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Our semester of
linux activities is almost over, and I thank everyone who
has lectured/helped organize/attended. I am thinking over what has been and what should be in the future. The initial response to our linux initiative was very positive, and the first few lectures drew large crowds. Since then the attendance has gone down to 25-35, but this is also fine. I think the beginners' series would have worked better if we had asked one or two people to give all 6 lectures (I apologize to those who told me they were willing to give all the lectures and I pushed them off). 6 lectures is plenty of time to show people what a linux system looks like, what you can do with it, how to look after it, and how to install it. But the lectures need to be well-coordinated, and the way we divided up the material did not work out so well. I think it would also be better to have beginners' lectures week-after-week, not with large gaps between them. If we try again to run a 6-lecture beginners' course, we will try to correct these problems. Also I think the right time for a beginners' course is at the start of the academic year, when it will hopefully appeal to new students on campus, who will benefit a lot if they have a unix system on their PCs at home. THE ACTIVITY WILL OF COURSE REMAIN OPEN TO ALL!! With the "advanced" lectures, I notice that we get a lot of different faces at each of the lectures. I think this is very natural: some people come to all lectures because they want to learn new stuff, but most select the subjects they are interested in, and don't have time for the rest. I am keen that we continue the advanced lectures as a service to the open source community in the Gush Dan area. The way I suggest to run things is simply that anyone who thinks they have a good lecture to give, or who knows someone who has a good lecture to give, should contact me with the proposal. I will consult with a few people to check there is interest, and assuming there is, I will arrange a room and a projector at a time that is good for the lecturer, and put up posters on campus. The lecturer/organizer can post information to the linux-biu mailing list and on IGLU. I have spent quite a lot of time this semester getting equipment ready for the lectures, and I think from now I will have to insist that all I can offer is the projector, lecturers will have to bring their own laptops and/or computers. I would like to hear people's feedback on the ideas above. You can write to me privately at [EMAIL PROTECTED], or post your comments to the linux-biu list, if you think they are of general interest. Sincerely, Jeremy Schiff PS I will reply separately to the various comments that have been sent to the list this week. |
