MESSAGE
| DATE | 2001-12-22 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Another Introduction: Schoolforge & NYLXS Educational Committee [william@inch.com]
|
Marcus
This is for You
Ruben
On 2001.12.22 15:25:40 -0500 William Abernathy wrote:
Ruben: I misaddressed this to you last night. Duh! There's already a
response from Doug that I will forward to you as well.
--WA
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Another Introduction: Schoolforge & NYLXS Educational Committee
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 19:06:17 -0800
From: William Abernathy
To: ruben-at-mrbrooklyn.com, Doug Loss
Ruben, Doug, it's time for me to try to make another introduction. If you
guys
already know each other, my apologies. Things have been a little hectic
around
la casa de Abernathy of late, and keeping all the chainsaws up in the air
can
get a little distracting.
Ruben, I don't know if you saw the recent note on Slashdot about
Schoolforge,
but I think you should try to get the NYLXS Educational Committee on board
as
soon as you can. The alpha nerd on the SEUL/Edu list, Doug Loss, is
currently
quite effectively guiding an international upwelling of support for open
source/free software in an educational setting. I tried to set him and Jay
up,
but I don't know if things ever took off beyond introductory niceties. If
not,
it's a shame, but understandable considering how active Jay has been. (By
the
way, your and Jay's efforts were mentioned by name at the EFF's Free
Dmitry bash
last Tuesday. Congrats for a job well done!)
Anyway, the objectives of Schoolforge are largely coextensive with those of
NYLXS's Educational Committee--putting open/free systems within the grasp
of the
kids who need them most. I really hope that the phenomenal activism and
excitement that was shown around the education issue around the time I was
leaving New York have been sustained in the NYLXS-edu group. There is a
clear
synergy here with affiliating your local efforts in the Capitol of the
World
with Schoolforge's burgeoning international movement. Your objectives are
identical, and your strengths would aid each other ably. If you are not
chairing
the Education Committee, please pass this introduction along to its chair.
Schoolforge has considerable momentum, and I believe NYLXS would get back
everything out of their involvement with Schoolforge, and more. I'd direct
you
to the new site, but it's not launching until early January.
Ruben, say hi to Doug. Doug, say hi to Ruben.
Finally, Ruben, there is one area in which the New York Linux scene may be
especially suited to aiding the long-term success of our movement. Since
IBM
entered the arena and named Linux as a strategic operating system platform
last
year, I have been firmly of the opinion that the future of open/free
software in
education lies in or ability to get IBM on board. Red Hat is wonderful, but
they're a bug compared to IBM. The guys from Armonk can drop vastly
greater sums
on "demonstration projects" than all the Linux vendors combined. Further,
Linux/IBM is a much better solution than M$ for schools with limited
administrative budgets, if deployed as part of a central server/thin client
architecture.
I know that there are many connections between the New York Linux scene
and Big
Blue. I would like to ask if you could make some of those connections
available
to Schoolforge, so that we can approach them not as a single user group in
one
city, but rather as a coordinated front of groups from all around the
world. I
think that this would strengthen our pitch immensely, and provide a serious
alternative to the crass injection of Microsoft dreckware into more
schools in
the name of "settlement."
Regards,
--William Abernathy
--
__________________________
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____________________________
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