[K12OSN] OT: k12ltsp / k12osn list people collaboration tool / idea,

[Barry R Cisna]

Hello List,

I / Our school have been using k12ltsp since version 1. I  thought a
neat idea for a long time would be to set up a server for people on this
list to be able to collaborate in yet another way,along with the list
serve here,to were it would be easy for individuals to be able to even
transfer files in quick fashion,say to get out of a bind maybe. So,,I
have setup a chat server for this purpose. I hope this is OK /
appropriate to post this on the list here. I'm thinking somewhere in
time this would be handy for admins for the k12ltsp servers,etc. This is
my own personal server so that our school's bandwidth would never be
affected by extra network traffic, even though I am sure traffic would
be minimal at most.
 This may seem as yet another "dust collector" piece to some people, I'm
not sure. I know this is the way some software things end up,as I know
first hand.:) I have uploaded the Spark chat client with both Linux and
Windows versions to my ftp server for download. Spark of course has an
easy to use interface and allows file transfers,etc. Also, the latest
version of Pidgin Internet Messenger works great with any chat server
and there are current rpms for Pidgin that can be yummed onto your
k12ltsp server or your laptop with k12 on it. This is actually what I
use. It is a scenario were most of the time this just " sits there" and
does nothing but maybe it would be a quick fix,for someone to get
together and brainstorm over,or send a patch file,etc.
Here is the url to download the spark chat client from as well as the
server name (in the README.txt) to connect to if anyone is interested.


ftp://eazylivin.net/pub/spark


Sidenote: I set this up at school on all teachers/admins PC's now that
our school consolidated 3 years ago ,now we have 3 remote buildings 7
miles apart. This little piece has saved me lots of leg work /chasing /
time at times. I used to think it was just a "novelty thing",,,:)  

Please give comments if I missed something. Hope this helps.
Have a relaxing weekend,,,
(Sorry for the lengthly post)

Take Care,
Barry Cisna