[FM Discuss] Possible collaboration with Floss Manuals
Andy Oram
andyo at oreilly.com
Fri Aug 7 12:27:56 PDT 2009
The educational work is ongoing; a lot of people have been doing it for some time. I don't have much hope of reaching the "soccer mom" unengaged public. What I see is that someone gets interested in some other topic that's related to what she wants to do, then discovers open source. For instance, a school administrator is facing a big collection of old computers that can't be upgraded to Vista--and looking around for a solution, discovers Linux.
Or an artist who's frustrated that his favorite software package just tripled in price, and removed a key feature he was depending on, starts looking at open solutions. And maybe discovers Creative Commons along the way.
There are already commercial books that reach out to business executives, and books on "how to switch." I don't think those books sell very well. But I think FLOSS does need a succinct "this is what it is and why it's good" description, and that it should be free.
I'll contact some people over the weekend who might be interested. Is anyone making up an outline? What's the current thinking on that: authors first and outline second, or outline first and authors second?
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Lake" <steve.lake at raiden.net>
To: "Andy Oram" <andyo at oreilly.com>, discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Sent: Friday, August 7, 2009 2:32:30 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] [Fwd: Re: [FM PR] Possible collaboration with Floss Manuals]
Well, advocacy is part of it. Most of what I was after is "what
is it" followed by "what can it do for you?" So yeah, it's advocacy to a
degree. But I wanted to focus first on telling them what it was, then once
they know that, move over to how it can benefit them.
It's like telling someone who's never seen a car, nor has any idea
what one is that a car is very useful to them. First inform them of what a
car is, THEN explain how it can benefit them. ;) See my logic here? Most
of the people I'm targeting are what I jokingly like to call "soccer
moms". (That's football for our European members. hehe) IE, computers,
software and operating systems are the last thing on their mind. So we
have to first explain to them what they are so they're on equal footing
with us when we get to the important part, why it's best for them.
At 01:39 PM 8/7/2009 -0400, Andy Oram wrote:
>Are you focusing on advocacy--teaching people how to explain the benefits
>of free software and ease the transition to it? If so, I can pull together
>some people I've talked to about that in Europe and Latin America. And
>even North America.
>
>Andy
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "adam hyde" <adam at flossmanuals.net>
>To: "floss" <discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>Cc: "Steve Lake" <steve.lake at raiden.net>
>Sent: Friday, August 7, 2009 10:51:37 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
>Subject: [FM Discuss] [Fwd: Re: [FM PR] Possible collaboration with Floss
>Manuals]
>
>hi,
>
>This is an email discussion (see below) between myself and Steve Lake of
>Raidens Realm (http://raiden.net/) about a course he is starting. Steve
>has been a great supporter of FM and is looking to work with us to
>develop a textbook about free software. I suggested perhaps we bring
>this discussion to the FM list...
>
>It would be super if we could design and create a text book with steve
>for his course....anyone keen?
>
>(please cc Steve in replies)
>
>adam
>
>-------- Forwarded Message --------
>From: Steve Lake <steve.lake at raiden.net>
>To: adam at flossmanuals.net, pr at lists.flossmanuals.net
>Subject: Re: [FM PR] Possible collaboration with Floss Manuals
>Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:37:42 -0400
>
>Nope, didn't have any specific books, as I'm still in the
>beginning stages of this. But I was hoping that when we were done, we
>could have a generic intro course that could be taught in 2-5 hours
>(depending on how much time someone had to do the course) to help us Linux
>and FOSS enthusiasts, especially those without teaching ability, to be able
>to go out, inform the public, and make sure they know that there's choices
>out there, and what some of those are. Because the more they know, the
>better.
>
> From there, if they were curious enough to continue, a selection
>of books could be given to them to get them started learning Linux and FOSS
>apps, the latter dependent on what they need. I could easily add a list at
>the end of the course that says, "for more info on subject x or y, go to
>floss manuals and get this and this book." So basically this would benefit
>you guys by first getting them in the door, and then handing them off to
>you for further educating.
>
> I do however like the idea that you guys are developing actual
>course books. That sounds quite exciting and interesting. How big of a
>course do you expect these books to be? A full 14 week course, or
>something that could be done in an afternoon or a week at most?
>
>At 08:37 PM 8/6/2009 +0200, adam hyde wrote:
> >hey Steve,
> >
> >I dont want to any individual but i think FM in general is interested in
> >developing Text Books. We have recently been in touch with Goldsmiths
> >(Graham Harwood and Matthew Fuller) to see if there is a possibility to
> >develop course books with them.
> >
> >It seems this is a possibility. so, we are already on the path and any
> >possible collaboration is a good idea.
> >
> >For your project did you have any specific books in mind?
> >
> >also, do you know this:
> >http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/Main_Page
> >
> >
> >adam
> >
> >On Thu, 2009-08-06 at 10:14 -0400, Steve Lake wrote:
> > > http://forums.raiden.net/viewtopic.php?t=21911
> > >
> > > Thought that might interest you guys. I'm starting a project to
> > > develop a Linux and FOSS education and training course. Something that
> > > could be put into the hands of just any joe and used to introduce people
> > > Linux and FOSS. I'd love to see if you guys could help out with
> > developing
> > > a course like this, and in return we could put it into book form for sale
> > > in the FLOSS manuals bookstore. The goal of the project is to introduce
> > > them to Linux and FOSS, get them in the door so to speak, and get them
> > > interested in learning more.
> > >
> > > It's an education focused approach to promoting FOSS and Linux
> > > designed to replace the old elitist "RTFM" and Evangelistic approaches
> > > currently used today. You guys are great at writing and developing help
> > > guides, manuals, and the like, so I figured if you wanted to jump in and
> > > help, we could easily toss a whole bunch of Floss manuals and book
> > > references into the project too in order to help you guys in return. :)
> > >
> > > Whatcha say? Interested?
> > >
> > >
> > > Steven Lake
> > > Owner/Chief Editor
> > > Raiden's Realm
> > > www.raiden.net
> > > Bringing Linux to the World
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > pr mailing list
> > > pr at lists.flossmanuals.net
> > > http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/pr-flossmanuals.net
> >--
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Discuss mailing list
>Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
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>
>--
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Andy Oram O'Reilly Media email: andyo at oreilly.com
>Editor 10 Fawcett Street, Fourth Floor voice: 617-499-7479
> Cambridge, MA 02138-1175, USA fax: 617-661-1116
> identi.ca/twitter:praxagora http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Lake
Owner/Chief Editor
Raiden's Realm
www.raiden.net
Bringing Linux to the World
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Oram O'Reilly Media email: andyo at oreilly.com
Editor 10 Fawcett Street, Fourth Floor voice: 617-499-7479
Cambridge, MA 02138-1175, USA fax: 617-661-1116
identi.ca/twitter:praxagora http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/
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