Subject: Re: Installfest, last Saturday of the month, 10:00

From: Alexander Henry <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 17:54:42 -0700

Thanks Alan and Derek, I agree completely.  I'm going to be taking RSVP's 
 from interested users to guage our attendance, and call for more 
volunteers.  For the first few times, I'd like to get more volunteers in 
than is required for installs proper, so we can dream up and set up the 
Cool Things [tm] for future installfests, like the demo home or business 
setups, the file server, etc.

Technomage, bring that equipment like you said, we'll get something set 
up.  Also come to the next Stammtisch Tue 5/18.  You said you needed a 
couple of extra hard drives?

Home demo:  We could install and network one of the 'easy' distros, I say 
Mandrake.  Then get the big three, web, e-mail, and offices, working, and 
also put a Samba on a secondary hard drive, and set it up as a backup for 
the home directories.  Is there an easy GUI method packaged in either 
Fedora or Mandrake to make crons?  It would be most impressive if you 
could say, "this is my SO's machine".

For business type machines: if you're setting up a guest account, how 
about setting up three, and install PHP groupware and Jabber on it, and a 
generic 'brochure' type web page.  These can be a real eye-opener.  They 
can see they can have a secure web server which also gets their people 
together quickly for very cheap.

The next business machine will be a windows setup with a central Samba on 
Linux.

The other business machine would be an LTSP, for instances when they want 
lots of terminals for clerks for data entry.  We could cite that one 
eyeglasses store (which???) as an example.  Best would be a windows app 
that is visible on the remote terminal.

Again, pipe dream!!  Over the next few months, all these need to be ready 
and available to dump in your car and go.  'we need someone to see the 
LTSP!  Call Techno!'  wham, go.

Regarding ec's rant.  I'm going to encourage interested users to RSVP, and 
ask if they have any special interests.  If someone says, "I'm researching 
Linux for my business", my response will be "why?".  Then, after 
listening, I'll call for a volunteer.  Just like ec said, we should have 
volunteers with computers ready to just pick up and go.  Reliably having 
an event and being ready for some things will get the decision-making 
suits to the event.

As far as marketing:  Hans should put the posting on the plug and AZOTO 
website, of course.  But those places don't expand any further than the 
readership of this mailing list.  It sure won't cover the decision-making 
suits.  I'm also going to put press releases to AZIPA, Arizona Technology 
Council, and the major newspapers.  Just a simple e-mail, and they put you 
on their calendar.  AzTech has a very regular e-mail that lists all the 
tech events and tech-related chamber of commerce events, it's very 
popular.  People look in the newspapers for all sorts of things, so the 
blurb in the events column helps.  I'm also going to make monthly 
anouncements on the PC Chat radio show, 1310AM 19:00-20:00, starting today 
in the last quarter of the hour (the extra-geeky portion.  I'll probably 
do it every week this month, then do it on the radio show 9 days before 
the event).

BTW, I haven't heard many to volunteer to be an installer or a Cool Thing 
[tm] builder.  Please RSVP me!

[volunteers]
technomage <[email-masked]>
L5 <[email-masked]>
L1 Anthony Milbauer <[email-masked]>
L1 Alan Dayley <[email-masked]>

What level are you, techno? :)

-- 

--Alexander
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