[Ubuntu-SG] Ubuntu Talk at NUS

[C David Rigby]

On Fri, 2009-03-06 at 00:26 +0800, LAI Chun Yap wrote:
> Hey David,
> 
> I am really sorry for this. Let me reply two of your mail in one. Thanks
> for your patience.
> 
> Currently the best way to reach the OS3 guys is through me, you can send
> to me and I will forward to all of them. One of my guys is cleaning up
> the mailing list exco at os3.sg, there are a lot of unnecessary people in
> the mailing list.
> 
> For the "Ubuntu Workshop", is this the date fixed ? (Wed, 18 March 2009,
> starting at 16:00 or 17:00). I think you lesson plan will be very
> helpful for students who has no experience in Linux before, to SMU
> student, this workshop should be for people who are non-geek, but just
> want to get their work done, if Linux can do something better than
> Windows (which I cant think of any), then people might want to switch to
> Ubuntu.
> 
> Over the years, Ubuntu has become more and more friends, I remember I
> use to to mount/unmount thumbdrive but not I don't have to. It's
> features like this that will attract people. But then again, feature
> like this is not a big deal for Windows users since this is already
> 'their standard'.
> 
> For the survey, I can do a survey in SMU and see how many students are
> really interesting in this. But frankly, i find almost zero student from
> biz school knows what Linux is. Most of them don't even know the concept
> of open source.
> 
> I have added Conan (Zhoe Zhe) and Siqi here, they are a fan of Ubuntu as
> well and they are quite good in this. Do let OS3 knows how can we
> proceed from here.
> 
> Thanks David.
> 
> 
> Best Regards, 
> 
> Vincent LAI
> Email: chunyap.lai.2006 at smu.edu.sg
> Mobile: (+65) 8100 4182
> | Vision without action is hallucination - Allen J. Pathmarajah |
> 

Hello Vincent, Conan & Siqi,

My turn to apologize: there has been a flurry of activity, most of it
email based, that I have not copied to you. At this point, we have a
workshop scheduled 25 March at NUS, with a practice session scheduled 18
March. That would preclude making it back to SMU in time for a workshop
there on 18 March.

Add to that, two of Team Ubuntu's mainstay members have both realized
that they do not have the time to work on the workshop that they thought
that they would have. A third begins national service in April. That
pretty much leaves just me to do the presentation.

I realize we are coming up on reading week and exams, but would the
first week of April be an option for SMU? Then would be OK for me, but
it might be getting too close to exams for the students.

After talking with the groups at NUS (School of Computing's Computer
Club and linuxNUS) we decided to drop the idea of a survey. The general
feeling was similar to yours. That is, the level of exposure is so
minimal that a non-specialist introduction would be sufficient. Content
of the workshop will focus on booting from liveCD, exploring the
desktop, installing restricted extras (Flash, DVD codecs, etc.) and one
or two other things. Total length of the presentation would be two hours
or less.

At NUS, we are going to use a computer Programming Lab and boot the
systems off of liveCDs. By testing in advance on uniform hardware, we
would know exactly what to present and what to skip as too
technical/problematic for an intro workshop. Another option is to have
participants bring their own laptops. Either way, we want something
hands-on, but we do not want to disturb existing Windows installations
on the hardware.

Finally, I will be setting up a project management tool on Team Ubuntu's
new website to help coordinate the workshop development and delivery.
Having a centralized location for information will help keep us in sync.
Once that is in place, I will point you to it.

Summary & questions for you:

1. Wednesdays 18 & 25 March are booked. Is another date in the first
week of April, before exams, a possibility for a workshop at SMU?

2. Can we schedule a time for on-site testing of the workshop prior to
the actual presentation (network connections, projector works with my
laptop, etc.)?

3. Does SMU-SIS have a computer lab we could use? Otherwise, should we
plan on using one of the seminar rooms and participants will bring their
own laptops?

4. Does OS3 have volunteers that are Ubuntu savvy that could assist with
the workshop? Conan and Siqi, could you assist at the presentation? This
matters more if we are using participants laptops, as it would be
difficult for one person to both present and troubleshoot at the same
time.


