[K12OSN] Hurricane help

[Stephen J. Smoogen]

Another step that people who are not near the area could do is help
make a demo system ready and the steps for doing this to be duplicated
at the various relief areas from Georgia to Texas. Put together a lot
of edutainment and other items.. make sure that the items are cute and
cuddly and the default desktop tones are relaxing colors.  Help the
main K12 people with a page or two of how to install it. It might make
more sense to have a K12 version versus the LTSP for some areas.
Getting internet access or even switches/hubs may not be possible for
some locations.

Other things people can work on is short instruction sheets and
certain prepackaging of itmes like timers and signup sheets. If this
were to go at the Astrodome, there would be 20,000 people to serve
(about 8,000-16,000 children by one loose estimate). How long can a
child get a turn, how many computers are needed per 'village', a faq
for a non-geek volunteer to be able to answer questions.

People who do go to these shelters need to work with the main staff
about where to point people who are in mental distress or how to
answer hard questions like "Do you know when I get to go home? Do I
have a home?"

On 9/1/05, Stephen J. Smoogen <smooge at gmail.com> wrote:
> The best way to do this is to get a sponsoring corporation or
> organization to help on this. You are going to have to get ok from the
> Red Cross for putting something into the area as they are going
> completely crazy at the moment with the number of people they are
> going to have to house. Having a company or organization helps get
> their attention. The company can help you get the computers and other
> stuff.
> 
> One thing I want to say is that people doing this need to step up to
> the plate and not disappear in a day or two. Make sure you have
> volunteers that will show up.. and that you are ready to deal with
> people who are pushed to their limits already (e.g they will be
> cranky, more pushy and stuff). The best thing here to say is dont use
> anything bleeding edge as they dont need more stuff that is broken.
> 
> If you are in the Texas area, work with a local organization (church,
> school, company) that will 'sponsor' you, and then start making calls
> to the Department of Education about how to get this in their hands.
> See if you can contact someone at Dell about where they sell/store
> really old computers that would make a good tax write-off and would be
> good to run K12 tools.
> 
> Thats about all I can think off the top of my head..
> 
> On 9/1/05, Eric Brown <ericbrown at mi-spot.com> wrote:
> > If I had the means or contacts, I'd make this happen myself, but is there
> > anyone in the areas where hurricane refugees are located who has thought of
> > setting up k12ltsp?  Could be for an e-mail garden, or even temporary
> > classrooms.  I heard Houston, TX is going to try and do something about
> > schooling for the kids being relocated to the Astrodome.
> >
> > Anyone have an idea on how I might be able to take this idea further?
> >
> > Eric Brown
> >
> > Viva la Open Source!
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Stephen J Smoogen.
> CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
> 


-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.
CSIRT/Linux System Administrator