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The Beacon School is a selective secondary public school on West 61st Street in New York City. It is a place where students are encouraged to work with computers and technology, not just to run educational software, but to write code, administer networks and troubleshoot hardware. Long on knowledge but short on cash, Beacon is a textbook example of how Linux and Open Source make the impossible possible in education.

The Beacon "tech staff" is a loose gathering of faculty and students, but don't think for a minute that the faculty is there to ladle jargon and useless information onto the kids. These students are maintaining Webservers, learning Perl and rebuilding machines. Beacon is a place unlike any other, and the differences are wonderful.

For instance, there's Tiffany Atiles. Tiffany is the captain of Beacon's girls basketball team. She's also learning Perl and she teaches the teachers HTML. Carmelo Pabon is a tall guy, and he's the captain of the school's Ultimate Frisbee team. He's also incredibly good at taking machines apart to find out what's worth keeping, and what should go; a valuable skill in computer systems triage, especially at a cash-poor high school. The students take an active role in building and maintaining the school's network; Adam Matos, the senior student sysadmin, has root and administrative privileges on every machine in the school. Instead of the standard "spoonfeeding" that takes place in computer labs around the country, Beacon works because there's an overwhelming sense of cooperation, among the students, their parents, and the faculty.

Beacon prides itself on maintaining a dynamic curriculum focused on aestetics, technology and the arts, as well as the high school staples. Due to financial constraints placed on public schools, Beacon has to get the most out of every piece of technology they have. It seems as though Linux is a perfect fit. I recently got to ask Chris Lehmann, the school's technical coordinator, about how Linux has helped Beacon.

"Using Open Source, I was able to scale projects to include the entire school. If we were using proprietary software for all of the services we provide, we'd have to raise tens of thousands of dollars just to pay for e-mail and Web service for everyone. We wanted to start teaching programming... we didn't have to go out and buy compilers, we use the open source compilers on our server. IRC servers for bringing in experts to talk to our classes, mailing lists to support collaboration, we wanted conferencing software, we found great open source projects for Web-based conferencing, and now we're starting to alter the source to make it fit our needs better! Just by offering everyone in the building a stable, robust e-mail, Web and file-server, without ever worrying that we'd go over a user license, we create an atmosphere that encourages the use of the technology. Without Linux and Open Source, that doesn't happen."

Everyone at Beacon is learning a valuable lesson; when technology is implemented in a way that benefits everyone, cool things happen. All of a sudden, they're building Web sites in English class. Not only that, but they're often sharing their work with a "Cyber-Mentor," a program now in its second year, where students work with adults from the outside world on their writing. They're using technology every step of the way, and learning multiple skills as time goes by. Remember Tiffany, the girl's basketball captain? You can hear play-by-play of the games on the school's RealAudio server, as well as poetry readings. Keith Miller's photography class is getting into digital photography.

Thermodynamics tells us that there's no such thing as a completely efficient system. What happens when things go wrong? I asked Chris if any of the students have ever caused a serious problem on the network.

"Define serious... every time Word crashes when a kid hasn't saved their work in the last two hours, we've got a crisis of epic proportion."

"Seriously, not often. We've had a scanner walk out of the building, and we lose our fair share of mouse balls, but we've had very few problems. And I think there is a reason for that. The best hackers in the school work for the tech staff. We encourage kids to learn as much as they can, and we want them to feel like they've got access to anything they'd need to accomplish that. Every student has shell access... and we want them learning as much about Linux as they can."

"I'd say that once or twice a year, we find a kid trying to install a keycoder, or trying to hack into a hole in the server. More often, kids have been fiddling around and thought they'd accidentally wrecked something. I remember the poor student who was trying to learn about TCP settings and hit return right when our T1 line went down. They thought they'd brought down the network."

It raises an interesting point, one that's been recently discussed at length on Slashdot; what isn't allowed on the network at Beacon? It's great to trust kids and work with them, but there's got to be some kind of control there. Chris?

