[ubuntu-za] CDs from carboots

[philip at pinksoft.co.za]

Its a cute story, but I fear that while we keep this car boot mentality, 
Ubuntu will slip slowly away. Take a look at the Alexa traffic rankings. 
Ubuntu has been going one way south since June, Launchpad is now less 
than TurboCASH.

We are playing against some of the most vicious people in the software 
business and our idea of promotion is giving cds to Church groups who do 
not even have computers. Keep it real.



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> Today's Topics:
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>    1.  Distibuting Ubuntu CDs in Africa (Piet Beukes)
>    2. Re:  Distibuting Ubuntu CDs in Africa (Charl Wentzel)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:52:33 +0200
> From: "Piet Beukes" <zabear1 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [ubuntu-za] Distibuting Ubuntu CDs in Africa
> To: "Ubuntu South African Local Community"
> 	<ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Message-ID:
> 	<717616a70812170152x49223d6fl3f4e33fa239cfcc7 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>
> OPPORTUNITY FOR AFRICA
>
> Sharing 50 Ubuntu CDs (HH8.04) with delegates throughout Africa
>
>
>  I had the opportunity to attend the All Africa Council of Churches (AACC)
> meeting last week in Maputo, Mozambique. I went as a participant
> representing a South-South NGO called The Bench Marks Foundation (focusing
> on witnessing to business regarding corporate social responsibility). About
> a thousand people attended the meeting for one week, coming from all oven
> Africa as well as some representatives for other parts of the world. Africa,
> south of the Sahara was perhaps better represented, but there had been
> delegates even as far as Egypt (Coptic Church). The meeting was about
> equally attended by men and woman, with a large portion made up by younger
> people (25 to 35 years, representing their church's youth organisation or as
> youth leaders). All major churches and even some independent churches were
> represented, with many bishops, priest s and ministers present, as well as
> teachers, developmental workers and even some IT people. A major focus was
> women who came from all over Africa representing HIV/Aids organisations in
> their countries. But environmental issues also was highlighted, with water
> issues really standing out. Human rights, economic justice and children were
> other focus areas, among various others.
>
>
>  The foundation which I represented, allowed me the opportunity to share
> Ubuntu Open Source software, as the sharing and open source philosophy fit
> well in with the Bench Marks Foundation's principles. I had a stall (with
> air-conditioning ? it was VERY hot outside) in the main venue in a prime
> location, resulting in major foot traffic passing. I had prepared for the
> event by taking about 50 CD's with me to hand out. I took Ubuntu Hardy Heron
> as version along (8.04.1, LTS release, which is easy to install, and quite
> stable). For identification purposes, I decided to wear my South African
> Ubuntu LoCo T-shirt, alternating with a similar T-shirt with the South
> African flag. Ubuntu as OS software was quite unknown to the majority of the
> people to whom I spoke. Only four people came to me to say that they
> recognised what the T-shirt stood for (one person from the Salvation Army
> having used Ubuntu previously in Colombia(?) in Latin America). Linux was
> also unknown to the majority of the people to whom I spoke. People coming
> from Southern African countries however recognised the word 'Ubuntu' for its
> meaning as 'humanity'. Further North the word ' Ubuntu' was met with a blank
> stare and I had to explain its meaning. People coming from Rwanda surprised
> me by saying that the word 'Ubuntu' was well known to them. In the local
> lingo of Rwanda the word 'Ubuntu' meant 'free'!!!
>
>
>  I had the difficult job to decide to whom to give the 50 Ubuntu CDs to, it
> not being candy. I used as criterium people who were using computers within
> a larger community (schools, theological collages, community youth
> organisations or influential church leaders etc.). I had my own laptop
> available for show-and-tell sessions, dazzling my captive audience with some
> tricks which I had picked up (playing some SA jazz, while showing my mail
> program, opening a window with a Bible translation program and showing some
> Open Office programs regarding the conference with Freecell open on one
> side, using some shortcuts to navigate quickly). I also used Kubuntu 8.10
> for this purpose, explaining the difference. The fact that Ubuntu is free
> and can be legally copied, was much appreciated. I did explain about the
> various Ubuntu possibilities (edubuntu, xbuntu, kubuntu etc) and how the CD
> should be installed (underlining that a person with IT skills should be
> asked to assist with installation, back-up to be made beforehand etc., using
> the Ubuntu forums for questions which might arise and getting updates). I
> also asked people to link with a Linux group in their own country if
> available. It took some time to go through this with each CD which I would
> hand out, but I had the time, sitting in the stall with people moving about
> throughout the day. I had been worried that I would be asked by people for
> CDs once they heard that I was handing it out for free and that I would
> therefore not have enough to hand out to my target group. I therefore made
> each person to whom I gave a CD promise that they would not tell anyone
> about it at the conference. This worked reasonably well with the result that
> I had about 3 CDs left at the end of the conference. The CDs went to about
> 20 different countries. I presume that I will hear from some of the people,
> either to tell how it worked or where they had problems. Getting the news of
> Ubuntu out to a new audience in Africa, as a prime goal, was however
> achieved.
>
>
>  From the Bench Marks side, the meeting was very successful. Contact was
> made with numerous people, about 350+ pamphlets handed out and links forged
> with other NGOs etc. Social corporate responsibility issues was highlighted
> in various ways and forums at the AACC.
>
>
>  With this report I would however like to thank the people who made the CDs
> available to me to take along (especially Morgan and Karl). Hopefully some
