[Ambassadors] ambassador stuff - college campuses

[Francesco Ugolini]

2008/9/17 John Taber <jtaber at plandecsys.com>:
> Hi folks, just wanted to say that I'm going to excuse myself from the
> ambassador list - I will not have the time to fly out to the Columbus FAD
> meeting and participate in some of the things you want ambassadors to do but
> will continue to be a big Linux/FOSS advocate and campus point of contact.
>
> On campus this semester I have already given out all of my dvd's to my
> students, have figured out for other faculty and students that we don't need
> to use Vista for our "Vista Blackboard" classroom mgmt system since it runs
> with Java 6 installed on Fedora/Linux (and maybe using "iced tea" but
> haven't tried it yet),  and trying to encourage students to use gcc as their
> compiler of choice (which it should be, it's simply better!).  I've also
> introduced them to version control as the first step to  encouraging them to
> participate in open source projects (since they need to know how to check
> out and submit code).
> I see 2 main initiatives that are needed for campuses: 1) an on-line faculty
> LUG where faculty can share experiences, tips, etc and provide a point of
> distribution for dvd's, some fun schwag, etc  2)the formation of student run
> FUG's/LUG's (with faculty reps) - the student groups are really the
> springboard for installfests, release parties, etc.  I think some sort of
> "campus box" is needed prior to each semester that will have stuff for
> faculty and the student groups to give out and provide for the student
> groups to run a couple of installfests.  Maybe Fedora can sponsor these mail
> lists / campus lug web sites ?  Maybe student lug webmasters get a free
> Fedora T-shirt, ball cap and maybe some other recognition...
>
> One of the biggest stumbling blocks that I still encounter for students,
> faculty, and others in the corp world is the perceived fear of trying to
> install Fedora/Linux, even as a dual-boot system and frankly even to boot as
> a live-CD.  People are just scared their system is going to be messed up and
> they will be unable to work and in big trouble.  We need a web page that can
> be printed as a simple flyer with good, simple graphics to hand out with
> dvd's that eases this fear, especially to deal with the "dreaded" disk
> partitioning.  From a marketing standpoint, one of the biggest features we
> can request from the core team is to develop some sort of on-the-fly
> partitioning in the install procedure.
> I will be happy to continue working on these goals so feel free to stay in
> touch and email me at drjohn.taber at gmail.com
>

Thank you for this important feedback and for the great work you are
doing trying to convince people using Open Source alternative, Fedora
OS too.

Regards

Francesco Ugolini