"Installing AOL is verboten, mostly because the kids try to set it to 'Home' setting and it always messes up network connections. Also, I really don't want my kids playing around in the AOL chat rooms... The last thing Beacon needs is a cyber-scandal. Keeping AOL off is a good defense. We also are pretty strict about installing games... again, not just for the obvious reason of 'Games are bad' but rather because most of the games I've seen kids installing off of a download have been buggy or virus-riddled. Also, we do want to control the use of games at school. Even with three open labs, there are always kids wanting to use the computers for their projects... not having games all over the computers make using the computers for educational purposes easier. That being said, when the kids and I have worked in the summer to get the school ready, we've had some pretty amazing Quake games."

"Clearly, porn is not allowed at Beacon, but we don't try to filter out every site. Rather than trying to filter everything, we really work to teach the kids what is and isn't appropriate for school. We also have supervision in the open labs, by both teachers and students, so that there is an expectation of appropriate use."

"Again, I think more important than 'What isn't allowed' is 'How do we teach the students to use the computers well.'"

Using Linux and Open Source software as the infrastructure, Beacon is blazing a new trail in American education. By using free tools and expanding on their functions, Beacon does a lot for a little, and the real winners are the students. When Tiffany, Adam and Carmelo leave high school, they'll have marketable skills in the tech marketplace. While all the other students may not be quite as technically inclined, they'll be familiar with more than just the basics. Beacon teaches students not to be afraid of computers, and if they're good with computers, not to be afraid of their skills. In the words of Chris Lehmann...

"Being a techie isn't a stigma, it's cool. And that rocks."

We're inclined to agree. The case for using Linux and Open Source software in education is getting better and better as each day goes by, and the Beacon School is a shining example.

Last week, The Bazaar, an Open Source meeting and exhibition, was held for the first time in New York City. It was not a well-attended event, with fewer than 3000 registered visitors, and the view from the show's main floor was downright dismal because most of the people there spent most of their time in tutorial sessions, not cruising the (sparse) display booths. But it was still an event many found valuable. Here are some "show tales" from Slashdot readers who were there. (click below)

From Jordan Greenberg:

The Bazaar was my first real chance to meet any of the big names of the Linux community. Though I missed all of the daytime events due to work, I showed up just in time to be bored by Ralph Nader and retreat to the Andover.net party before things got too crazy. Once there I was able to chat with such legends as ESR, Bruce Perens, Maddog Hall, Jeff and Robin, and was even able to make RMS laugh about the whole to GNU or not to GNU Linux naming debate. Personally, I was never a big fan of saying GNU/Linux - I think it sounds awkward and confusing and I did not like RMS demanding that people in his presence use the GNU (right Chris?).

With almighty tequila coursing through my veins, I found myself in the midst of a sermon by RMS on why he believes we need GNU terminology - and coming from his mouth it suddenly made sense (or perhaps that was the tequila too). Linux, or GNU/Linux as RMS would have it, depends not only on the quality of the software but about the freedom within, granted by the GPL. By using the GNU prefix we remind ourselves and others of this. GNU/Linux is not just about the software, but about the ideals behind that software.

But it still sounds awkward. "The problem is," I said to RMS and the others that were still listening, "that you need a catchier name for it. How about calling yourself an "impaladin?"

"Impaladin?" asked RMS

"Yes, impaladin - Have GNU will travel"

RMS laughed - he approved

So feel free to use this new name - maybe even create an impaladin distribution or just laugh at it - but enjoy.

-------------

Isaac Salpeter's take:

The heart of this conference was not to be found on the exhibition floor, nor in the (repetitive axe-grinding of the) keynotes, but in the classes and general sessions. Suggestion for the future: more open discussions and cooperation, less Ralph Nader yammering about how much Microsoft sucks.

Best conversation overheard:

"So, will the Andover party have a cash bar?"

"No, there's free beer."

"Uh-oh, Stallman's gonna be pissed..."

