Re: Spreading the word (was Re: [Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] Want to present at LINUXWORLD NY/2002?])

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

"zeruch [Joseph Estevao Arruda]" wrote:

> Douglas Loss wrote:
>
> > There's not much money to be made in educational consulting in
> > _any_form.
>
> That is not true. The edu consulting business is a niche, but a
> lucrative one for the oligarchy of players on the scene.
>

I reserve the right to be wrong.  Especially when I'm talking about things I
know little about.  Thanks for correcting me before my mistake could become
some sort of received wisdom ("Everybody knows that...").  Of course, this
is the first and only time that I've been wrong... :-)

>
> > It's true, but it's also a task for some other organization.  As
> > I say, we focus on below-university-level education.  If we try
> > to do everything, we'll end up doing nothing well.
>
> Well, I would agree with this, but I was thinking more along the lines
> of using it to stick a wedge in and then drill down.
>

As a point of contact that might work, but I still don't think we have the
resources to do a credible presentation on university-level education and
then try to push it down.  If there's any orgs out there that are focused on
university-level ed, we would surely like to collaborate with them, though.
Does anyone know of such an organization?

>
>
> > I think we should be attending educational
> > conferences, rather than commerce-driven Linux ones.
>
> And that may very well be true.  The Linux conferences do one thing
> though...visibility on a grand (at least for odd cvalues of *grand*)
> scale.
>

Yes, but it's visibility to people not in a position to help further our
progress toward our goals.  Well, peripherally in a position to help, is so
far as they might want to join us in the work and might have kids in school
or some influence with their local schools.  But not generally the ones to
say, "OK, set us up a test lab in this school so we can see what you've
got."

>
> >  The
> > trouble is, I don't know which conferences would be the best to
> > attend, what it would take in time and finances to attend them,
> > and what kind of presentations would work best for them.
>
> Best 2 krona I can provide:
>
> 1. make a small set of packaged/canned presentations with varying
> focuses (i.e. language learning, student/faculty collaboration, basic
> skills, etc.)  Make sure they are pithy and visual (most
> administrarors/executives, etc, deal with ideograms and short sentences
> tahn white papers, and they are the ones that usually sign the checks
> and/or ask their techs to investigate "this rather interesting set of
> tolls I saw at X conference")
>

I like this idea!  Educators on the list, what areas should these
presentations cover, how should they be presented, what are the buzzwords
that will get attention and interest?  If we can develop such presentations,
deliverable by mildly coached members of this list, we may be able to gain a
bit of visibility in the educational community.

>
> 2. Find folks to present them at a set of regional conferences (I would
> wager that regionals would be a better hit than mondo-sized cons)
>

That's my gut feeling too.

>
> There is more to discuss, but I'll let people flame me a little first ;)

Flame?  Me? Never! :-)  A discussion is an exchange of opinions, with
arguments designed to try to influence others to your opinion.  A flame
isn't an exchange of any kind.  It's just an assault.  I think we're
discussing.  And not even at the top of our lungs; go figure.

--
Doug Loss                 Always do right.  This
Data Network Coordinator  will gratify some people
Bloomsburg University     and astonish the rest.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Mark Twain