18:30:04 #startmeeting 18:30:04 Meeting started Wed Aug 12 18:30:04 2015 UTC. The chair is decause. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 18:30:04 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic. 18:30:26 #topic Improving our visibility in Schools 18:30:48 #info Giannis Konstantinidis is our speaker 18:30:51 Welcome! 18:31:10 I'm a student from Greece, and contributing to Fedora for 6 years. I started when I was 14! 18:31:25 as the title suggests, I'm going to disucss improving our visibility in school, and out of school 18:31:39 I have a priv of talking not just from Fedora perspecitve, but also studnet perspective 18:31:46 #topic today's topics 18:31:52 1) The Need 18:31:56 2) FOSS in Education 18:32:02 3) Edu Spin/REmix 18:32:07 4) Campus Ambassadors 18:32:15 5) University Initiative 18:32:20 6) Open Discussion 18:32:46 #topic The Need 18:32:57 why do we need more Fedora in schools? How will we benefit? 18:33:13 1) High Schools and Universities are important places 18:33:27 2) Students are the ones who later grow up using Fedora and FOSS in general 18:33:33 we can help our base grow 18:33:50 3) They are also the ones that could become part of community and contribute their time, talent, and skills 18:34:01 improving user base is good, but improving contributor base is also possible 18:34:17 we won't just gain new users, we end up with contributions 18:34:24 #topic FOSS in Education 18:34:35 1) Closed software costs. A Lot. 18:34:54 2) Because it does, some students are unable to afford it. They use pirated software. 18:35:05 3) Students are tied to close-source software 18:35:32 in 2006, Greece bought licenses to be used in public sector and schools, but, those software could not run on the hardware ins chools! 18:35:53 4) Students related to ICT don't have a chance to see how the software works 18:36:10 5) Education is about sharing knowlege. Close software is opposed to that. 18:36:20 we don't want to convert students to pirates 18:36:27 we want free as in freedom, and free as in price 18:36:46 once a student gets tied to the closed software, they will keep buying it because they need it 18:36:52 the university gets "the first one free" 18:37:15 companies are giving it away not because they are philanthropists, the know that when they get out of school, they will have to buy it 18:37:47 studnets related to ICT studies, like CS or Engineering, they don't get to see how it works, because they can't get the source, which helps them learn. 18:38:01 education is about knowledge for free, for everyone. 18:38:49 FOSS deserves a huge place in EDU 18:38:55 #topic EDU Spin/Remix 18:39:07 I'd like to EDU spin/remix, whatever we end up producing/discussing 18:39:19 imagine we could build custom environment for education? 18:39:24 it would include: 18:39:40 - apps for any regular use (Firefox, LibreOffice, FLC, GIMP) 18:40:02 - Additional EDU apps (KDE Edu, gcompris, etc...) primary, secondary, tertiary 18:40:12 - available to customize 18:40:17 Benefits: 18:40:19 - Zero Cost 18:40:25 - Safe, stable, portable 18:40:28 - innovative 18:40:34 - Fully Customizable 18:40:39 - Backed by the Community 18:41:19 many students must purchase additional anti-virus and security software, and you don't have to do that in Linux Distros, and Fedora Specifically 18:42:05 portable means having an environment you can plug into computers at school, and at home. 18:42:25 Fedora is usually ahead of the other distros, due to the Features and First Foundations 18:42:42 if students run into problems, we can support them 18:42:50 #topic What we do in EDU now? 18:43:04 1) SoaS - pre-school, and young children 18:43:15 2) Scientific - tertiary (mostly?) education 18:44:02 3) FEL (Fedora Electronic Lab) - tertiary (mostly?) education, but specifically hardware design/development 18:44:09 #topic What Can We Do? 18:44:17 - Make sure to cover all stages of education 18:44:39 - Produce a spin or remix that can be used by students and teachers, inside and outside classroom 18:44:57 - Provide simple, straighforward instructions for building custom Fedora Environments 18:45:17 building custom env is a very technical and very difficult task. Good instructions would be a good idea. 18:45:24 #topic Campus Ambassadors 18:45:30 the hot topic for the day 18:45:44 - focus on promoting Fedora at schools and universities around the world 18:46:03 - connected to larger fedora ambassadors program. One had to be a Fedora ambassador already to join this. 18:46:15 - No final program strucutre, got stuck in formative stages. 18:46:23 - currently dead, never truly started or worked out 18:46:47 what i'd like to propose, is we should consider brining campus ambassadors to life 18:47:02 #topic Proposed Changes 18:47:16 first thing, we should change from campus to student ambassadors 18:47:22 applicable at all stages of education 18:47:51 2) no longer directly connected to larger ambassadors project. Students don't have to be in ambassadors to join. lower the barrier to entry. 