Re: [seul-edu] The revival of LENPP

[SteelHead <brk@slip.net>]

I am replying to multiple posts here.

I use one Windows box at home for the kids to play their existing commercial
educational games on and to answer my single phone line when I am online.
When a company can provide the service that callwave does online with a
Linux Desktop instead of windows, I will use it online.  In the meanwhile, I
will  save $20-$50 by limiting my communications options

Because I still earn part of my living fixing up Windows boxes, I do keep a
Win2k/win98 box at work.  It has not been plugged in for three weeks now.  I
also use it to keep the books for my company for now.

When we complain about windows being *evil* (yes, I do it too) we have to
consider things as a whole.  If I gave up all  of my windows software, I
would have to hire a bookeeper to  handle my financial records. I cannot
afford that. My kids would not have Carmen SanDiego or a handful of other
familiar names in the software they play with.

It is not an easy task to wrest ouselves fromWindows, nor is it an easy one
for education.  There are many things to consider, with the fears and
trepidation of changing from Windows with it's huge base of installed
software and related Software Companies.  These companies are advising the
Schools, and have no reason or desire to advise them to change from the use
of Windows.  When we can provide a realistic set of options for the
educators, we can see Gnu/Linux and Open/Free software moving into the
districts one at a time.

I have talked at education tradeshows with companies providing the education
market with software, and, as a group, they have no interest in porting over
to what they see as the devil, Free/Open souce software.  We will have to
develop what we can ourselves, it seems, providing schools with the tools
they need to make it work, and software to educate kids that does not kill
them with fees.

Here is is why LENPP is important to me.  When we develop something awesome,
can we afford to hire a New York ad agency to direct us in developing a
sales campaign?  I think not.  Can we send out an army of field reps to
knock on every door in every school district in the country (world)?  I
think not.  LENPP is part of the publicity puzzle.  We can connect people
with questions to people with answers, and the people can even be local.

> This message is a request for help with a project.  It may seem long and
> windy, but that is my style.  Sorry.
>
snip big.....
>
> I have had  too many things going on in my life to develop the website
fully
> and advertise it.  Sadly, the lack of Linux community response has led me
to
> let the site flounder.  I am now starting my own modest webhosting
service,
> and I plan to pull LinuxHelpers.org down to my servers (or SEUL's when the
> need is there for more than I can give), I will have full control of the
> content, and I can allow anyone that needs it to have access when needed.

The site is currently being hosted Free at my ISP.  I have tried to get a
CGI up, but I did not want to rock the boat.  When I move it to my server,
it will be PHP/MySQL based.  I don't want to do postgres etc... but it may
happen.  I think the best model I have seen for the site is the GEOv2 model
by Mike Viron.  (His site is here www.findaschool.org)  I am sure that
others exist, but with a few changes, it might be a fine beginning.  I
thought long and hard about the notion of putting it on a wikki, but the
backend of a busy wikki seems (from what I have heard) to use lots of system
and a fair amount of admin attention.

> To revive the LENPP I need to ask the linux community what would work, how
> it should look, and what features should the site have.

What are some feature we would like to see in place?  I think just building
a simple list that is moderately interactive is a starting point, but what
else would help to connect resources between teacher company and skilled
person?

>I am starting here
> because the SEUL-edu mailing list is the origin of the concept.  I can
> restart the site
> and make sure it is advertised all over Linux World Expo at the end of
> August in San Francisco.  Or I can give it up as a lost cause.  NOT!  I
will
> do what I can, but I *really* need help in redesigning the site.
>
Again, I *need* help to make this work.

> Here a couple o links to peruse if you made here.
> http://www.seul.org/archives/seul/edu/Dec-1998/msg00397.html
> http://linuxhelpers.org/lenpp.html

The site is up tonight 10 July, 2001

Regards, Bill