[NBLUG/talk] OpenOffice campaign: Cotati-Rohnert Park results

Lincoln Peters lincoln_peters at hotmail.com
Mon Oct 13 15:18:01 PDT 2003


During Rancho Cotate High School's regular lunch break, I had a table set up 
in the quad (where most students hang out during this time) with 100 CD's 
and 11x17" enlargements of each page of the school flyer.  Although there 
was occasional skepticism (mostly over whether or not it would crash their 
computers), most students who stopped to ask what I was promoting were 
interested enough that they took a CD.  Overall, I passed out 64 CD's in the 
span of the 40-minute lunch break.

The IT person at the high school was unwilling to install them on the school 
computers, as he was worried about support issues (he seems interested in 
OpenOffice, but he's overworked).  However, he was willing to let me pass 
out CD's to students.

At one elementary school, I was able to put five CD's and a copy of the 
flyer in the hands of the principal, who said he'd be willing to install 
them on school computers and to loan them to teachers and parents.  At 
another, I was able to leave one CD and a copy of the flyer.  I was not able 
to visit any other schools in the district.

I was able to talk to the district superintendent, who was interested in 
OpenOffice and was willing to have someone look at it.  However, I have not 
heard back from them yet.

It is possible that there will be support issues with OpenOffice, so I'll 
keep an eye on the schools for a while.  I'll also recommend that they join 
some of the OpenOffice mailing lists.  Eventually, they may develop an 
interest in other open-source products, at which point I can recommend 
joining the NBLUG.


I have 32 OpenOffice CD's remaining, and I seem to remember that LUGOD 
wanted OpenOffice CD's to distribute at ISSA.  Is there someone who plans to 
attend both the NBLUG meeting tomorrow who could bring the CD's to LUGOD?  
If so, I'll bring the CD's to the meeting tomorrow.


Does anyone else have anything to report about open-source advocacy in 
schools?




Lincoln

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