[K12OSN] OT: Conferences in Midwest

Fri Aug 12 19:06:12 UTC 2005

I'd love to be involved.  The timeframes you mention are workable for me.
Eric 

-----Original Message-----
From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf
Of Petre Scheie
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 12:04 PM
To: Support list for opensource software in schools.
Subject: Re: [K12OSN] OT: Conferences in Midwest

When David Trask and Chuck Liebow, et al, organized their "Maine
get-together of K12LTSP-ers" last year (or was it two years ago now?),
Chris Bacigalupo from Duluth, MN offered his city as an alternative site for
the Maine conference, not entirely in jest. 
I started keeping track of people on the list who seemed to be not-too-far
from Minneapolis, where I am, with the jealous hope of someday organizing
something similar 
(your name is on the list already, Scott).    I was hoping to get enough
people to make 
it worth Jim's and/or Eric's time to come out for it.  I only have about a
dozen names so far, and some of those haven't been heard from on the list
for a while, so I don't know how active they are.  (Chris, are you still on
this list?)

There are two reasons for such a conference:

1.  It would be great fun, allowing some of us to meet face-to-face.  It
would be helpful to learn more about what others are doing with LTSP, and it
would inspirational. 
  This project works because of the community, and this would be a way to
enhance that community.

2.  I thought I would try to invite people from all the other schools in
town, to introduce them to LTSP, to show them a better way of providing
computing services to schools.  Show them how easy it is to install K12LTSP,
how it makes better use of resources, how it's easier to manage, perhaps
cover the natural symbiosis between education and OSS, etc.  I'd LOVE to
show them all of Jim Kronebusch's various Macs all running as thin clients!

The tricky part is that the above are two different audiences: the first
would involve people who already understand LTSP, while the second would be
more of the uninitiated. 
But I think they could both be accomodated if we had, say, two days, where
the first would be focused on topics that assume you already understand
LTSP, and the second day would be more introductory, or vice-versa.

Then there's the question of topics and format.  If Jim M. and/or Eric could
come, they could talk about what they're working on, e.g., MueKow; I'd like
to hear more details from Jim Kronebusch about getting the Macs to work.
What else?

For the second day, for people unfamiliar with LTSP, someone could talk
about & demo K12LTSP, perhaps do an installation.  CodeWeavers is based here
in the Twin Cities, and Jeremy White, the founder, is a friend of mine; I
thought I might invite him to talk, to show one way to support Windows apps
on LTSP.  CW has a portable LTSP/WINE/CrossOver setup they use for demos,
showing off MS Word 'loading' in just a second or two on an old Pentium 100.
While I want to keep the focus on the community, I think some schools would
like the idea that they could get commercial support for a K12LTSP
installation, so perhaps there could be some support vendors there, if
there's interest.

I figured if I could get ten people to come for the first day, it would be
worth doing 
and would be enough people to draw Jim and/or Eric.   I think the Maine
folks had about 
20 (David, are your pictures from your conference still online?); Maine
seems to have a lot of people doing K12LTSP, lucky dogs; hopefully 'new
recruits' from group #2 above would increase our numbers in Minnesota.  I
was thinking perhaps a Friday-Saturday, in June after school is out; but I'm
not a teacher so I figured I'd let those who are pick the dates.  I thought
I might try for this summer, but I just didn't have the time, so I've been
looking toward next summer.  In Minnesota, in October we have a two-day
(Th-Fr) teacher in-service holiday when there's no school, to allow teachers
to attend training, conferences, etc.  I've considered that weekend, but as
it's a Minnesota thing only, I was afraid none of the
Iowa/Wisconsin/Michigan folks would be able to attend.

Any thoughts or interest in this?

Petre

Eric Brown wrote:
> There's the Iowa Technology in Education Connection conference held in 
> Des Moines this October (http://www.itec-ia.org/confer/index.htm).  I 
> just found out that my proposal to run a workshop on K12LTSP just got 
> accepted.  Linux was incredibly under represented at the last 
> conference (a few vendors had linux powered devices, but no workshops).
> 
> I look forward to seeing other responces to this question.  I've 
> wondered why more conferences aren't held in a more central geographic
locations.
> 
> Eric Brown (not the cool Eric that puts k12 together)
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com] On 
> Behalf Of Scott Sherrill
> Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 6:46 AM
> To: k12osn at redhat.com
> Subject: [K12OSN] OT: Conferences in Midwest
> 
> 
> I apologize to the moderators, I posted the message with the wrong 
> email addy the first time I tried.
> 
> Off topic from K12LTSP but since all types of information is shared 
> and discussed....
> 
> I am looking for anyone with leads (and preferably websites) on 
> midwest area conferences.  I was thinking of a conference geared towards
K12
> folk, but not a teacher conference.    Something geeky ;-)
> 
> The group I work with is located in Michigan but we are closer to 
> Minneapolis, and Chicago than we are to Detroit.   I've found a great 
> conference in Michigan (MAEDS) and Wisconsin (Brainstorm), but I open 
> to new places and pools of knowledge.
> 
> I suppose if the conference is good and the price is right (read 
> "cheap"), I am open to suggestions for any other conferences across 
> the US too.  I made the trek to NELS in Maine this year and that was
another gem.
> 
> Thanks eh.
> 
> Scott
> 
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