> new Ubuntu users and users groups will come out of this. Time will tell.
>
> Rusty (zabear1 at gmail.com)
> -------------- next part --------------
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:22:06 +0200
> From: Charl Wentzel <charl.wentzel at vodamail.co.za>
> Subject: Re: [ubuntu-za] Distibuting Ubuntu CDs in Africa
> To: Ubuntu South African Local Community <ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Message-ID: <1229509326.6896.9.camel at tatooine>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Way to go, Piet!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Piet Beukes <zabear1 at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: Ubuntu South African Local Community
> <ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com>
> To: Ubuntu South African Local Community <ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Subject: [ubuntu-za] Distibuting Ubuntu CDs in Africa
> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:52:33 +0200
>
>
>
> OPPORTUNITY FOR AFRICA 
>
>
> Sharing 50 Ubuntu CDs (HH8.04) with delegates throughout Africa
>
>
> I had the opportunity to attend the All Africa Council of Churches
> (AACC) meeting last week in Maputo, Mozambique. I went as a participant
> representing a South-South NGO called The Bench Marks Foundation
> (focusing on witnessing to business regarding corporate social
> responsibility). About a thousand people attended the meeting for one
> week, coming from all oven Africa as well as some representatives for
> other parts of the world. Africa, south of the Sahara was perhaps better
> represented, but there had been delegates even as far as Egypt (Coptic
> Church). The meeting was about equally attended by men and woman, with a
> large portion made up by younger people (25 to 35 years, representing
> their church's youth organisation or as youth leaders). All major
> churches and even some independent churches were represented, with many
> bishops, priest s and ministers present, as well as teachers,
> developmental workers and even some IT people. A major focus was women
> who came from all over Africa representing HIV/Aids organisations in
> their countries. But environmental issues also was highlighted, with
> water issues really standing out. Human rights, economic justice and
> children were other focus areas, among various others.
>
>
> The foundation which I represented, allowed me the opportunity to share
> Ubuntu Open Source software, as the sharing and open source philosophy
> fit well in with the Bench Marks Foundation's principles. I had a stall
> (with air-conditioning ? it was VERY hot outside) in the main venue in a
> prime location, resulting in major foot traffic passing. I had prepared
> for the event by taking about 50 CD's with me to hand out. I took Ubuntu
> Hardy Heron as version along (8.04.1, LTS release, which is easy to
> install, and quite stable). For identification purposes, I decided to
> wear my South African Ubuntu LoCo T-shirt, alternating with a similar
> T-shirt with the South African flag. Ubuntu as OS software was quite
> unknown to the majority of the people to whom I spoke. Only four people
> came to me to say that they recognised what the T-shirt stood for (one
> person from the Salvation Army having used Ubuntu previously in
> Colombia(?) in Latin America). Linux was also unknown to the majority of
> the people to whom I spoke. People coming from Southern African
> countries however recognised the word 'Ubuntu' for its meaning as
> 'humanity'. Further North the word ' Ubuntu' was met with a blank stare
> and I had to explain its meaning. People coming from Rwanda surprised me
> by saying that the word 'Ubuntu' was well known to them. In the local
> lingo of Rwanda the word 'Ubuntu' meant 'free'!!! 
>
>
> I had the difficult job to decide to whom to give the 50 Ubuntu CDs to,
> it not being candy. I used as criterium people who were using computers
> within a larger community (schools, theological collages, community
> youth organisations or influential church leaders etc.). I had my own
> laptop available for show-and-tell sessions, dazzling my captive
> audience with some tricks which I had picked up (playing some SA jazz,
> while showing my mail program, opening a window with a Bible translation
> program and showing some Open Office programs regarding the conference
> with Freecell open on one side, using some shortcuts to navigate
> quickly). I also used Kubuntu 8.10 for this purpose, explaining the
> difference. The fact that Ubuntu is free and can be legally copied, was
> much appreciated. I did explain about the various Ubuntu possibilities
> (edubuntu, xbuntu, kubuntu etc) and how the CD should be installed
> (underlining that a person with IT skills should be asked to assist with
> installation, back-up to be made beforehand etc., using the Ubuntu
> forums for questions which might arise and getting updates). I also
> asked people to link with a Linux group in their own country if
> available. It took some time to go through this with each CD which I
> would hand out, but I had the time, sitting in the stall with people
> moving about throughout the day. I had been worried that I would be
> asked by people for CDs once they heard that I was handing it out for
> free and that I would therefore not have enough to hand out to my target
> group. I therefore made each person to whom I gave a CD promise that
> they would not tell anyone about it at the conference. This worked
> reasonably well with the result that I had about 3 CDs left at the end
> of the conference. The CDs went to about 20 different countries. I
> presume that I will hear from some of the people, either to tell how it
> worked or where they had problems. Getting the news of Ubuntu out to a
> new audience in Africa, as a prime goal, was however achieved.
>
>
> >From the Bench Marks side, the meeting was very successful. Contact was
> made with numerous people, about 350+ pamphlets handed out and links
> forged with other NGOs etc. Social corporate responsibility issues was
> highlighted in various ways and forums at the AACC. 
>
>
> With this report I would however like to thank the people who made the
> CDs available to me to take along (especially Morgan and Karl).
> Hopefully some new Ubuntu users and users groups will come out of this.
> Time will tell.
>
> Rusty (zabear1 at gmail.com)
>
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