Re: Why getting Shared Media rolling is important
Good morning, CyberSpy.
Well if it is an addiction, then maybe we should find a strategy that
will begin the Linux addiction as early as possible? (I feel dirty
now. :-) )
Not so long ago (5 years) I did inside sales for Iomega (zip
drives,etc). My account coverage area was Government and Education.
And the experience jogs the idea I'm about to spew.
What about going after school districts?
"Wanna buy zip drives OEM with your Next PC purchase?" Is a bit tougher
to swallow than...
"Wanna know how your school district can save thousands of dollars a
year on license fees?"
This is a Pain/Solution marketing dream, and all we have to do is make
the change from Windows to Fedora less expensive than continuing to buy
seats. Not unreasonable to use a 5 year time frame to show the Return
on investment.
Pain - K-12 School districts in New York State (as an example) are
always fighting funding cuts. They may do well for a few years, then
something happens and they're wondering if they cut after school sports
or stop providing buses to bring kids to school.
Solution - It's just not necessary to buy per-seat license for your
computers. Its not necessary to buy Anti-virus and malware software to
plug the holes in OS you paid so much money for. Breath new life into
those older machines you'll never be able to upgrade to Vista.
Issues that would need to be addressed to take this main stream...
New computer systems themselves. We all know you can't buy a PC/Laptop
from a Major Manufacturer without an OS, let alone a Linux desktop
distro installed. It might take some Red Hat Muscle to convince a major
(dell, gateway, even apple for their Intel etc) to go with us, or find
the right white-box company to back.
Training the teachers. This may be accomplished on a district by
district basis, or by teaching a mix of individuals by piggy-backing on
a conference or event. (booth at a convention?)
I do have more ideas, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on a k-12
educational target.
~Karlie