Workshop about ubuntu

Community Community Council
1

I am about to hold a workshop to encourage students and lecturers to start install and work on ubuntu. Any ideas or methods that help to deliver my message?

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2

As a student myself, what Iā€™ve found to be the most awesome at first about Ubuntu was:

  • Free / Libre Open Source Software
  • Centralized package management & updates
  • An ā€œApp Storeā€
  • Stability
  • Using your server OS on your machine
  • The community aspect (Getting help, being able to suggest changes like w/ the new communitheme)
  • You can run Windows applications w/ WINE and use your GTK themes in them
  • Most modern software runs on Ubuntu natively
  • You can theme everything using CSS (As a web developer, this is mainly what keeps me using GNOME)
    And the Ubuntu Flavors of course - when I showed what Virtual Desktops looked like in GNOME and how intuitive it was, some of my classmates started using standard Ubuntu after 2 days, while others really liked the Kubuntu flavor and switched to it - just show them how you can but donā€™t have to change your desktop to what ever you want it to be. Also, highlighting the simplicity of GTK+ applications (like GNOME boxes, the Eolie browser etc.) did impress.
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3

your points sound good. The question is how can I engage them during the work shop . Are there any activities or questionnaire that I can use ?

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Thereā€™s nothing ready-made that I know of. Itā€™s possible that the LoCo project has something available, or at least one of the LoCos in it. I would suggest contacting the loco-contacts list and also the nearest LoCo to you. Itā€™s possible that if there is one they could provide additional help, suggestions, and resources for you, including possibly peoplepower.

Barring that (and perhaps regardless of that), I think maybe something like this would be interesting:

  1. Provide a questionnaire asking them about their opinions and experience with free software, like:
    • how hard is it to install software?
    • how much ā€œnormalā€ software is supported?
    • can you do what you want?
    • how secure is it?
  2. Run them through installing and using software (obviously, youā€™ll need to have them bring their machines; you can show them but nothing beats doing).
  3. Maybe make some focus groups on particular concerns such as graphic design, word processing, programming, gaming, etc.
  4. Provide another questionnaire asking them the same questions and watch how much theyā€™ve changed.

Most importantly: give them the software! Download all the images off of the website and have them ready to burn onto a USB or DVD or you could ask Canonical to set you up with some Ubnutu USBs. A ā€œfree Ubuntu USB drive containing several gigabytes of open source software to all ā€˜graduatesā€™ of the programā€ might be a nice enticement to get them to come. The ones that are changed by the experience will use it to install software. I especially suggest this because usually getting the software (downloading the ISO, verifying the hash, burning it to appropriate media, verifying the media, and then installing it, esp. re: partitioning) is the hardest part for most newbies.

p.s. just want to tag @kyrofa, @carla-sella, @nhaines, @gsilvapt, @kenvandine, @svij as they are all members of the LoCo Council which oversees the LoCo project. They might be able to help, too.

p.p.s. especially since Iā€™m calling out the council, an idea: letā€™s make a LoCo category here where LoCos can share their successes. I think a lot of good ideas happen within the LoCo but donā€™t necessarily get distributed well across the project as a whole.

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5

Thanks a lot wxl what you wrote change my path totally. I appreciate your help . Will contact loco and see to which extent they can help.

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Glad I could be of help, @mardin. When you do complete your workshop, Iā€™d love to see:

  1. A blog/tweet on the subject, especially with pictures. I think the wider world might be interested in seeing more of such a thing and that might be a good way to gauge interest.
  2. A post on here on the subject with essentially the same content, but also with links to the flyers, handouts, slides, and videos you used to market and put on the workshop. Letā€™s discuss things that worked well and didnā€™t work well. Having a nice ā€œpackageā€ for a thing like this, I think, could be really valuable. Might even be something we offer as a task for students for a future Google Code-In.

Keep up the good work, my friend! :smile:

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I will, definitely. Just one thing remain, a speaker that can join me and help with his/her experience.