[NBLUG/talk] Fwd: OOo education marketing strategy

Lincoln Peters lincoln_peters at hotmail.com
Sun Aug 17 16:37:00 PDT 2003


Find someone with some authority (perhaps the teacher of a computer class, 
an IT person, anyone) and tell them that there is a program called 
OpenOffice that can do everything that Microsoft Office can do, and it is 
100% free and open-source.  Be sure to tell them the website address 
(http://www.openoffice.org/).  Of course, it can do some things that 
Microsoft Office can't do, but we don't want to overwhelm them (most 
teachers don't seem to learn as quickly as their students).

You might also be able to get their attention if you tell them that it is 
available in 27 languages.  Considering the number of native 
Spanish-speakers in our area, I'm sure that part of the student population 
would appreciate a free office suite that speaks their native language.

The OpenOffice.org team plans to release an ISO that, once burned to a CD, 
will easily install OpenOffice on any Windows machine.  If they decide that 
they want OpenOffice on the computers in their PC labs, they can easily do 
so with this CD.

If you can convince anyone with a CD burner to help, you should ask them if 
they can burn OpenOffice CD's.

The ISO should be released before the end of the month.  I'll let the group 
know as soon as it becomes available.  I can also burn copies of it for 
those who want to participate but don't have CD burners (or who have CD 
burners but slow Internet connections).


As for the Mac lab, tf the Macs are running MacOS X or later, they can run 
OpenOffice, but as far as I know, there is no way to run it on earlier 
versions of MacOS (9 or earlier).  Furthermore, the MacOS X version of 
OpenOffice is not yet localized, so students would have to use it in English 
even if English is not their first language.


If anyone at Maria Carillo has questions that you can't answer, feel free to 
give them my e-mail address (lincoln_peters at hotmail.com).  I'll try to 
answer any questions that come my way.






