Re: [LibrePlanet-US-MA] Lets start something! Introductions and planning

[Ben Schwalb]

Hey guys,
My name's Ben Schwalb and I'm studying at Tufts. I actually will be abroad next year, so I won't be able to do much in person after the summer, but I have to say I really like the idea of reaching out to schools!

I think one thing that's important to emphasize when dealing with schools is how much development is being done in a FLOSS environment anyway. Clearly man of these initiatives to bring computers into schools focus on the fact that computing is a practical skill. I think we should make clear that being familiar with a GNU/Linux environment is practical at this point. I have a software dev internship this summer and I know I was surprised to see that half of the computers ran Windows.

I think it would be advantageous (though I don't quite know how, so I'm welcome to suggestions) to compile a list of all the companies that the average person has heard of (or at least make a well-known product) that use free and/or open-source software. Essentially, I'd like to send the message that schoolchildren are more likely to work at these "impressive" companies if they are familiar with GNU/Linux.  I don't know if this would also be helpful, but a similar list could be compiled for colleges (and the numbers would probably be much more in our favor).

Also, it might be worth bringing up that Mac is essentially a BSD variant, so being familiar with a Linux distro (or BSD) would make one a better Mac user as well.  I know this kind of stuff isn't ideologically very nice, but it could help.

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Steven DuBois <address@hidden> wrote:

I'm Steven DuBois, known as sdubois on irc and Sdubz in my professional
rapping career. This summer, I am an intern at the FSF along with Danny
and I am also a developer on the GNU social project.

I've been an FSF volunteer for about a year now and this fall I will be
attending RIT in Rochester, NY for Computer Science. My hometown is
Fairhaven, MA (next to New Bedford) but I am spending the summer in
Cambridge.

--
Steven DuBois <address@hidden>
Free Software Foundation - Intern

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