[Ubuntu Chicago] Meeting proposal

[RJ Marsan]

I can easily reserve the room at the elmhurst public library for a meeting
if ya guys want (we did early on)
but i can't make it to a meeting on feb. 23rd

On Jan 30, 2008 5:03 PM, Richard A. Johnson <nixternal at kubuntu.org> wrote:

> On Wednesday 30 January 2008, Patrick Green wrote:
> [...]
>
> I am happy seeing you guys take off and I wish you the best with this, and
> of
> course if I can help out in any way, please do not hesitate to ask.
>
> | 1) The Ubuntu Desktop Classroom.
> |
> | 2) The Ubuntu Classroom Except for Servers:
> |
> | This project would be the same idea of the Ubuntu Classroom but focus
> | more on setting up basic servers.
> | - Teach How-to Setup LAMP
> | - Drupal
> | - Wordpress
> | - Basic Security
>
> I wouldn't do the same idea as the Ubuntu Classroom, because that hasn't
> worked
> well recently. Myself and a couple of others started the project a couple
> of
> years ago and it was rockin'. Recently everyone has been to busy. Taking
> the
> concept is fine, but you guys can obviously do much better!
>
> | 3) Work with Free Geek Chicago
>
> This is a great idea! I was working on something similar 2 years ago, but
> just
> didn't have the time nor the manpower to really carry forward with it,
> hopefully you can hit both in the head with this.
>
> | 4) Hold Installfests
>
> In the past 4 years in the Chicagoland area, Install Fests have brought
> the same
> group together every time. I would say that if you are going to do install
> fests, don't do them in conjunction with a LUG event at all. The only way
> I can
> see an install fest being successful these days is if you take it to the
> people. What I mean is going to a college campus on heavily trafficked
> days. No
> Saturday's or Sunday's because students don't want to be there then.
> Weekends
> have proven to be no good for install fests. The best install fests I have
> ever
> seen in my 10+ years in the Linux/Free Software community were at the
> College
> of DuPage, yes the CODLUG, back when the Computer Show used to be there.
> It was
> nothing to get 50+ people to show up every month, and 50 different people
> to
> say the less. In the past year we have taken out articles in the Chicago
> Tribune, the Daily Herald, as well as local community papers for install
> fests,
> and none of them worked. The only thing I haven't tried is getting space
> at say
> the mall during a weekend, setting up a booth and attracting people.
> Something
> has to be done differently in this arena for it to work, otherwise you
> will get
> the Chicago LoCo people and other geeks who only show up to socialize.
>
> | 5) Advocate Ubuntu to Local Government
>
> Only one local representative listened to me about this. Last year, in
> association with Canonical and other Linux distributions, we started a
> campaign
> to target the local government and in the Chicagoland area, we sent out
> over
> 1,000 letters to local, high-ranking, government officials. To be honest,
> I
> think manchicken is the one who started the buzz on this last year. Out of
> those 1,000 letters, 1 replied positively, while the other ones who did
> respond, let us know that the Illinois government has a new multi-million
> dollar contract with Microsoft for some time to come (can anyone say
> earmarks
> up the arse for this one?). This is the contract that is fueling some of
> the
> new Microsoft advertisements that you can find on their website as well as
> on
> TV. I would strike the government at this time, and go for educational
> institutions. Right now, the educational funding in this state is at its
> all
> time lowest, so "free" or "damn close to free" is music to their ears if
> marketed correctly. Word of the wise on this one, go directly for the
> board and
> not their IT people. IT people are typically idiots who breathe Windows
> and
> cuss Linux.
>
> Now here is a word of encouragement, we were fundamental in seeing the
> DuPage
> Country Government Center(s) take in Linux, in this case both Ubuntu and
> Kubuntu. If you go into the DuPage County offices, take a look at their
> kiosks
> they have spread around, if the color schemes look familiar (brown or
> blue),
> then you know it is running one of the two. The City of Chicago is Red
> Hat, and
> they have a great long standing contract with them. Cook County on the
> other
> hand is still using some old systems. You will actually still find quite a
> few
> Windows 98 machines in some of the Cook County offices. So strap on your
> mafia
> face, write up a fake contract, and get to advocating :p
>
> | These are just some project ideas I have had in my head for awhile.  I
> | wish you all the best of luck with all future projects and hope I can
> | help out whenever possible.
>
> If you need any help, I am still here. Going to be quite busy in the next
> few
> months with talks at Flourish, Penguicon, Ohio Linux Fest, Ubuntu Live,
> and
> some others. So in between school, working, and talking, I should have
> some
> free time to help you all out with :)
>
> --
> Richard A. Johnson
> nixternal at kubuntu.org
> GPG Key: 0x2E2C0124
>
> --
> Ubuntu-us-chicago mailing list
> Ubuntu-us-chicago at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-chicago
>
>
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