--------------------

Annelise Anderson, representing FreeBSD, says:

Whatever its raw edges, The Bazaar conference was worthwhile for the usual networking reasons. The best of the networking went on at the reception hosted by andover.net and the follow-on reception at the FAO Schwarz toy store, an inspired location for this crowd. This one was thanks to FAO Schwartz and IBM.

The BSDs could -- should -- have had a stronger presence here, perhaps with a combined exhibit booth in addition to the volunteers demo-ing on their own computers. Patrick Lynch of the NY users' group organized a pan-BSD BOF; Bob Bruce showed up there and said we might see an IPO with FreeBSD's name on it before the middle of next year. My little Sony picturebook was a source of some amazement -- FreeBSD -current running on such a little thing, with a couple of those stunning Eterms. The publishers in attendance were generally unaware that along with the multiple Linux distros, FreeBSD and the other BSDs exist and transfer an enormous amount of the traffic on the Internet.

---------------

Adam Matos, Systems Administrator and Student, The Beacon School, writes:

While attending The Bazaar here in Manhattan, I found it to be fascinating that so many people support the Linux community. I came with a colleague and teacher of mine, Chris Lehmann, Technology coordinator for The Beacon School. Chris was the one who first showed me Linux and how useful it can be. At Beacon we use Linux on our primary servers and wanted to let others know that schools, too, use Linux.

I attended a tuturial Wednesday morning, Enterprise System Management, that was suposed to teach me about running Linux servers. I walked out 10 minutes into the tuturial. I took a quick look at what was planned for the session and noticed I knew a majority of it. Not because I think I know it all, but because we've done most of it at Beacon. Such things as configuring Samba and writing shell scripts were something I learned under Chris Lehmanns's coordination at school. With less than two years Linux experience, I've been given the title Systems Administrator.

As I leave The Bazaar, I feel more comfortable about how many other Linux enthusiasts are out there. Linux is something everyone I feel can start adapting to. People can change.

---------------

From Nopalzin Torrres, Systems & Network Administrator, IllusionFusion!:

I was nervous when I first arrived, but the Open Source community welcomed my desire to learn and contribute. I walked out of the Building Firewalls with Open BSD tutorial saying "Damn, I can really make this work". I also picked up some great info on Samba and Linux system admin. I had a great time and met some great guys.

---------------

starlady (AKA Jessica Lee Sheffield) finishes off by saying:

Having been to a show every month for the past four months, I thought I had some idea of what to expect when entering the exhibit floor, but my expectations were largely confounded as this was a much smaller show than I have experienced. I wasn't surprised to see Geek Compound 3.0 greet me as I walked through the door - Andover's .org pavilion, which was comprised of Linux.com, Linuxfund.org, NetBSD, KDE, and others, in addition to Slashdot and Freshmeat, of course. As I continued on through the floor looking for the UserFriendly booth, I noticed that several of the powerhouse booths at past shows, notably Red Hat and VA Linux, had a surprisingly subdued presence at this one, while Caldera (of "E-business!" fame at COMDEX) wasn't even in attendance.

The atmosphere at The Bazaar was very community-oriented, which is why it's a shame that the attendance was so low. Without the distractions of marketing ploys, people were free to discuss projects, collaboration, or simply say "Hey, I like your work." I had very nice conversations with some of the leading names in the Open Source community, and even witnessed a random guy walk up to Bob Young, notice his red beret, and ask, "Hey, are you with Red Hat or something?"

When Mr. Young nodded with a smile, the guy proceeded to ask him support questions, while I and Paul Ferris of LinuxToday snuck off before our snickering gave the game away. To his credit, Mr Young was very gracious in answering the man's questions and making him feel comfortable.