Cheers & have a good weekend!
C David Rigby

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: C David Rigby [mailto:c.david.rigby at gmail.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 2:09 PM
> To: Ho Fucai
> Cc: cheefull at nus.edu.sg; hongjingqing at hotmail.com; Team Ubuntu Singapore
> Mailing List; Kheng Hui Yeo; linuxnuscore; LAI Chun Yap
> Subject: Re: Ubuntu Talk at NUS
> 
> This one is pretty long - hang with me!
> 
> On Sat, 2009-02-21 at 22:24 +0800, Ho Fucai wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Just for your info. U got to let me know your plans really soon. Our
> > acad time table looks something like this :
> > 
> > 
> > Reading Week:
> > Sat 18 Apr - Fri 24 Apr 2009
> > 
> > Examination:
> > Sat 25 Apr - Sat 9 May 2009 (i) & (j)
> > 
> > So I think it would be better if we could finalise the plans ASAP and
> > slowly tweak any tiny details at a later stage. 
> > 
> > Ho Fucai
> > 
> 
> Hello Ho Fucai,
> 
> Henceforth, I am going to refer to the presentations as the "Ubuntu
> Workshop". We are in agreement that we would like to have an
> interactive, hands-on experience for our participants.
> 
> I am copying a number of other interested parties on this email. I
> welcome (indeed, encourage!) all feedback from all of you, as well as
> others to whom you forward this email. (Please do so!) It saves me the
> effort of retyping, and I think we can all benefit from widening the
> conversation at this point. For the immediate topic of the Ubuntu
> Workshop at NUS, the next paragraph addresses your concerns as quoted
> above. After that,  I outline our proposal in greater detail.
> 
> The gist of our proposal is that Team Ubuntu Singapore, in collaboration
> with linuxNUS, will give a workshop or series of workshops starting with
> the first session on Wed, 18 March 2009, starting at 16:00 or 17:00. The
> planned duration would be a two hour session with a short break in the
> middle. From my experience, it is likely that a number of participants
> will continue to chat after the official end of the session. However, we
> should be ready to turn over the seminar room or lab to other users
> after two hours. If there is interest on the part of the participants
> for a more in-depth series of workshops, we could continue at the same
> times on Wednesdays 25 Mar, 1 and 8 April.
> 
> _Development & Delivery of Workshop(s) - Detailed Outline, Tentative_
> 
> Team Ubuntu Singapore (TUSG) had a very productive meeting yesterday.
> The principle topic of discussion was the proposed workshops. Our
> partner group Open Source Software Society (OS3) at SMU is also
> interested working together to do something similar at SMU-SIS.
> Ultimately, we concluded that we could not make a detailed plan for one
> or more workshops without first determining the requirements and
> interests of our audiences. So, here is how I would like to proceed:
> 
> 1. First, I need to turn several pages of scribbled notes into readable
> minutes of the TUSG meeting. This will help my group orient.
> 
> 2. Within a couple of days, I will produce a "lesson plan" for the
> presentation(s) that will encompass an exhaustive introduction to the
> installation and use of Ubuntu. I will circulate this through the usual
> channels, adding topics as those receiving this email offer their
> feedback.
> 
> 3. From this lesson plan, we can build a survey for potential
> participants, as you proposed in a prior email. Vincent, we can consider
> a similar mechanism for SMU-SIS participants. Alternately, we can depend
> on the members of linuxNUS, NUS School Of Computing Comp Club, and OS3
> to indicate what would be best for their own schools. In our discussion
> yesterday, TUSG members noted that the different audiences (business
> students at SMU, comp sci students at NUS) would probably benefit most
> from workshops which are customized for a particular group. This is a
> point also emphasized by Vincent during our conversation at OSSPAC last
> Tuesday.
> 
> 4. If we decide on a survey of potential participants, then please
> advise how best to deliver it. Left to my own devices, I would use
> Google Docs to allow those interested to provide their feedback. If I am
> going to build a survey, it needs to be available to the potential
> participants no later than the Sun 1 March.
> 
> 5. Based on the number of qualified volunteers available from our
> groups, we will need to set a limit on the number of participants.
> Ideally, we should have one volunteer for every three or four
> participants, since we envision a lot of "hands-on" activities at the
> presentation.
> 
> We need to define what we mean by "qualified volunteer". Basically, it
> should be someone that understands Ubuntu well enough to run it from
> Live CD, Live USB, install it to hard disk and do basic configuration.
> These people would be available to assist participants over any "rough
> spots", even if they are not principle presenters at the workshop.
> 
> We should know the number of qualified volunteers available by Sun 1
> March.
> 
> 6. Finally, with the survey results and number of participants in hand,
> we can plan and practice the workshop(s). Practice is very important to
> get the pacing and length of the workshop right. Ideally, we would like
> to do this practice in the same location where the workshop will be
> held.
> 
> Also, other volunteers from our groups that do not want to describe
> themselves as "qualified" would be extremely useful to us as
> participants in the practice sessions. After which, they would be
> qualified!
> 
> 
> Ho Fucai, below I respond to some of your other remarks and information.
