[K12OSN] More news on NELS 2006!

[David Trask]

Hello Everyone!

Hope this finds you happy, healthy, and dry  ;-)  It's finally sunny out
today and that prompted me to write.  :-)  

First, the registrations for NELS at Gould Academy and NELS at UNH are
still coming in....I hope that you'll be among them!  

One new thing that I'm kinda' excited about is the addition of some
vendor/sponsors for this years Symposia.  Matt and I actually wrestled a
little with this idea and finally came to the conclusion that certain
vendors can really enhance our offerings at NELS and bring some unique
information to the participants.  Vendors will be given the opportunity to
showcase their service or products at a special presentation session and
some of them are also our instructors for various sessions!  We currently
have the folks from Wicked Good Software (you may be familiar with their
product Web2School) who will be attending and meeting with us to discuss
the possibility of  “Open Sourcing” their product!  This is exciting and
you get to be a part of it!  They'll also show their Student Information
System which now has a Linux server version and a Linux client!  We also
have the folks from “The Symbiont” [ http://www.thesymbiont.com/
]http://www.thesymbiont.com/  who will be showing their Open Source
product, The Symbiont, as well as demoing their “boot appliance”....very
cool....read about it on their site and prepared to be amazed!  Gideon,
from The Symbiont, is also a major contributor to the development of LTSP
and K12LTSP and very interested in education.  We recently met with the
guys from Resara.com (a local NH company) that has a “drop in” Linux
terminal system that is designed to easily integrate into your Windows
domain or Active Directory network.  I was quite impressed!  They'll be
giving a demo of this set up as well as presenting in our Windows/Linux
authentication session!  They bring a lot of knowledge about Windows and
Linux to the conference!

Things are shaping up nicely, but this is also crunch time for Matt and I
as we prepare for NELS at Gould Academy.  If you have registered, but not
yet sent a PO or check, please do so right away.  Our bill is due on June
19th and we're just a coupla' guys putting on a conference who have no
money....just like you  :-)  If you have submitted your PO....thank you,
but also put a little pressure on your business office to get the check to
us by early June.  Any help you can give is appreciated.  If you are
paying by check and will be bringing one with you to the
conference....simply email me and let me know  ([
mailto:dtrask at vcsvikings.org ]dtrask at vcsvikings.org).  

The UNH edition of NELS is also shaping up nicely!  You'll see the
vendor/sponsors mentioned above as well as the folks from SchoolTool who
will be developing their software with our input right before our eyes! 
This is very cool!  I'm also excited about all the cool things that people
will learn about how to make system administration very easy!  I'm hoping
to participate in those sessions myself!  One nice difference between UNH
and Gould?  UNH is handling the registrations for that conference...and
they take plastic!  You can register online with your credit card if you
wish....or you can use a PO as well.  UNH is handling the PO's and so
forth (they will invoice you) so direct your questions to them with regard
to payment.  Joanne Lewis-McCoy at UNH is handling our registrations, so
if you have questions...drop her a line  [
mailto:Joanne.Lewis-McCoy at unh.edu ]Joanne.Lewis-McCoy at unh.edu

Both registration sites can be accessed from the main NELS (Northeast
Linux Symposium) site at [ http://www.nelinux.net/ ]http://www.nelinux.net

It's getting closer, so if you plan to attend either conference,
particularly the one at Gould Academy (June 17-20) please register ASAP
and get your name on the list. (if you don't know the PO number at the
time of registration....no problem....just send it as soon as you do know)
 (also a reminder that Maine ACTEM members can request up to $400 in
professional development funds to attend either conference!  Visit [
http://www.actem.org/ ]www.actem.org for more info(only costs $10 to
join!)....some of you have written to me to let me know that you have done
this....that's pretty cool!)

Stay warm and dry....have fun...and get ready for summer...'cause here it
comes!


David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Director
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcsvikings.org
(207)923-3100