/ site can be used as an
organisational focus point, presumably with links back to the main
"Ubuntu Marketing" and "Ubuntu Advocacy" wiki locations.

This particular piece of trouble seems to have stalled:
http://www.plug.org.au/archives/message/20060505.060601.99e5ab34.en.html

Advice from the http://www.opensource.wa.gov.au/ offices have been to
write letters to key political members.
Is there anything more we could do?
for that matter, a bit bit of advice on _how_ to effectively write
such letters would be handy to some I imagine.

I know that Ubuntu has been installed at a school before, though
ironically it wasn't a public school:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050309001736/http://tr.openmonkey.com/index.php?2005/01/30/7-full-steam-ahead

Also there is a person that appears to be doing installs of Linux on
very cheap second hand computer labs for remote aboriginal
communities. I'm _certain_ that Ubuntu and it's community (local and
international) are a perfect fit in this situation:
http://lists.linux.org.au/archives/linux-aus/2006-May/msg00020.html
http://lists.linux.org.au/archives/linux-aus/2006-May/msg00022.html

Finally in a related piece to the above one.
I'm a bit of a fan of listening to Pod casts from Radio National (In
particular I'm a fan of "Late Night Live" with Phillip Adams), and
yesterday I was listening to this story on Aboriginal Music:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2006/1629084.htm
Part of that story was about how they're preserving and distributing
Aboriginal music for the younger generations by ripping the archived
songs to Apple Mac's in community centers and allowing the locals to
come in and burn their own mixes of the traditional music to CD's via
iTunes.

My first though after hearing that was "cool idea" followed by "We
(ubuntu) could do a better job of that".

These are some idea's.
Perhaps the www.ubuntu.com.au site would launch with a real "BANG!" if
we had a goal project to launch with it...

--
www.modmeup.net
Ubuntu Dapper 6.06
The less you know, the more you believe. - Bono