Lincoln




>From: Nat W <calvin166 at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: talk at nblug.org
>To: talk at nblug.org
>Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] Fwd: OOo education marketing strategy
>Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 15:34:52 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I am a student at mario carillo high in santa rosa id
>be willing to help if you gave me a little more info
>on how you plan on puttin open office in the school.
>we have 3 pc labs and 2 mac labs
>
>--- Lincoln Peters <lincoln_peters at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > I just got this message from Ian.  He has partially
> > formalized the strategy
> > for putting OpenOffice in schools, although he is
> > certain that the exacy
> > procedure will vary by country.
> >
> > I live in Rohnert Park, and I know that I can get
> > CD's to Rancho Cotate High
> > School.  I can also try to get something to happen
> > in Thomas Page School
> > (the K-8 school in Cotati) and Marguerite Hahn
> > Elementary School.  If anyone
> > on this list has even one contact in any school
> > (teacher OR student), I
> > would strongly recommend that you try to get the
> > word into the school, even
> > if you cannot be there on October 13 and/or you
> > cannot burn CD's.  We *will*
> > find a way to get those CD's into their hands.
> >
> > Ian is also interested in the names of anyone who
> > wants to participate (so
> > that he can say how big the effort really is when he
> > writes the press
> > release).  If you want to get involved, send an
> > e-mail either to me or to
> > Ian <ian.lynch2 at ntlworld.com>.  Use the subject line
> > "OOoEduHelper" if you
> > e-mail Ian.
> >
> >
> > For those who might fail to see the advantages of
> > OpenOffice over Microsoft
> > Office: consider that Microsoft Office XP
> > Professional costs $429.99 at
> > CompUSA.  At Tiger Direct
> > (http://www.tigerdirect.com/), CD-R media costs as
> > little as $0.17 per disc.  That means that, for the
> > price of one copy of
> > Microsoft Office XP Professional, one could burn
> > 2,529 OpenOffice CD's!
> > Furthermore, there is no limit, theoretical or
> > legal, to the number of
> > computers that you could install OpenOffice on with
> > just one of those 2,529
> > CD's!
> >
> > And if that's not enough, a complete list of new
> > features in OpenOffice 1.1
> > (many of which are completely lacking in Microsoft
> > Office) is available at
> >
>http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/1.1rc3/features.html
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Lincoln
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: ian <ian.lynch2 at ntlworld.com>
> > >Subject: OOo education marketing strategy
> > >Date: 17 Aug 2003 13:41:16 +0100
> > >
> > >Hi,
> > >
> > >You are being sent this message because you
> > expressed interest in
> > >helping with the launch of a marketing strategy for
> > Education starting
> > >on October 13th 2003, OOo's third birthday. If you
> > no longer wish to
> > >participate please E-mail me and let me know and
> > I'll remove you from
> > >the list.
> > >
> > >There will be differences in different countries
> > and so we need a broad
> > >strategy that can be "localised" to fit individual
> > circumstances. Here
> > >is the basic strategy
> > >
> > >Goal 1.
> > >
> > >Get as many activists as possible worldwide
> > >
> > >Effective strategies: Tap into your contacts and
> > mailing list where
> > >these are likely to be sympathetic. I have had a
> > good response from
> > >Schoolforge, AFFS, Linux User Groups. It only takes
> > an E-mail to a
> > >suitable list so potential large gain for small
> > effort. I encourage
> > >non-native speakers of English to do this because
> > its less likely that
> > >the messages set out in English will cross the
> > language barrier without
> > >this. Encourage anyone taking part to drop me a
> > minimal E-mail with the
> > >title OOoEduHelper so I can keep a list of all the
> > helpers. It will help
> > >if they say whether they want to be added to this
> > list or not and if so
> > >their location and briefly what they propose to do.
> > >
> > >Goal 2.
> > >
> > >Get as many schools as possible aware that OOo
> > exists
> > >
> > >This simply requires contacting schools and
> > providing factual
> > >information.ie There is a free Office Suite they
> > can download from
> > >www.OpenOffice.org and there are sources of supply
> > on CD-ROM for nominal
> > >media costs. The software is designed for easy
> > migration from MS Office
> > >and has a high degree of file compatibility with
> > it. The software has
> > >functions of significant value to education the go
> > beyond those found in
> > >MS Office. eg Ability to save in pdf format and a
> > powerful drawing and
> > >design program. The method of contacting the
> > schools will depend on
> > >local organisation. In some cases it will be just a
> > matter of talking to
> > >a friend or relative who works in a particular
> > school, in others it
> > >might be possible to contact the administration
> > responsible for a group
> > >of schools. Remember one school contacted is better
> > than no schools
> > >contacted so don't assume that if you can't do a
> > lot its not worthwhile.
> > >Every little bit helps.
> > >
> > >Goal 3.
> > >
> > >Get OOo to as many students as possible
> > >
> > >This is the next step on from Goal 2. Again, it
> > will to an extent depend
> > >on local circumstances. If for example you just
> > want to burn some CDs
> > >for the project, we need to be able to transfer
> > these to someone who can
> > >distribute to them in schools. It would therefore
> > be helpful if you
> > >could E-mail me back with some idea of where you
> > are located eg Country,
> > >State/county/region and briefly the extent of your
> > participation
> > >
> > >eg contact a school raise awareness, or burn 50
> > CDs, but I need a
> > >distributor or burn 100 CDs and distribute them
> > myself.
> > >
> > >I can't be absolutely sure how this will work out
> > but lets give it a go
> > >and see.
> > >
> > >The final version of OOo 1.1 should be available
> > before the end of
> > >August and there should be an iso. On this
> > assumption I propose where
> > >possible to use the "official" ISO from the OOo
> > Website as far as
> > >possible. If this makes life difficult as you
> > already have plans to
> > >distribute OOo as part of a different package then
> > Ok, but try and make
> > >it vers 1.1 as it has some clear advantages that
> > will help further the
> > >marketing effort. The bottom line is that any OOo
> > is better than no OOo
> > >but 1.1 is what we should be aiming for.
> > >
> > >Goal 4 Publicity
> > >
> > >If we can make a press announcement that hundreds
> > of volunteers around
> > >the world are supporting schools in getting free
> > Office Software it is
> > >likely to be newsworthy which is why I need
> > evidence of all the
> > >helpers.We have no advertising budget but this sort
> > of exposure is
> > >better than "paid for" advertising. I'll prepare a
> > press release nearer
> > >the time and again if any of you can send it to as
> > many journals in your
> > >country/locality as possible it will be a big help
> > >
> > >Goal 5 Platform for future development.
> > >
> >
>=== message truncated ===
>
>
>=====
>- Nat
>
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