[K12OSN] OT: Conferences in Midwest

Sat Aug 13 06:54:17 UTC 2005

To take this whole thing up a notch if you wish....we could duplicate what
Matt Oquist and I did this year (this was actually the third year) with
the Northeast Linux Symposium at Gould Academy in Bethel Maine this past
June.  http://www.nelinux.net   We had about 80 people mostly from Maine
and NH, but we had folks from as far south as Florida, as far west as
California, and some from Canada.  Maddog Hall was there as well as Jim
McQuillan.  It was 3 days of Linux learning and "networking" with others. 
We stayed on campus in the dorms...ate awesome meals in the dining hall
and had a heck of a time!  We could do something like that in the
Mid-west!  What we'd need is a private school or University (we're looking
for inexpensive housing here...as well as meals) who'd be willing to host
the event (for a fee of course).  We were able to charge only $400 per
attendee which included 3 days of conferences, all meals, and lodging. 
Heckuva' deal huh?  Now....granted, we may not be able to keep the cost
the same, but maybe we could come close.  If anyone is willing to head up
looking for a location....I'd be willing to see what we can do to help
organize an event like this for next summer if you'd like.  :-)  Having
done this for three years now...I'd be willing to spearhead the
organization of it.

Also....not that it's much closer, but Matt and I are planning to host a
similar conference in New Hampshire next summer as well along with the
continuation of the original at Gould Academy.

"Support list for opensource software in schools." <k12osn at redhat.com> on
Friday, August 12, 2005 at 1:03 PM +0000 wrote:
>When David Trask and Chuck Liebow, et al, organized their "Maine
>get-together of 
>K12LTSP-ers" last year (or was it two years ago now?),  Chris Bacigalupo
>from Duluth, MN 
>offered his city as an alternative site for the Maine conference, not
>entirely in jest. 
>I started keeping track of people on the list who seemed to be
>not-too-far from 
>Minneapolis, where I am, with the jealous hope of someday organizing
>something similar 
>(your name is on the list already, Scott).    I was hoping to get enough
>people to make 
>it worth Jim's and/or Eric's time to come out for it.  I only have about
>a dozen names 
>so far, and some of those haven't been heard from on the list for a
>while, so I don't 
>know how active they are.  (Chris, are you still on this list?)
>
>There are two reasons for such a conference:
>
>1.  It would be great fun, allowing some of us to meet face-to-face.  It
>would be 
>helpful to learn more about what others are doing with LTSP, and it would
>inspirational. 
>  This project works because of the community, and this would be a way to
>enhance that 
>community.
>
>2.  I thought I would try to invite people from all the other schools in
>town, to 
>introduce them to LTSP, to show them a better way of providing computing
>services to 
>schools.  Show them how easy it is to install K12LTSP, how it makes
>better use of 
>resources, how it's easier to manage, perhaps cover the natural symbiosis
>between 
>education and OSS, etc.  I'd LOVE to show them all of Jim Kronebusch's
>various Macs all 
>running as thin clients!
>
>The tricky part is that the above are two different audiences: the first
>would involve 
>people who already understand LTSP, while the second would be more of the
>uninitiated. 
>But I think they could both be accomodated if we had, say, two days,
>where the first 
>would be focused on topics that assume you already understand LTSP, and
>the second day 
>would be more introductory, or vice-versa.
>
>Then there's the question of topics and format.  If Jim M. and/or Eric
>could come, they 
>could talk about what they're working on, e.g., MueKow; I'd like to hear
>more details 
>from Jim Kronebusch about getting the Macs to work.  What else?
>
>For the second day, for people unfamiliar with LTSP, someone could talk
>about & demo 
>K12LTSP, perhaps do an installation.  CodeWeavers is based here in the
>Twin Cities, and 
>Jeremy White, the founder, is a friend of mine; I thought I might invite
>him to talk, to 
>show one way to support Windows apps on LTSP.  CW has a portable
>LTSP/WINE/CrossOver 
>setup they use for demos, showing off MS Word 'loading' in just a second
>or two on an 
>old Pentium 100.  While I want to keep the focus on the community, I
>think some schools 
>would like the idea that they could get commercial support for a K12LTSP
>installation, 
>so perhaps there could be some support vendors there, if there's interest.
>
>I figured if I could get ten people to come for the first day, it would
>be worth doing 
>and would be enough people to draw Jim and/or Eric.   I think the Maine
>folks had about 
>20 (David, are your pictures from your conference still online?); Maine
>seems to have a 
>lot of people doing K12LTSP, lucky dogs; hopefully 'new recruits' from
>group #2 above 
>would increase our numbers in Minnesota.  I was thinking perhaps a
>Friday-Saturday, in 
>June after school is out; but I'm not a teacher so I figured I'd let
>those who are pick 
>the dates.  I thought I might try for this summer, but I just didn't have
>the time, so 
>I've been looking toward next summer.  In Minnesota, in October we have a
>two-day 
>(Th-Fr) teacher in-service holiday when there's no school, to allow
>teachers to attend 
>training, conferences, etc.  I've considered that weekend, but as it's a
>Minnesota thing 
>only, I was afraid none of the Iowa/Wisconsin/Michigan folks would be
>able to attend.
>
>Any thoughts or interest in this?
>
>Petre
>
>
>Eric Brown wrote:
>> There's the Iowa Technology in Education Connection conference held in
>Des
>> Moines this October (http://www.itec-ia.org/confer/index.htm).  I just
>found
>> out that my proposal to run a workshop on K12LTSP just got accepted. 
>Linux
>> was incredibly under represented at the last conference (a few vendors
>had
>> linux powered devices, but no workshops).  
>> 
>> I look forward to seeing other responces to this question.  I've
>wondered
>> why more conferences aren't held in a more central geographic locations.
>> 
>> Eric Brown (not the cool Eric that puts k12 together)
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com] On
>Behalf
>> Of Scott Sherrill
>> Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 6:46 AM
>> To: k12osn at redhat.com
>> Subject: [K12OSN] OT: Conferences in Midwest
>> 
>> 
>> I apologize to the moderators, I posted the message with the wrong email
>> addy the first time I tried.
>> 
>> Off topic from K12LTSP but since all types of information is shared and
>> discussed....
>> 
>> I am looking for anyone with leads (and preferably websites) on midwest
>area
>> conferences.  I was thinking of a conference geared towards K12 
>> folk, but not a teacher conference.    Something geeky ;-)
>> 
>> The group I work with is located in Michigan but we are closer to 
>> Minneapolis, and Chicago than we are to Detroit.   I've found a great 
>> conference in Michigan (MAEDS) and Wisconsin (Brainstorm), but I open
>to new
>> places and pools of knowledge.
>> 
>> I suppose if the conference is good and the price is right (read
>"cheap"), I
>> am open to suggestions for any other conferences across the US too.  I
>made
>> the trek to NELS in Maine this year and that was another gem.
>> 
>> Thanks eh.
>> 
>> Scott
>> 
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David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcsvikings.org
(207)923-3100