Install Fest Notes

[Josh Rhoderick]

Hi all,

Well, I'm not sure if we ever came to a conclusion about whether or not we
should hold discussion on the mailing list, so I apologize if my reply is
out of place. I know a lot of people said they'd rather use the mailing list
than the forums for whatever reason, so I'm just going to go ahead and do
this via e-mail rather than the forums. *For those of you who despise
frequent mail, I suggest setting your subscription to digest.*

Anyway, thanks for sharing, Chuck. I too was wondering what had happened and
why I hadn't heard anything about it. I feared that the silence wasn't a
good thing. I would really like to thank Craig, John, Chuck, and everyone
else who put so much work into this. These guys have all put in a lot of
time and energy into the team, and I'm sure we all appreciate everything
they've done. Craig deserves a special mention for his dedication to this
and other projects. We're really going to be losing a great team-member when
Craig goes off to school in the fall. :(

I think we should use our open schedule to discuss future activities. I'm a
big proponent of having fun as a team because I think this builds team
morale and will better enable us to pull off successful events. It's a lot
easier to work with someone who is a friend rather than someone who just
shares a similar belief about an operating system. Also, let's not forget
that Ubuntu isn't JUST an operating system. It's a philosophy. I think
bringing more ubuntu (little "u") to the world is a good thing.

I personally would like to see more public gatherings like the one we had at
Frederick, maybe even team bowling, laser tag, go-kart racing, or whatever.
And, of course, I think we should all do these things while wearing
Ubuntu-branded garb. In addition to fun stuff, I suggest we do
documentation, local technical support (when possible), maybe bug triaging
(although Celeste pointed out some obvious difficulties with this), and a
whole host of other things we can do as a team to improve Ubuntu for users.

Also, as soon as this semester is over I will be putting more effort into
getting the Frederick subteam off the ground. I'm hoping to have our first
subteam meeting in June. Anyone who's interested in helping me with this can
contact me either via the Bat-Signal or e-mail. Preferably e-mail.

So, does anyone have any thoughts on this stuff?

-- Josh



On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 11:55 PM, Chuck Frain <chuckfrain at pobox.com> wrote:

> I just published this to my blog. It's my thoughts on the install fest
> we had last week.
>
> -----
>
> It was pointed out to me recently by Celeste that no one had done a
> write up on our recent install fest. The reason for that I think was the
> low turnout of those wanting to get Ubuntu installed on their systems.
> Kind of a downer.
>
> It's always tough to spend time and energy getting an event like this
> together then have a small turnout. The time spent developing fliers.
> Taking those to shops and libraries in the area with gas prices being
> what they are and the time it take to ask for space to put them up.
> Finding sites to post the information on wondering if anyone will read
> and act on it. Then the day comes and you get up bright and early. Pack
> the car with the gear and make the trek in. An hour to set up and then
> over the next six hours you have three people show up.
>
> For some it would lead to the question of 'Why bother?'
>
> Then I get an email from one of the gentlemen who dropped in. It was
> simple and read:
>
>     "Enjoyed the event. I had Ubuntu put onto a flash drive, and I can
> boot from it (given a computer new enough to boot from usb flash - I am
> learning alot about that). Thanks, and looking forward to the next event."
>
>
> That got me thinking. We had three people come in to have Ubuntu
> installed on their systems. The first was a home user who had come
> across our website. He wanted to see what Linux could do for one of his
> old PCs. Then we had [The Other] Chuck from the local LUG. Recently he's
> become interested in giving back to the community through his knowledge
> of computers. He took time to collect up some older hardware and spend a
> few hours of his Saturday installing Ubuntu on them. He's going to take
> those five machines and either give them to a charity that can use them
> or sell them inexpensively and donate the profits to (I think it will
> be) Hackers for Charities. Then we have the gentleman who came in and
> had a flash drive Ubuntuized. Now he can try this wonderful system out
> and show it to friends easily.
>
> I think at the end of the day all the volunteers can say we had a great
> time. We got to hang out and chat with friends. Discuss various
> technologies and geek out a bit. All of us with common interests. Marco
> Figueiredo dropped in with his daughter to discuss some of what our
> host, Loyola College Center for Community Informatics, was doing and
> researching. All great stuff to hear and start to conceptualize what can
> be done with free software to help people.
>
> So even though we didn't do a whole lot of installing we did quite a
> bit. Two new Ubuntu users, one person who we've helped with a charity
> project, learned a little about what's being done with Free Software to
> help people around the world learn and enhance their lives and we had a
> good time together. I'm looking forward to seeing what we do next time!
>
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