Re: [seul-edu] Call for help

[Jeff Knox <jknox@www.fliphead.com>]

Out of the woodwork I come. The company I work for (consolidated
freightways) is going out of business, so I should be finding my
self with some time in the near future to help with things. I feel
bad that the only time I really find to devote to working on seul
and litc is when I find my self out of a job.
        I am going to really start working on the whole LUG support
material project that we talked about so many LinuxWorld's ago. I
want to get a material package going for schools as well, with some
cds, instructions, some articles, etc. The problem in the past with
that has been getting a sponsor to front a bunch of linux cds and
other related material cost. cough cough redhat fork over some bucks
cough cough.
        I also want to get going on the volunteer database that I
have failed to start so many times. Im going to need some way to
find all people within a certain mile range of a zipcode, so
basically a zip to zip distance matrix, anyone know where I can get
that. The rest will be simple php and mysql stuff. I want to
integrate it with a list of LUGs, so it returns LUGs and Individuals
when a school puts in a query for help. It would be nice if
companies like LinuxCare would offer perhaps some free help, or
seriously reduced help for emergency situations where a lug member
could not be reached.
        I have proposed this in the past, but I think we should
maintain a weblog of Linux in Education events, instead of a
singularly maintained weekly report. This would allow mulitple
people to maintain it, and it would be fresh, updated as often as
their is news. I already created one, but I never had anyone
volunteer to help post. I have it setup using Blogger.com, using my
hosting services. It could always move to seul.org though. See
http://www.thestuph.com/litc/blog/ for an example of what im talking
about.
        I will help out with what I can (I can handle Phorum, at
least set it up). When i get these various applications built, I
could help on any other development (web or otherwise) projects. I
know how you feel doug, Its hard to balance working full time, with
running an organization like Seul. Throw in having personal and
family obligations, it takes a great person to keep it all up. I
appreciate all the hard work you do, as I am sure most people on
this list do. Your constribution has made a big impact , I can
assure you that. Now relax a bit..

Jeff Knox
Linux In The Classroom



On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Doug Loss wrote:

> Folks, I need your help.  I've been managing SEUL/edu for almost
> four years now.  Lately I've been noticing some signs of incipient

> "burnout" in myself (for you non-native English speakers,
"burnout"
> means a feeling of being overwhelmed and in need of a change).
You
> may have noticed that for the past few weeks I've made little
> contribution beyond the minimum needed to keep the site running.
> I'd like to forestall my burnout and at the same time reduce the
> likelihood that such burnout (if it were to happen) would
seriously
> affect SEUL/edu.
>
> I think the best way to do that would be to hand off some of the
> responsibilities I've taken on myself for SEUL/edu.  I've already
> done a bit of that, with Les Richardson maintaining the databases
we
> use for the Application Index and case studies, and Karl Peņa
> maintaining the case studies themselves.  But there are still a
> number of things I'm doing that I think it would be best to share
> around.  I'll list them below:
>
> * Check Freshmeat, LinuxApps, and other sites (as they occur to
me)
> every day for newly announced educational applications and add
those
> apps to our Application Index
>
> * Maintain this mailing list, forwarding appropriate messages to
it
> that come in from non-subscribers and adding and removing
addresses
> to keep the list up to date
>
> * Write the Linux in education report every other Monday
>
> * Work to get the ISO project off the ground
>
> Those four are the major things.  I'd like to have some volunteers

> to take responsibility for some of these.  The first one, checking

> for new apps and adding them to the Index, could be done by more
> than one person; it's important that it gets done every day
though,
> I think.  The second one is a one-person job, but not really all
> that tedious if it's the only mailing list you're adminning.  I
> don't mind doing the third one, but it wouldn't hurt to have
others
> willing to fill in when I occasionally am overwhelmed at work.  Up

> until now Karl has done so when I'm on vacation, but otherwise
I've
> written them all myself.  The fourth one is where I'd like to put
my
> own major effort.
>
> In addition to these tasks there are some that aren't currently
> getting done that really need doing.  Our App Index has a number
of
> records that are incomplete (lacking author's names and email
> addresses, for example) or out of date (bad URLs, etc.).  Les can
> generate reports of which records need updating, but we need help
in
> making those updates.
>
> Our case studies submission form has a field where we ask if the
> submitter would like assistance.  I don't think _anyone_ has said
> "No" to that question, but we have never done anything with that
> information.  We need to come up with some idea and personnel
> committment to do something about that.
>
> We made long-term plans a while ago to create LUG support
materials
> to help LUGs in working with schools.  That would be a nice
project
> to get started, but I know I won't have the time or energy to lead

> it.
>
> I'd like to get FUDForum or Phorum installed on a SEUL server so
> both SEUL/edu and Schoolforge could use it.  That would give us a
> web forum interface to these discussions in addition to this
mailing
> list.  Again, that's something I don't have the time to install or

> maintain.
>
> There you have it.  I'll be happy to give details on what I do for

> those things I'm already doing to anyone interested it taking some

> of them on.  I think it's important that we spread the
> responsibilities around so that if any one of us has to bow out
> temporarily or permanently the work will continue.  Let me hear
from
> you!
>
> --
> How valuable is my contribution?
> Share your feedback at Affero:
> http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=drloss
>
> Doug Loss                 All I want is a warm bed
> Data Network Coordinator  and a kind word and
> Bloomsburg University     unlimited power.
> dloss@bloomu.edu                Ashleigh Brilliant
>
>
>