[ubuntu-za] Website for FOSS in Schools

[David Robert Lewis]

Great idea. This is exciting stuff and would resolve an issue I have 
with the current ubuntu-za wiki which doesn't focus on Ubuntu enough. I 
really believe that we need to grow the local distribution, and there 
are a number of reasons why Ubuntu is not simply another FOSS and is 
more than just a flavour of Linux. For one there is the security of 
knowing other computers are running what you are running. Not all of us 
can simply hack away at Linux. Then there is the problem of discourse - 
every Linux distro has different terms and ways of doing things. A 
teacher would probably go mad keeping a classroom in one place with a 
general Linux free-for-all. Look, I'm not trying to diss the broader 
Linux community but rather see this as a parallel development. So if you 
want the total solution go to schoolforge. If you want the Ubuntu 
solution, go to ubuntu-za? Seems appropriate?


Hilton Theunissen wrote:
> Hi All
>
> We registered the domain www.schoolforge.org.za, we are going to setup 
> the wiki next week similar to www.schoolforge.org.uk. We will add  "How 
> to" and "SA Projects" pages
>
> I am going to make contact with a few organisations that have running 
> open source projects in South Africa to add their projects. Also all the 
> tuXlab schools and other floss schools will need to upload their 
> casestudies.
>
> This for me would be that one-stop for schools that want to learn how to 
> deploy floss, learn from others experiences, link to ubuntu-za 
> community, k12ltsp.org community, suse community, etc. Link to 
> international projects.
>
> Once we have enough reading material and projects loaded here, we should 
> then approach Government. I have a link to the Minister but nobody knows 
> what Gov will look like post April.
>
> Then we should plan two conferences
> 1) Schoolforge SA 2-3 day conference ( uwc, cape town, Sept 2009)
> 2) Schoolforge International 5 day in Jozi(csir venue or Wits, Jan or 
> April 2010) invitee list US, Uk, Finland, Spain, Norway, Malaysia, 
> Uganda, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria,Senegal, Germany, Brazil, 
> India, Egypt, Austria, Netherlands, China, New Zealand, Australia,- 
> target 50 internationals)Then we need to approach Canonical, Redhat, 
> Novell, Google and Yahoo for sponsorship)
>
> If you in call me 0729008001
>
>
>
>
>
> Hannes Coetzee wrote:
>   
>> Greetings
>>
>> Most of the main issues here has been discussed in more detail. I hear 
>> what everyone else is saying but I don't see any solutions yet so it's 
>> back to more research. While I'm educating myself some more I's like to 
>> say the following:
>>
>> Situation one:
>> Some guy installs Edubuntu for a school. Everything works great until 
>> this guy gets killed in a car accident. Now the school is screwed but 
>> luckily the person who installed the lab told them that there is a site 
>> where they could find new support. He even put a sticker on the box with 
>> the address. Now the school have a few options -
>>
>> 1) Give up and convert everything back to MS.
>> 2) They could go to the site and figure everything out themselves (or 
>> anything else that involves only the school)
>> 3) They can contact the nearest person that's listed on the site and 
>> find out if this person can help them.
>> 4) They could contact their IT company and ask them - "We have this 
>> system. We know that it is not standard but we'd like to keep it if 
>> possible. If you don't know how to fix the problem don't worry, just go 
>> to this site and you will find all the info you could ever need."
>> 5) Everybody sit back and do nothing.
>>
>> Situation two:
>> Somehow a school decides they want to use for example Edubuntu in their 
>> lab. They are told that they should have a look at a website. So they go 
>> to the site and read up on everything until they are convinced that all 
>> their questions have been answered. They decide that they now need to 
>> get this new system into their school. Now they have a few options -
>>
>> 1) They understand enough and everything themselves.
>> 2) They install the system with the help of forums and irc.
>> 3) They contact the nearest person that's listed and ask him for help.
>> 4) They go to their nearest IT company and ask them for their 
>> assistance. (Once again by just pointing the company to the site)
>> 5) They realize that there is no way in hell that they will make head or 
>> tail of whats going on so everyone just sit back and do nothing.
>>
>> These are just two cut-down-to-the-basics examples. The point I'm trying 
>> to make is - Why can we not put something together to help the schools 
>> help themselves? Why can the IT companies not help the schools without 
>> support or why can they not help themselves? Why could we not point 
>> David to one single place where we know he will find everything to set 
>> up a server at his school? Why can we not point interesting parties to a 
>> central location where they can get leaflets, documents to present to 
>> teachers, governing bodies and IT companies that's unaware of FOSS, 
>> manuals and links on how to install a server, info on whatever they need 
>> to know before making a decision to switch over or info on how and where 
>> to get new support. Why can this not be done? How will anyone ever find 
>> a solution to a problem if they always give up?
>>
>> There's an AIDS orphanage close by and it so happened that I saw the 
>> person in charge this afternoon. After a bit of chit-chat we started 
>> talking about their computer lab. A few seconds later - "I really don't 
>> know what we're going to do. We have a lot of break-ins lately and they 
>> seem to go only for the computers. After we've build a more secure place 
>> we'll have to look at something where we only have one valuable computer 
>> like a central server that we could lock up. It would be nice to have 
>> all the kid's  files on the server so nothing can go missing with the 
>> other computers. We'll most likely take the server home during holidays. 
>> Do you think it will be possible?". Edubuntu can do that but the first 
>> question I'm always asked is - "What happens when you 're gone?". So 
>> what should I tell them? They are only the third school this month who 
>> came to me looking for the same solution. I am not prepared to install 
>> something that would be completely useless should I not be able to 
>> support them one day. I've told all three these schools I'll get back to 
>> them with a possible long term solution.  So what now? It is because of 
>> these schools and countless others in the past that I voiced my opinion 
>> in the first place. If none of the currently proposed solutions will 
>> work are we not wasting our time discussing this?
>>
>> So what will it be? Are we going to stop everything or will we continue 
>> until we find a solution? Personally I believe this could work.
>>
>> Regards
>> Hannes
>>
>>     
>
>