18:48:13 3) applicants must have some knowledge around the distro, but don't need to be experts. we need to cut them slack. 18:48:46 4) Students will go through mentoring process, to make sure they meet some requirements before joining the program. 18:48:56 5) Mentees will be connected to mentors at all times 18:49:10 6) Provide peopl wtih new contribution opportunities 18:49:17 7) Bring back Fedora Classroom 18:49:26 8) Bring back the Fedora Scholarship, maybe? 18:49:39 Mentors could provide mentees with contribution opportunties 18:49:51 they could become full ambassadors at some point after that! 18:49:53 we want that! 18:50:17 Fedora Classrooms were IRC sessions, held on different topics in the distro or project 18:50:31 new contributors could explore opportunities in different things 18:50:36 we haven't had this since 2011 18:50:47 I think Fedora Classroooms would work well 18:51:17 maybe we should consider bringing back the scholarship program. It awarded one highschool senior for contributions towards their projects. 18:51:22 $2000/year for tuition 18:51:41 it is not up to me if we should bring this back to life, it is up to Red Hat, but I'm just putting out an idea 18:51:54 in was 2012 since the last Fedora Scholarship 18:52:00 #topic Possible Activities 18:52:06 1) Give a talk or workshop 18:52:11 2) invite someone else to speak 18:52:17 3) Host a Fedora Installfest 18:52:22 4) maintain a computer lab 18:52:27 5) organize a meetup 18:52:33 6) have a release party 18:52:42 7) plan a Fedora Activity Day (FAD) 18:52:55 they can help troubleshoot for others 18:53:14 student ambassadors could consult professors or teachers or lab instructors, and see if it would be possible to have Fedora Computer Labs 18:53:23 I would love to see schools using Fedora on their machines 18:53:33 if there is a good presence, they could consider a Fedora Meetup 18:53:42 whenever a new version is released, they could have parties 18:54:07 having a FAD is another possiblity. FAD implies actual contribution, and needs metrics, so even just a "Fedora Day" 18:54:11 or "Days" 18:54:18 there is always room for more 18:54:27 #topic How do we begin? 18:54:34 1) Let the community know! 18:54:41 post to mail lists, ask for feedback 18:54:51 if we need to brainstorm/discuss, do it, then come up with a new structure 18:55:03 2) create new content on the wiki 18:55:29 3) Invite existing Fedora Ambassadors who are students and also experienced ambassadors (preferably) to join 18:55:38 4) start planning events in schools 18:55:47 #topic University Initiative 18:55:57 1) If you read the magazine, you'llhave read it 18:56:06 it is a 12-18 month objective, approved by council 18:57:44 #info "increase Fedora's exposure in university environments, particularly in engineering universities" 18:58:32 #topic Open Discussion 18:59:25 Q: In India, we saw many people coming to us, and asking about campus ambassadors, and then following up with "and which 5 start hotel are you taking us to?" People see a lot of money being thrown around, and they are there for the goodies, and not the project always. 18:59:48 if you see in 2009, there is a huge jump, and then a huge drop shortly thereafter. 19:00:50 Mozilla does this, campus ambassadors vary widely by region. 19:01:09 some regions do stuff, some regions just cheerlead. Contribution back to project doesn't always follow. 19:02:18 A: there must be a mentoring process. There must be criteria, interviews. 19:02:28 Q: why not just ambassadors then? 19:02:36 A: it is tough to become an ambassador 19:02:48 Q: ambasssadors just represent brand? 19:09:33 Q: Why just a spin or remix? we're missing an opportunity for Workstation. 19:09:54 Q: If we default for EDU to be a special spin. I think it is important to talk about what is missing in workstation. 19:10:58 Q: Yeah, maintaining a spin in difficult. It is easy to create, yes. There was a talk at FUDCon PUNE, where we got 4-5 computers donated, and installed Fedora. The only thing was changes was the language (Bengali). It was transformative. 19:11:24 India colleges are using either RHEL or Fedora. 19:15:24 #action decause zoltan look into edu specific dnf/yum group 19:16:30 Q: many programs, particularly US programs, require adobe shockwave, and other things that won't run out of the box on Fedora 19:17:02 Q: Schools prefer LTS distros 19:18:15 Q: Other software companies have very well paid amabassadors, don't think that we should use resources this way 19:23:18 win 17 19:24:02 Q: We need all of your help. Please contribute to the wiki and discussion. 19:24:29 #link https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Objectives/University_Involvement_Initiative 19:24:49 #endmeeting