The relaxed nature of The Bazaar made it possible for smaller organizations to catch the eye and ear of the community and publicize their own open source efforts. One such was The Beacon School, an alternative public school in New York City where the students administrate Linux servers and run projects on them. The students are very enthusiastic and eager to be involved in the community, and I believe they made a very good impression on the attendees (except perhaps the ones that kept shooting the Nerf weapons kindly provided by Copyleft). Speaking of Nerf, Copyleft's "Shoot the Star Wars action figures, win a prize" campaign was a roaring success. I took a Slashdot frisbee home with me, so I can't complain. :)

All in all, I think The Bazaar was a success for its first year. The traffic wasn't as high as anyone would have liked due to bad placement within the Javits center, but I believe that is something they can improve in the future. The show was a great chance to see old friends and make new ones in the Open Source world, and I think a lot of positive things will come of that.

---------------

There were things that could have been improved, and the timing was wrong; theBazaar was held in the middle of finals week for most area colleges, which I believe was a big factor in the low attendance. And for some reason the heat in the Jacob Javits Convention Center wasn't working properly, which gave the whole thing a (literally) chilly atmosphere. Oh, well. Maybe next year's edition will be better-timed and better-attended.

- Robin "roblimo" Miller

Last week, The Bazaar, an Open Source meeting and exhibition, was held for the first time in New York City. It was not a well-attended event, with fewer than 3000 registered visitors, and the view from the show's main floor was downright dismal because most of the people there spent most of their time in tutorial sessions, not cruising the (sparse) display booths. But it was still an event many found valuable. Here are some "show tales" from Slashdot readers who were there. (click below)

From Jordan Greenberg:

The Bazaar was my first real chance to meet any of the big names of the Linux community. Though I missed all of the daytime events due to work, I showed up just in time to be bored by Ralph Nader and retreat to the Andover.net party before things got too crazy. Once there I was able to chat with such legends as ESR, Bruce Perens, Maddog Hall, Jeff and Robin, and was even able to make RMS laugh about the whole to GNU or not to GNU Linux naming debate. Personally, I was never a big fan of saying GNU/Linux - I think it sounds awkward and confusing and I did not like RMS demanding that people in his presence use the GNU (right Chris?).

With almighty tequila coursing through my veins, I found myself in the midst of a sermon by RMS on why he believes we need GNU terminology - and coming from his mouth it suddenly made sense (or perhaps that was the tequila too). Linux, or GNU/Linux as RMS would have it, depends not only on the quality of the software but about the freedom within, granted by the GPL. By using the GNU prefix we remind ourselves and others of this. GNU/Linux is not just about the software, but about the ideals behind that software.

But it still sounds awkward. "The problem is," I said to RMS and the others that were still listening, "that you need a catchier name for it. How about calling yourself an "impaladin?"

"Impaladin?" asked RMS

"Yes, impaladin - Have GNU will travel"

RMS laughed - he approved

So feel free to use this new name - maybe even create an impaladin distribution or just laugh at it - but enjoy.

-------------

Isaac Salpeter's take:

The heart of this conference was not to be found on the exhibition floor, nor in the (repetitive axe-grinding of the) keynotes, but in the classes and general sessions. Suggestion for the future: more open discussions and cooperation, less Ralph Nader yammering about how much Microsoft sucks.

Best conversation overheard:

"So, will the Andover party have a cash bar?"

"No, there's free beer."

"Uh-oh, Stallman's gonna be pissed..."

--------------------

Annelise Anderson, representing FreeBSD, says:

Whatever its raw edges, The Bazaar conference was worthwhile for the usual networking reasons. The best of the networking went on at the reception hosted by andover.net and the follow-on reception at the FAO Schwarz toy store, an inspired location for this crowd. This one was thanks to FAO Schwartz and IBM.

The BSDs could -- should -- have had a stronger presence here, perhaps with a combined exhibit booth in addition to the volunteers demo-ing on their own computers. Patrick Lynch of the NY users' group organized a pan-BSD BOF; Bob Bruce showed up there and said we might see an IPO with FreeBSD's name on it before the middle of next year. My little Sony picturebook was a source of some amazement -- FreeBSD -current running on such a little thing, with a couple of those stunning Eterms. The publishers in attendance were generally unaware that along with the multiple Linux distros, FreeBSD and the other BSDs exist and transfer an enormous amount of the traffic on the Internet.

