SFD Call For Participation / Suggestions
With less than a month to go until Software Freedom Day, it's time to get serious. There are a few people I've already cajoled into giving presentations, and room for many more. I've set up a forum here for people to post details of any presentations / demonstrations they'd like to give. You can also post requests for talks or demos on any subject you'd like to learn about.
The vague gameplan is to have a morning session aimed at general/home users, and an afternoon session aimed at work/business users. It would be good if each of these started with presentations at a very introductory level, building up to the more in-depth.
Remember, many if not most of the people attending will have never heard of free software before, so protestations of "I'm not an expert" will not count as an excuse. If you have a favourite piece of free software that you use regularly, you have a duty to spread the word! You don't have be a fine orator, or plan anything extravagant; anything from a ten-minute demo will do.
Sponsored by:
Games or Video or blather
OK, first of all any presentation I do will be incredibly lame as I get tongue tied and stutter when I have to speak to groups of more than one person.
I was considering doing some kind of Video Editing or Graphics Editing session:
Kino and Cinelerra or Xara and Gimp
Unfortunately I am not sure I could manage more than about two minutes.
Then there could be games on Linux - probably a popular subject although not all the advice I can think of is actually free software, e.g. "Look here is 'Second Life' it's rubbish isn't it" or "As you can see 'Age of Empires" runs under WINE". Maybe I could install a bunch of free games (like this one) and play them lots and tell my wife I'm doing research...
I'm not sure whether I could do a presentation but I can definitely talk about stuff to anyone who will listen, probably until any nearby donkeys back legs fall off.
Ruben
tregeagle.com
video / games
I know Cameron has been looking into video editing, and is no more enthusiastic about talking to people en masse than yourself (although he did a splendid job last year), so maybe the two of you could do a tag-team demo.
We definitely want at least one game-related discussion/presentation/call-it-what-you-will. I don't get the appeal of Second Life either, but the client is free software, and I understand the server soon will be, so it's kinda interesting. Stratagus (formerly FreeCraft, and latterly BosWars) would probably be a better choice than World of Warcraft, for obvious reasons.
In a moment of weakness I went back to playing Battle for Wesnoth recently, so that seems to have a certain addictive appeal. These games all have their merits. For the violent, there's Nexuiz or Open Arena and a number of other modified Quake/QuakeII-engine games around. Research away!
I honestly don't know how any of these games compare to the games people are shelling out $100 for. I've not even seen Doom III in action, and I expect that's old hat now. It's disappointing that there aren't many new ideas coming out of free software games, but I gather you can say the same about proprietary games too. Sigh. Not like it was in my day...
Getting the Message Out
One thing we must do, guys, from my recent talk with staff at the bowling club and from the funny wording from the President of the club, Gary Bugden, who sent us the letter from the management or board, we really have to let them know what we are about.
They know we are there, they know we are about computers, sort of, but they do not have a clue what Linux is....Let' not be shy about our wonderful discovery, let them know.
If we advertise in coming events, and we should at the club,and we should also let the staff know what we are on about so they can spread the word.
I will drop some of the flyers down to the reception at the club this week, but please, someone have a chat to them. Mushrooms know nothing!!!!
Sorry about missing a couple of meetings but my ability is limited and not needed by you gurus.
Bowling Club Liason
I don't where you got that idea, Peter. Not a lot of people find the idea of a room full of hardcore computer geeks attractive - only other geeks, in fact. We need some people with a - what do you call it? a "life", that's it - to bring some sense of perspective to proceedings.
I'm happy to talk to anyone anywhere anytime. Does the club have a board meeting or something between now and Software Freedom Day? Given a day or so's notice, I can make myself free to come and have a chat any time that suits. Can you propose that to whoever you think might be interested when next you are in the club?