> > 
> > ______________________________________________________________________
> > From: C David Rigby <c.david.rigby at gmail.com>
> > To: ho_fucai at yahoo.com.sg
> > Cc: cheefull at nus.edu.sg; hongjingqing at hotmail.com; Ubuntu Singapore
> > Mailing List <ubuntu-sg at lists.ubuntu.com>
> > Sent: Wednesday, 11 February 2009 6:16:50
> > Subject: Re: Ubuntu Talk at NUS
> > 
> > Hello Ho Fucai and friends,
> > 
> > Thanks for the info. Sounds like you have an excellent venue for
> > presentations. I will work with my Team on designing our presentation
> > or
> > series of presentations. We will be back in touch after our meeting of
> > 21 February with a concrete proposal.
> > 
> > Regards
> > C David Rigby
> > 
> > On Wed, 2009-02-11 at 00:19 +0800, Ho Fucai wrote:
> > > Hi hi,
> > > 
> > > To answer your questions.
> > > 
> > > - Where at NUS will the presentation be held?
> > > - What facilities are available (e.g., network connections,
> > projector,
> > > lab room, lecture room)?
> > > It depends on ur requirements actually. I could book seminar rooms
> > for
> > > u guys. Even programming labs(but those run on windows). The venue
> > > will be on School Of Computing grounds. And yah..rooms are subjected
> > > to availability (shouldn't be a prob!). I could also request for
> > > students to bring their own laptops for them to try ubuntu out.
> > > 
> 
> The best of these options would be a seminar room with projector, and
> participants bring their own laptops. If we do not perform installations
> of Ubuntu to hard disks, then use of a Windows-equipped lab would be
> adequate. For this environment, we would use only Live CDs, and any
> installations would be to externally attached USB media.
> 
> > > - How much time is allotted for TUSG's presentation?
> > > The 'unofficial' time for talks in School Of Computing should be
> > > wednesday from 4pm onwards. 
> > > 
> 
> Two hours from 16:00 is a reasonable length for an afternoon workshop.
> That leaves plenty of time for people to have dinner and still get a
> good night's sleep!
> 
> > > - What publicity are you doing for the event? Is there something we
> > > can
> > > do to help with publicity?
> > > We would be helping to raise awareness through mass mailing all SOC
> > > students. They will be registering with us. So we would be able to
> > > tell u the expected size of the audience.
> 
> If you think there will be a really big turn out, then we should do a
> more traditional, "Power Point slides" style presentation. Perhaps that
> is how we should run the very first one anyway? Then the most
> interested, usually a smaller group, could return for later workshops
> with a more hands-on, interactive approach.
> 
> I am completely open to considering something like that if you and your
> group think it is a better approach. Really, I need feedback here as to
> what is most appropriate.
> 
> Ultimately, though, a smaller group that gets a more intensive
> experience gains the most from a workshop. It's a trade off between the
> number of participants and the intensity of the program.
> 
> We can certainly do it again at a later date if we cannot work all
> interested parties into the first workshop(s).
> 
> >  It would be nice if you
> > > could design some electronic posters and etc. so that we could mail
> > > them out.
> > > 
> 
> I will certainly be able to produce some publicity material for you.
> PDFs and/or HTML OK?
> 
> > > - What sort of presentation are you looking for? We can do a lecture
> > &
> > > demonstration, but even better would be a hands-on activity. For
> > > example, if sufficient time is available we could do an installfest
> > > event where we actually install Ubuntu on the participants'
> > computers.
> > > Being able to do something like that is dependent on time allotted
> > and
> > > facilities available.
> > > 
> > > We don't mind having a series of talks. We would definitely look
> > > forward to having a workshop\hands-on session. As I'd mentioned, I
> > > could inform the students to bring their laptops for the event.
> > Maybe
> > > you could suggest having a few topics. I could sendout a mail/survey
> > > asking students if they are interested in any of the topics.
> > Muhammad
> > > Heidir had actually asked if its possible to set up a booth of sorts
> > > to help people install ubuntu on their systems. I had actually
> > spoken
> > > to relevant authorities in school and it is possible for you to use
> > > the public areas in School Of Computing. Of course, I can only
> > confirm
> > > this once I know your plans.
> > > 
> 
> All of this seems to be covered by the discussion in the outline above.
> At this point, it is pretty fluid. I agree with your point from the
> beginning of this now very long email - let's get the facility
> reservations now, then we hammer out the details.
> 
> > > - Will TUSG's presentation be part of a larger event that includes
> > > other
> > > groups?
> > > Nope! It will not. Unless you are interested in bringing in other
> > > open-source partners. We may be having talks by other parties.
> > > However, those events would be isolated from yours.
> > > 
> 
> Just so. I have recently been in touch with Kheng Hui Yeo of linuxNUS.
> They have already conducted an Ubuntu 8.10 installfest activity. Working
> with them will help us all leverage our experience for a better
> workshop.
> 
> > > Hope my informal reply answer most of your questions.
> > > 
> > > Ho Fucai
> > 
> 
> Yes - this is a good start. I look forward to working with everyone on
> this project.
> 
> Regards
> C David Rigby
>