[vox] Re: [roselug] Distributing OpenOffice to schools (fwd)

[Lincoln Peters]

I'm trying to get the word out to all of the LUG's I know of, as well as the 
LUG's that members of those LUG's know of.  So far, I've sent e-mails to:

* North Bay Linux Users' Group
* Linux Users' Group of Davis
* Roseville Linux Users' Group

It would also seem that Paul Miller got the message to the Sacramento Users' 
Group before I did.

I am also planning to get in touch with:

* Bay Area Linux Users' Group
* Silicon Valley Linux Users' Group
* Penninsula Linux Users' Group
* Central Valley Area Linux Enthusiasts
* East Bay Linux Users' Group
* Association of California School Administrators

Anyone want to suggest additional groups to contact?  Has anyone already 
contacted them?

More comments below...




Lincoln




>From: Paul Miller <pmiller@rook.innercite.com>
>To: roselug@rosevillelug.org
>CC: lincoln_peters@hotmail.com, lug-nuts@saclug.org
>Subject: Re: [roselug] Distributing OpenOffice to schools (fwd)
>Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 21:41:06 -0700
>
>Hi Paul,
>
>We haven't met personally so I will introduce myself. I live in the 
>foothills and although a Roselug founding member, don't often make it to 
>meetings. I am participating in the openoffice.org marketing project and 
>have made a commitment to work with Ian on the schools project.
>
>
>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 18:35:57 -0700
>>From: Lincoln Peters <lincoln_peters@hotmail.com>
>>Reply-To: lug-nuts@saclug.org
>>To: lug-nuts@saclug.org
>>Subject: [Lug-Nuts] Distributing OpenOffice to schools
>>
>>The OpenOffice.org team has announced to Schoolforge that it intends to
>>launch an education campaign in October (when OpenOffice 1.1 is released)
>>and put as many copies of OpenOffice in the hands of students and teachers
>>as possible.
>>
>>Is anyone here interested in burning and distributing OpenOffice CD's to
>>public schools?  At some time in the near future, they will release an ISO
>>with OpenOffice 1.1 that supports Windows auto-run, so if you are
>>interested, you should not start burning CD's just yet (I can notify the
>>group when the official ISO is available).
>>
>>This project is being coordinated by "ian" (ian.lynch2@ntlworld.com), an
>>OpenOffice.org developer.  There does not appear to be any information on
>>the OpenOffice.org website yet, but I can provide information (and URL's) 
>>as
>>soon as I receive it.
>>
>>I have already notified the North Bay Linux Users' Group
>>(http://www.nblug.org/) and the Linux User's Group of Davis
>>(http://www.lugod.org/), and I'm trying to figure out exactly which areas
>>they can cover. Can anyone recommend any other groups in Northern 
>>California
>>I should contact?
>
>There are a some things that people can do immediately to help make this 
>project a big success when it comes time to distribute CDs.
>
>1. Identify school administrative contacts and/or public databases. There 
>are a LOT of schools in the Sacramento region. If members have contact 
>databases with phone, fax & email, it will help avoid massive duplication 
>of effort (which may annoy people who would otherwise help) and allow for 
>people to contribute locally to keep volunteer costs down.  Ian plans for 
>us to use fax and email as follow up on phone contacts.

As soon as I finish sending e-mails, I can get to work on the Cotati-Rohnert 
Park school district (in Sonoma County, just south of Santa Rosa).  I have 
several contacts there that might be able to help.

>
>2. Identify people within the schools who are potential open source 
>evangelists.  We will need their help and we may be able to delegate 
>burning CDs to groups within the schools.  For example, Ian has a project 
>in England where 600 school kids are burning CDs as part of their school 
>requirements.  The CDs are sent to schools in other countries as an 
>outreach.

It might be worth scouting a school for students AND teachers with CD 
burners.  If they can be sold on OpenOffice, they can help us burn more 
CD's.

>
>3. Identify other user groups (which you apparently are doing) and recruit 
>members to get them to help.  There is a pretty strong consensus in the 
>OpenOffice.org community that the surest way to market open source to the 
>masses is by educating Windows people with OOo on the platform they have to 
>use at work/school.

See above.  When I notified the NBLUG, I didn't realize I'd end up working 
with so many group beyond the North Bay area.  Although I'm certainly 
willing to do so.

>
>4.  Known good press contacts are needed. The project is about having a 
>single day set aside each year to distribute OOo to schools.  By focusing 
>on a single event (conducted worldwide) there will be heightened press 
>interest.

I can't help there, but hopefully a few people have contacts with any 
newspapers.

>
>5.  Figure out how the CDs will be physically distributed to each location 
>without unduly overburdening volunteer resources.  Viral redistribution of 
>CDs should definitely be considered. But how to educate people that they 
>SHOULD burn OOo CDs for friends and family and they won't be on the hook 
>for support. We need creative ideas to get this to work on a large scale, 
>realizing that most people do not have high speed internet access and are 
>often somewhat technophobic.

As far as distribution, I suspect that one could easily gather a stack of 
OpenOffice CD-ROM's, possibly by pooling the CD-burning resources of the 
nearest LUG, and bring them into the school.  Perhaps one could then 
distribute them to students during the lunch break and to faculty after the 
students go home?  I'm not sure what would be the best solution once we get 
on the campus.

>
>Anyone have other suggestions on how to make this project a well focused 
>success?  There is not that much time between now and October.
>
>
>Best regards,
>Paul
>OpenOffice.org Marketing Volunteer
>Georgetown, CA
>
>

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