Increasing Ubuntu-AU visibility.
Michael
I hope I'm not about to step on any toes with this post, it is not my
intent but I shall apologise profusely now before I start.
In my waking hours last night I had a think about yesterdays various
discussions, especially the governance discussions. Now I'm not going
to suggest that the loco's governance should or should not be changed
as I have already made my point with regards to that and not being a
veteran of Ubuntu-AU I'm not sure if I should really get to far into
that without knowing more than I currently do.
I will say, and said in another thread, that to me it seems Ubuntu-Au
isn't really visible on the Ubuntu forums. To me if Ubuntu-AU isn't
visible on the "mother" site then it isn't going to be very visible
anywhere else. So yesterday I changed my Ubuntu forums signature to
include a link to Ubuntu-AU so that any Australians, or anyone who is
interested for that matter, can go to the link and see what is
happening with Ubuntu-AU. Who knows it may even encourage a few others
to become active participants.
Some other things I thought about, some have already been posted by
others, are.
1. The Ubuntu-AU pages really need updating.
2. The membership list for Ubuntu-AU google group REALLY (not shouting
just making sure its understood how serious this issue is) needs
cleaning up. Has anyone had a look at the membership list lately and
seen how many references to porn there are in it?
3. The Ubuntu-AU planet page, what is its purpose? I understand this,
"Planet Ubuntu Australia is a window into the world, work and lives of
Australian Ubuntu developers and contributors." but I would have
thought it would be something that each post would by necessity would
have to have some relevance to Ubuntu or FOSS in general. I frequent
SILs Linux development page and each post is relevant to the work of
SIL Linux Developers.
4. After the, apparently necessary, governance positions are
"finalised" I think Ubuntu-AU needs to work out what it wants to
achieve. I'm not talking about what is already written on the website
as it probably needs rethinking anyway, I am talking about developing
a realistic action plan for the next 12 months. So we need to know
what are peoples strengths, what "contacts" do they have, what
industries etc are they linked to? Then we need to be realistic as to
how we can use this to the advantage of Ubuntu-AU.
I'll give an example for 4. Being a teacher I am interested in
promoting Ubuntu to schools and students. To me Ubuntu has huge
potential in schools, the public system at the very least, because it
is after all free thus helping the education sector to save money over
time not only for the basic OS but also for the ongoing costs of AV
software and even helping to keep older hardware going for longer with
the Thin Client option.
How could Ubuntu-Au promote Ubuntu to the various public sector
education departments, well going to individual schools is a waste of
time because not every school has an IT manager that is capable of
working on the schools IT infrastructure so you would need to canvas
the entire department starting from the Director General (being from
NSW I'm using NSW terminologies) and then work your way through the
levels down to the various schools. They need to be convinced that
Ubuntu is a viable option not only that they will need to be convinced
that Ubuntu-AU is going to be there to help.
What will they look for? I think they will want to know what Ubuntu
has to offer. I wouldn't even bother telling them to check the
Edubuntu site, why? well its not even up to date. So, and this will be
the same for every industry we want to encourage to change over, we
would need to update (for Ubuntu-AU) the list of programs available
and how they can be used instead of the Windows options. We would need
to show things like costs savings, we would need to show training
options for staff and possibly also students. We would need to have a
possible role out plan formulated so that, incase of difficulties,
there are still usable PCs available to use. Believe it or not that
last point is extremely important, I remember a few years ago the NSW
department made a huge change and it didn't work so for about a week
most of the state schools had no usable PCs.
So, having said all that I hope I haven't dampened your enthusiasm but
have helped to bring to light a few points that show what a huge task
some of these things are.
Michael (k3lt01)
--
ubuntu-au mailing list
ubun...@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
AndrewG
Thanks for your post.
No you haven't stepped on my toes.
It is what this group needs, some frank & honest discussion.
Every single point you make is very valid.
I believe (& hope) that everybody involved with ubuntu-au have similar
motivations to promote the use of Ubuntu throughout Australia
When the governance issues are sorted out, your various points can be
addressed. (IMHO)
As it currently stands, (IMO) there is really no mechanism to address
your concerns.
When we can identify people / resources of ubuntu-au, we can delegate
responsibility for these things to be fixed.
