[Ambassadors] ambassador stuff - college campuses

[John Taber]

Hi folks, just wanted to say that I'm going to excuse myself from the 
ambassador list - I will not have the time to fly out to the Columbus 
FAD meeting and participate in some of the things you want ambassadors 
to do but will continue to be a big Linux/FOSS advocate and campus point 
of contact.

On campus this semester I have already given out all of my dvd's to my 
students, have figured out for other faculty and students that we don't 
need to use Vista for our "Vista Blackboard" classroom mgmt system since 
it runs with Java 6 installed on Fedora/Linux (and maybe using "iced 
tea" but haven't tried it yet),  and trying to encourage students to use 
gcc as their compiler of choice (which it should be, it's simply 
better!).  I've also introduced them to version control as the first 
step to  encouraging them to participate in open source projects (since 
they need to know how to check out and submit code). 

I see 2 main initiatives that are needed for campuses: 1) an on-line 
faculty LUG where faculty can share experiences, tips, etc and provide a 
point of distribution for dvd's, some fun schwag, etc  2)the formation 
of student run FUG's/LUG's (with faculty reps) - the student groups are 
really the springboard for installfests, release parties, etc.  I think 
some sort of "campus box" is needed prior to each semester that will 
have stuff for faculty and the student groups to give out and provide 
for the student groups to run a couple of installfests.  Maybe Fedora 
can sponsor these mail lists / campus lug web sites ?  Maybe student lug 
webmasters get a free Fedora T-shirt, ball cap and maybe some other 
recognition...

One of the biggest stumbling blocks that I still encounter for students, 
faculty, and others in the corp world is the perceived fear of trying to 
install Fedora/Linux, even as a dual-boot system and frankly even to 
boot as a live-CD.  People are just scared their system is going to be 
messed up and they will be unable to work and in big trouble.  We need a 
web page that can be printed as a simple flyer with good, simple 
graphics to hand out with dvd's that eases this fear, especially to deal 
with the "dreaded" disk partitioning.  From a marketing standpoint, one 
of the biggest features we can request from the core team is to develop 
some sort of on-the-fly partitioning in the install procedure.  

I will be happy to continue working on these goals so feel free to stay 
in touch and email me at drjohn.taber at gmail.com