Re: [seul-edu] Our presence at trade shows

[Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com>]

See inline comments below.

At 11:55 PM 8/29/00 +0000, Manuel Gutierrez Algaba wrote:
>On Tue, 29 Aug 2000, Ray Olszewski wrote:
>[ lots of truthful stuff snipped ]
>> 
>> The last thing I want to see us to is write the sort of document that
>> usually appears under the name MANIFESTO. We aren't proclaiming anything (or
>> if we are, who would bother to listen to us?). What we are doing is both
>> duller and more useful -- identifying ways in which something we know is a
>> valuable resource can be used to address the widely recognized need to
>> improve the process of education.
>
>Nobody obligues that our MANIFESTO talks about abstract thing and
>the general sense of life.

You are right of course. English is a slippery language, and words acquire
baggage over and above their literal meanings. My reaction to "manifesto"
largely comes from my memories of the sixties and the tripe that was usually
served up under that label. I think I'm not unusual in that respect among
American native-speakers of English, though; the word has my-eyes-glaze-over
connotations.

>As a matter fact, without knowing you've composed an excellent
>MANIFESTO for us. Your email with a slight tighter structure could
>be our MANIFESTO... bad luck for a guy
> that doesn't like manifestos, :)

Thanks for the kind words. But even if you are right, my own prior message
here is a first-class example of the sort of writing that I think is useless
to hand out at a trade show. If it be helpful at all, it is helpful in the
context of stimulating and motivating discussion among people who already
are familiar with Linux. For a document given to the uncommitted, the only
possible sentence of value is the one where I restated our purpose in terms
that focused on education rather than on Linux.

It has none of the concrete details, or the focus on results in an
educational setting, that I think we need to deliver when talking to
teachers who only want to get the job done, and who couldn't care less
whether the tools they use are based on Linux or Windows or Nintendo, except
insofar as it affects their ability to teach well. Something built on Doug's
weekly reports is considerably more useful in this context than my blather
(though they too have their limitations, of sorts I tried to suggest eariler).

>MANIFESTO = who we are + what we do (+ why we do it, if you
>like a more verbose manifesto, the "why" may be interesting
>for some people unware of the GPL world.)


--
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski                                        -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA           	 	         ray@comarre.com        
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