[K12OSN] OT: Conferences in Midwest

Fri Aug 12 17:03:32 UTC 2005

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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