---------------

Adam Matos, Systems Administrator and Student, The Beacon School, writes:

While attending The Bazaar here in Manhattan, I found it to be fascinating that so many people support the Linux community. I came with a colleague and teacher of mine, Chris Lehmann, Technology coordinator for The Beacon School. Chris was the one who first showed me Linux and how useful it can be. At Beacon we use Linux on our primary servers and wanted to let others know that schools, too, use Linux.

I attended a tuturial Wednesday morning, Enterprise System Management, that was suposed to teach me about running Linux servers. I walked out 10 minutes into the tuturial. I took a quick look at what was planned for the session and noticed I knew a majority of it. Not because I think I know it all, but because we've done most of it at Beacon. Such things as configuring Samba and writing shell scripts were something I learned under Chris Lehmanns's coordination at school. With less than two years Linux experience, I've been given the title Systems Administrator.

As I leave The Bazaar, I feel more comfortable about how many other Linux enthusiasts are out there. Linux is something everyone I feel can start adapting to. People can change.

---------------

From Nopalzin Torrres, Systems & Network Administrator, IllusionFusion!:

I was nervous when I first arrived, but the Open Source community welcomed my desire to learn and contribute. I walked out of the Building Firewalls with Open BSD tutorial saying "Damn, I can really make this work". I also picked up some great info on Samba and Linux system admin. I had a great time and met some great guys.

---------------

starlady (AKA Jessica Lee Sheffield) finishes off by saying:

Having been to a show every month for the past four months, I thought I had some idea of what to expect when entering the exhibit floor, but my expectations were largely confounded as this was a much smaller show than I have experienced. I wasn't surprised to see Geek Compound 3.0 greet me as I walked through the door - Andover's .org pavilion, which was comprised of Linux.com, Linuxfund.org, NetBSD, KDE, and others, in addition to Slashdot and Freshmeat, of course. As I continued on through the floor looking for the UserFriendly booth, I noticed that several of the powerhouse booths at past shows, notably Red Hat and VA Linux, had a surprisingly subdued presence at this one, while Caldera (of "E-business!" fame at COMDEX) wasn't even in attendance.

The atmosphere at The Bazaar was very community-oriented, which is why it's a shame that the attendance was so low. Without the distractions of marketing ploys, people were free to discuss projects, collaboration, or simply say "Hey, I like your work." I had very nice conversations with some of the leading names in the Open Source community, and even witnessed a random guy walk up to Bob Young, notice his red beret, and ask, "Hey, are you with Red Hat or something?"

When Mr. Young nodded with a smile, the guy proceeded to ask him support questions, while I and Paul Ferris of LinuxToday snuck off before our snickering gave the game away. To his credit, Mr Young was very gracious in answering the man's questions and making him feel comfortable.

The relaxed nature of The Bazaar made it possible for smaller organizations to catch the eye and ear of the community and publicize their own open source efforts. One such was The Beacon School, an alternative public school in New York City where the students administrate Linux servers and run projects on them. The students are very enthusiastic and eager to be involved in the community, and I believe they made a very good impression on the attendees (except perhaps the ones that kept shooting the Nerf weapons kindly provided by Copyleft). Speaking of Nerf, Copyleft's "Shoot the Star Wars action figures, win a prize" campaign was a roaring success. I took a Slashdot frisbee home with me, so I can't complain. :)

All in all, I think The Bazaar was a success for its first year. The traffic wasn't as high as anyone would have liked due to bad placement within the Javits center, but I believe that is something they can improve in the future. The show was a great chance to see old friends and make new ones in the Open Source world, and I think a lot of positive things will come of that.

---------------

There were things that could have been improved, and the timing was wrong; theBazaar was held in the middle of finals week for most area colleges, which I believe was a big factor in the low attendance. And for some reason the heat in the Jacob Javits Convention Center wasn't working properly, which gave the whole thing a (literally) chilly atmosphere. Oh, well. Maybe next year's edition will be better-timed and better-attended.

- Robin "roblimo" Miller