<div dir="ltr">Hey guys, Sorry I never introduced myself, I am Rami originally from Saudi Arabia but in Boston now (well in Saudi now for vacation, coming back in a week, but you get the idea.) I have met Martin and the guys at the Star Trek IMAX meetup, sadly I was late and ended up watching it alone. Anyways, I have been reading this thread and it really caught my attention, and would really love to help. I am good with marketing and social media (especially Digg and Twitter.) I am not sure if you guys are aware of this, but have you ever heard of the Extremadura province in Spain and their exploits in with Linux? They completely migrated to FOSS in their schools and governments. I actually did an interview with one of their lead devs, and published it on my blog. It is a really interesting read. We should take these guys learnings and see if we can apply them here. <a href="http://linuxologist.com/general/an-interview-with-an-extremadura-developer-bringing-linux-to-the-masses/">http://linuxologist.com/general/an-interview-with-an-extremadura-developer-bringing-linux-to-the-masses/</a> Blog: <a href="http://blog.ramitaibah.com">http://blog.ramitaibah.com</a> Linux Blog: <a href="http://linuxologist.com">http://linuxologist.com</a> Lifestream: <a href="http://ramitaibah.com">http://ramitaibah.com</a> Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/rtaibah">http://www.twitter.com/rtaibah</a> Digg: <a href="http://digg.com/users/rtaibah">http://digg.com/users/rtaibah</a> StumbleUpon: <a href="http://juventini.stumbleupon.com">http://juventini.stumbleupon.com</a> Mixx: <a href="http://mixx.com/users/bianconeri4ever">http://mixx.com/users/bianconeri4ever</a> FriendFeed: <a href="http://friendfeed.com/rtaibah">http://friendfeed.com/rtaibah</a> <div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 5:06 PM, Bill Simonds <<a href="mailto:wtsimonds@gmail.com">wtsimonds@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Whew...that's a lot of stuff to take in. It might take me a few to go through it all. I will use this opportunity to forward an email I got from Sun on a web seminar they offer on migrating organizations to OO. See next post. As for giving a laptop to politicians, I hadn't given it much thought. I suppose you get ahold of one of their people and tell them what you're doing, and why, and see if one or more of those politicians will follow through with exploring the issue. <div><div></div><div class="h5"> On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Yuriy Kozlov <<a href="mailto:yuriy.kozlov@gmail.com">yuriy.kozlov@gmail.com</a>> wrote: > Interesting idea, how would you go about giving him the laptop? > > Getting all government workers using free software is difficult. It's > been tried - we almost moved to OpenDocument in MA. Every case must > be taken care of for accessibility: > <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/massachusetts_open_document_and_accessibility" target="_blank">http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/massachusetts_open_document_and_accessibility</a> > > On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Bill Simonds <<a href="mailto:wtsimonds@gmail.com">wtsimonds@gmail.com</a>> wrote: >> I am trying to think up ways to promote Ubuntu. Here's a suggestion: >> With both Federal government and state governments going broke, and >> desperate to save money any way they can, it seems like free software >> has the potential to save the govenment millions (billions?) of >> dollars a year. >> >> There are, collectively, millions of desktop computers in the >> government offices, all of which could be using Ubuntu. So why aren't >> they? >> >> How 'bout this: set up a laptop with Ubuntu, and give it to governor >> of Massachusetts Deval Patrick to use for a month. Convince him that >> it can do anything Windows can do, better and millions of dollars >> cheaper! We could work on switching a state over to free software as >> an experiment to see if it could work for the Federal gov't. >> >> If we could get the gov't to make the switch, it would do much to >> raise awareness of Ubuntu. It would also help to ally fears that >> Ubuntu is just for geeks and the technically inclined. Once people see >> government workers mastering the software, they'll realize it must be >> an easy transition! >> >> I will venture a guess that Ubuntu will do anything windows can do, >> and if there are any gaps they can be addressed by Canonical, etc. >> >> It might even present an opportuntiy to some enterprising person(s) >> because of all the labor that needs to be contracted out to make the >> switch. Somebody has to go into these offices and install all the >> software, provide training, and do after the switch service and >> technical support. Big job for somebody. >> >> -- >> Ubuntu-us-ma mailing list >> <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-us-ma@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-us-ma@lists.ubuntu.com</a> >> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ma" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ma</a> >> > > -- > Ubuntu-us-ma mailing list > <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-us-ma@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-us-ma@lists.ubuntu.com</a> > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ma" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ma</a> > </div></div>-- <div><div></div><div class="h5">Ubuntu-us-ma mailing list <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-us-ma@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-us-ma@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ma" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-ma</a> </div></div></blockquote></div> </div>