If we have a mechanism that is accountable, any or all goals set by
the members of ubuntu-au can be achieved.
We need people like yourself to step-up and be counted.
I like your enthusiasm.
Cheers,
Andrew G.
> ubuntu...@lists.ubuntu.comhttps://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
Michael
Thanks for replying and thanks for your kind comments.
I am enthusiastic but I am also patient, I see this as a long haul
type scenario.
Michael (k3lt01)
--
ubuntu-au mailing list
ubun...@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
Dave Hall
> 3. The Ubuntu-AU planet page, what is its purpose? I understand this,
> "Planet Ubuntu Australia is a window into the world, work and lives of
> Australian Ubuntu developers and contributors." but I would have
> thought it would be something that each post would by necessity would
> have to have some relevance to Ubuntu or FOSS in general. I frequent
> SILs Linux development page and each post is relevant to the work of
> SIL Linux Developers.
There are 2 approaches to planets. Some are project posts only, like
planet PHP, Drupal etc. Others are more inclusive, such as the LA and
ubuntu-au planets, they take the full feed from the blogger. I
personally prefer the latter approach. It allows you to get more of a
feel for the poster.
The majority of my blog posts are on FOSS related stuff which may be
relevant to the ubuntu-au community. If I had to tag things for the
ubuntu-au planet, then I would probably ask that my feed be dropped as
it is too much effort to tag it for that planet. In the case of the
Drupal planet I do tag posts, but that uses my generic drupal tag. My
tags have meaning, they aren't there to control syndication.
Yes there will occasionally be posts which have no relevance to FOSS at
all, you can generally tell by the title, just skip it. A little bit of
noise is a small price to pay for a generally high quality signal.
Cheers
Dave
karmic
Michael <kelt...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone.
>
> I'll give an example for 4. Being a teacher I am interested in
> promoting Ubuntu to schools and students. To me Ubuntu has huge
> potential in schools,
> How could Ubuntu-Au promote Ubuntu to the various public sector
> education departments, well going to individual schools is a waste
> of time because not every school has an IT manager that is capable
> of working on the schools IT infrastructure so you would need to
> canvas the entire department starting from the Director General
> (being from NSW I'm using NSW terminologies) and then work your way
> through the levels down to the various schools. They need to be
> convinced that Ubuntu is a viable option not only that they will
> need to be convinced that Ubuntu-AU is going to be there to help.
>
> What will they look for? I think they will want to know what Ubuntu
> has to offer. I wouldn't even bother telling them to check the
> Edubuntu site, why? well its not even up to date. So, and this will
> be the same for every industry we want to encourage to change over,
> we would need to update (for Ubuntu-AU) the list of programs
> available and how they can be used instead of the Windows options.
> We would need to show things like costs savings, we would need to
> show training options for staff and possibly also students. We
> would need to have a possible role out plan formulated so that,
> incase of difficulties, there are still usable PCs available to
> use. Believe it or not that last point is extremely important, I
> remember a few years ago the NSW department made a huge change and
> it didn't work so for about a week most of the state schools had no
> usable PCs.
>
imo this is a role for Canonical. the au-loco can (and should) of
course provide links, local knowledge and contacts where ever
possible. but to be honest, this is just one of the paths Canonical
must pursue in a 'service' type role to be able to continue to
promote and support Ubuntu for us all. Supporting Canonical is
probably important than promoting Ubuntu locally in terms of the
LoCo's objectives.
So, as a teacher, if you have a dialogue path to a State Minister,
I suspect that would be interesting.
Michael
I think you either misunderstood part of what I said or have read
further into what I said than what is there. I don't have a dialogue
path to the state minister although it is every citizens right to be
able to contact them if need be. I do however know the email etc of
the Director General and can through my NSW DET email account email
100% of NSW DET employees if given enough time to find their email
address'.
Now having said that I wouldn't go and email everyone as that is spam
and I would get into alot of trouble for it but choosing a selection
of well placed people and contacting them with a convincing discussion
of the advantages of Ubuntu compared to Windows XP, Vista, and 7 is a
worthwhile thing to do imho.
With regards to Canonical's role, I don't mind giving them a hand.
Cheers
Michael (k3lt01)