[ubuntu-us-ma] Promoting Ubuntu: Battle Plans

[Martin Owens]

Hey Bill,

I'm forwarding this to other mailing lists, because it's useful to
respond to everyone. I may also blog about it.

Response inline...

On Fri, 2009-10-09 at 16:47 -0400, Bill Simonds wrote:
> I am trying to think up ways to promote Ubuntu. Here's a suggestion:
> With both Federal government and state governments going broke, and
> desperate to save money any way they can, it seems like free software
> has the potential to save the govenment millions (billions?) of
> dollars a year.

The US Government spends about a billion with Microsoft according to the
new open government money tracking service. Most of the money is on
contracting, education and support services, a fair chunk is for license
fees.

> There are, collectively, millions of desktop computers in the
> government offices, all of which could be using Ubuntu. So why aren't
> they?

Inertia, besides, it's who you know not what you know and not many geeks
get involved enough in politics to be able to inform any of these guys
about technology. It's easier to get your grandfather to use Ubuntu than
it is to get the local government. simply because your grandfather may
be willing to learn something new.

> How 'bout this: set up a laptop with Ubuntu, and give it to governor
> of Massachusetts Deval Patrick to use for a month. Convince him that
> it can do anything Windows can do, better and millions of dollars
> cheaper! We could work on switching a state over to free software as
> an experiment to see if it could work for the Federal gov't.

Wouldn't work except as publicity and a front end gimmik. There is a
whole back end problem which needs to be solved in order to do what you
say next:

> If we could get the gov't to make the switch, it would do much to
> raise awareness of Ubuntu. It would also help to ally fears that
> Ubuntu is just for geeks and the technically inclined. Once people see
> government workers mastering the software, they'll realize it must be
> an easy transition!

If we could...

 1) Inform and advocate for the general direction of moving towards FOSS
 2) Have a solid, cheap (and I mean basically free) education system for
their systems administrators.
 3) Have a number of test beds, show cases of publicity accessible
networked ready machines, with all the technologies deployed in modern
offices, but running on Free Software solutions.
 4) Have a solid and fairly cheap desktop education, familiarisation
program which can run thousands of governmental employees through.
 5) Be able to fight off cronyism and corruption from Microsoft bribery.

> I will venture a guess that Ubuntu will do anything windows can do,
> and if there are any gaps they can be addressed by Canonical, etc.

It can, but there is still work to do on back end systems. Have you any
idea how hard it's been to deploy LDAP for a simple small one node
network? And I've not even done any SSL or Kerberos. Not to mention the
lack of training materials for each of those subjects.

> It might even present an opportuntiy to some enterprising person(s)
> because of all the labor that needs to be contracted out to make the
> switch. Somebody has to go into these offices and install all the
> software, provide training, and do after the switch service and
> technical support. Big job for somebody.

It could be, but the more money it'll cost to do the transition, the
worse the prospect will be. Someone could make some money, but it can't
be too much. Besides, most people can earn more touting Microsoft
products.

The problem of converting the entire of Massachusetts to Ubuntu and Free
Software has been occupying my mind for a while and I do have a battle
plan. But it has to be a patient, long thought out plan. Because there
is so much resource we don't have, not enough people helping out, not
enough ideas being put into action and most certainly not enough
education.

My plan is pretty much the following:

 1) Get the first community center set up fully with Ubuntu, this will
be the SETC eventually. This will be the first testing ground for all
the enterprise tools.
 1b) Get to know the local politicians and attempt to make them aware of
Free and Open Source Software. If Sam Yoon is still involved in Boston
politics next year, then I'll have some support.
 2) Get course material written and teaching classes kicked off so we
can perfect teaching both desktop and systems administration skills.
 3) Expand the community center system to a number of
Boston/Massachusetts community centers, using the SETC as a showcase
with the support of Mel King.
 3a) Teach each of the rolled out community center systems admins and
desktop using staff under the courses designed above.
 4) Use the success of the community center deployments as a showcase to
the state and city government and show the training programs as a
successful way to education on this new platform.
 5) Help support a push for the government's move towards FOSS and
Ubuntu, we at this point will need some of that lovely media, PR type
exercises.
 6) Profit? Well, now there is a business for supporting the local gov
or at least channeling support to the correct places. Making sure
sustainable education programs are in place and staff can train each
other.

It's a lot of work and we're only on step 1 and 2. We need more help, we
need more people involved in pushing each of these steps in line. We
need to walk in step as they say. Because if we're all dreaming about
the end goal and PR events, we're going to look pretty daft when someone
calls our bluff and asks us to prove that Ubuntu can be deployed to
thousands of Gov staff without any training, proofing or showcasing.

Thoughts?

Best Regards, Martin Owens