[lug] CU-boulder install-fest

[Ferdinand Schmid]

Chris,

Thanks for this detailed information and for your lobbying efforts.  I
believe that advertising on campus may be more important that having
the actual event on campus.

Most students will try to find a ride to the event so they don't need
to carry their desktop PC across campus - and then convenient parking
may be more important than driving an extra mile ;)

Ferdinand

--On Monday, June 09, 2003 01:58:43 PM -0600 Chris Riddoch
<Christopher.Riddoch at colorado.edu> wrote:

> Glenn Ashton <gfa at idiom.com> writes:
> 
>> I don't know what the ECE Capstone area is.
> 
> It's one of the electrical engineering labs on campus.  I've not been
> in there in quite some time.
> 
>> When we did a mini-expo (years ago), we worked with Chuck Johnson at
>> the CU Bookstore.
>> 
>> He set up the rooms and internet access.
> 
> When I contacted him last year for his help in setting up space and
> network for an installfest, he brushed me off, saying, "We don't make
> any money with Linux."  Maybe I caught him on a couple of bad days,
> but speaking from my own experience, I don't think we can expect much
> help from the bookstore.
> 
> I can't say I'm terribly surprised -- The new posters up in the
> student center advertising MS software in the CU bookstore have the
> attention-grabbing text that says, "If you could get software for any
> less, it'd be illegal."  If they're not making any money from Linux
> sales, perhaps it might have something to do with misunderstandings
> and preconceptions.  Their server for selling books online is running
> IIS.
> 
>> I imagine that you would need to contact UMC scheduling, but if a
>> professor, or academic dept, or student group or the bookstore
>> decided to help it makes things so much easier.
> 
> A couple years ago, I set up a student group for BLUG on campus for
> exactly this purpose. I know people in scheduling, and can work with
> them on setting things up.
> 
>> Also, though money is a problem for poor college students, if we had
>> to pay some nominal fee for connectivity on campus for a one day
>> event, I think some folks might be willing to throw in a couple of
>> bucks.
> 
> This is the real catch. Student groups can get classrooms for free,
> but it costs $120 to use a projector for one hour, through the
> official channels. Network access is about $150/hr, last I asked.
> They nickle-and-dime student groups pretty hard, outside groups worse.
> I could pass around the hat, but I'd rather not have us in the
> business of handling money.
> 
>> So, asking around first is a good thing.  You're right in thinking
>> that folks at CU should have an interest in presenting what Linux
>> and Open Source are to students.  There are so many excellent tools
>> in the average Linux distribution for a wide variety of uses in an
>> academic setting.
> 
> Should, yes. Individual professors have done a great deal with
> Linux. Free software even has its advocates among some faculty in the
> law school here. But as far as the university as a whole is concerned,
> it's thoroughly indifferent.  ITS, the telecom and network people on
> campus, don't support it at all and seem to have no interest in
> changing that.
> 
> In all fairness, the university has its silver linings - the law
> school has very different policies from the rest of the campus.  They
> let us use their projectors for free, even if they sometimes reserve
> every room in the building for conferences (like next month) and are
> much easier to work with - they'll let us plug in access points or
> switches or whatever into the ethernet jacks at the front of the
> rooms, no cost.  The only reason not to do installfests there is that
> power cords are sparse.  They prefer legal pads. ;)
> 
> We've had network access at previous installfests in the engineering
> center by bending the rules, and I'd rather not have to do that again.
> Getting people into and out of the rooms is a mess, because the place
> is such a maze.  Parking is terrible on campus, and the bureaucracy
> just gets in the way.
> 
> Even if someone really feels like dishing out some money to pay for
> network access at CU, which would come out to several hundred dollars,
> I'd *still* rather hold installfests somewhere else.
> 
> Suggestions gladly welcome,
> 
> -- 
> Christopher.Riddoch at colorado.edu
>  - epistemological humility -
> _______________________________________________
> Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> Join us on IRC: lug.boulder.co.us port=6667 channel=#colug



--
Ferdinand Schmid
Architectural Energy Corporation
Celebrating 21 Years of Improving Building Energy Performance
http://www.archenergy.com