[ale] New Twiki topic LinuxInGASchools

[Dow Hurst]

I've created a new Twiki subtopic under the Twiki ALE site called 
LinuxInGASchools.  I am just learning about HTML and Wiki syntax so it 
will take me a few days to get something nice going.  If anyone 
interested in the project wants to contribute, you must register on the 
Twiki server as a user.  Once your a user you can edit the pages yourself.

We had a good meeting at KSU on Aug 11, and had a good turnout for such 
short notice.  We discussed the scope of the project and some testbed 
situations.  Geoffrey Myers, Tom Younkers, Matthew Macumber and myself 
attended.  Tom took some notes and we all had some good ideas to contribute.

Some of the ideas we tossed around were:
Start small with a testbed situation such as setting up a local church 
with LTSP using free hardware as our first learning experience.

Focus on LTSP as a leverage for old hardware.

Look at delegating portions of the project to different members.

Recognize the installed base of hardware in schools would not 
necessarily change so the proposals have to account for this.

Recognize the suits will want point and click groupware even though few 
others use it. :-)

Polish the project to perfection and sell it at the Board of Regents, 
don't approach public schools at a low level due to entrenched 
bureacracy and policies.

Look into locating churches and private schools for testbed situations 
we can leverage.

Join with similar projects if possible and if applicable.

Explore integrating Linux with Novell, or any other legacy OS or 
hardware currently used in schools.

Really look into available educational Linux software and software 
projects.  Recognize MS Windows won't go away due to educational 
software currently used in schools unless we can find what is needed.

Have a monthly meeting on the third Sunday afternoon of the month, 
however, develop a workable way of doing things remotely as much as 
possible.  Twiki is one part of this.

Discussed several horror stories involving MS OSes, Novell, and Cobb 
County School ITS policies.  (The fun gossip part of the meeting) ;-)


I believe that is everything that I remember from yesterday.  Maybe Tom 
would post his notes.  Matthew works with Freebytes so we are looking at 
a possible collaboration there.  I still would like to have another 
meeting on Aug 25, 2:30pm at KSU so those who couldn't come before can 
have a chance to meet everyone.  So let's plan on that being available.  
It was really nice to put faces and personalities with the names/email 
addresses I have become familiar with!  I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting!
Sincerely,
Dow



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