[vox] Invitation to speak about BerkeleyTIP at LUGOD (Mon Sept 21st?)

[john_re]

Hi Bill, LUGOD :)

Bill - I hope this gets to you in time - it's still monday ;)  [Err, at least it was when I _started_ writing this message.  :(  ;)  ]

1) Very nice writeup! :)  It is very flattering! :)  This is the first time I've ever been invited to speak about BTIP.  I've made announcements about it many places  - both at many kinds of meetings, & online, & even ran a session about it at SCALE, but you are the first person who has ever asked _me_ (rather than me volunteering) to give a talk.  Thanks. :)

2) Although there are a number of improving aspects of BTIP vs previous kinds of meetings/events we all know about (ie LUGs, conferences), some of those improving things being a) the BTIP meetings is Global, b) people communicate via VOIP, c) BTIP includes (more than a LUG) _all_ free sw, plus also free hw & free culture, there is one very special part I'd like to highlight for you, so you could put that into the announcement, & hopefully that would be a specific draw to have people come to this LUGOD meeting to hear the talk:  It is the _educational_ specifics of BTIP.

In particular, I'm working to encourage local groups to a) have meetings near the large college campuses in their area (so they are convenient for college students to get to), b) announce the meetings via flyers/posters (& congratulations to you & LUGOD on your doing that!) that college students will see, & c) have all the global "more senior than college students" aware of the college outreach aspect of BTIP, so everyone is mentally attuned to helping out the students in ways they can, practically.

My thinking is that most college students have reached the knowledge level in their lives where they could actually begin _contributing_ to free sw, not merely just being users.  So, the more college students we can reach out to, (so they get help learning about free sw & hw & culture), & so they get help installing & using it, then the more people there will be _contributing_ to free sw (etc) projects [be it bug reports, writing documentation, helping friends, or maybe even contributing patches, fixes, improvements, or even starting & running their own project  {Hey - TuxPaint! ;) }].

So, anyway, Bill, try condensing that into a sentence for your announcement.  ;)

3) So, with the above in mind, if you put something in the talk announcement that would catch the eye of college students, educators, & also the regualr LUG members who might enjoy participating in helping college students, that would be a great way to educate them about the most important thing that i think btip is currently doing, & that might help that educational aspect of BTIP progress more rapidly.  :)


===== To LUGOD members:
I'm sending this message to the LUGOD list vox in case anyone there has any suggestions for me about what they'd like to hear in my talk - so that I can perhaps be better prepared to talk about that.  Of course, wee can talk about technical issues in BTIP (use of voip, howto, etc) social aspects (how to reach out to LUGS, free sw, hw & culture groups, & anything else of interest.
 
LUGODers - what aspects would you most like to hear about?

=====  Bill - 
1) In the announcement please refer be to me as john_re - that's the name I use in email, irc & voip.

2) For a bio, not much to say, you can mention that I have an EECS degree (90% EE) from UCBerkeley. ;)

3) Regarding technical issues for bringing an audio stream into the LUGOD meeting for my "virtual" talk:

The best thing I can suggest is have backup hw & communication systems & people.  We can use both cell phone, & VOIP.  Have two phones w/ separate communication companies, & have two laptops.  & get different people to help you with those. With those 4 options, if one isn't working, we can switch to an alternate.

BTIP itself has 3 different voip conference servers we can use (in France, Texas & Berkeley), & the ability for people to connect via voip & via telephone dial in.

I should probably send that info to the LUGOD technical mailing list, but I'm too busy to subscribe to taht list, & follow the discussion.

4) I'll announce this virtual LUGOD talk on the BTIP list, & invite all BTIP members to join on the conference.  That way. LUGOD members can also talk to & hear from other BTIP members at the LUGOD talk.  We've got college students & working people from around the world, & we have the major BTIP contributors, who help run the website, mailing list, find videos (BTIP talks) & setup the VOIP conferencing ssytems & sw.  so, if LUGODers have questions on anything, they can get answers directly from the most knowledgeable person, not merely me [who is mainly the arranger  ;)  ]

5) My final suggestion: continue your great personal progress on communicating with the BTIP meetings  - you've already got ekiga installed & working, & have also joined the IRC channel for BTIP.  Next work on getting connected with the BTIP voip conference.  Then, come LUGOD virtual meeting day, you'll be comfortable using all those technologies.  :)

=====
Anyone:  Any questions, thoughts, suggestions?


=====
On Thu, 3 Sep 2009 12:13:10 -0700, "Bill Kendrick" <nbs at sonic.net> said:
> 
> On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 11:32:05AM -0700, john_re wrote:
> > ps - I can send you a` few stntence talk description you can include in talk announcements - when do you need that by?
> > 
> 
> In the meantime, here's what I've whipped together:
> 
>   http://lugod.org/meeting/
> 
> What do I call you?  I only know you as "john_re".  Got a real name
> you're
> willing to use, or is "john_re" suitable?
> 
> (Oh, and when you send a description, feel free to include a bio if you'd
> like.)
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -bill!