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Fun and Informative Way to Introduce Open Source?
jwg asks: "I work in an office environment where I provide technical services and solutions to my co-workers (as I am sure most Slashdot readers do at their respective places of employment). Once a month, we have a round-table meeting to discuss pressing issues in our office. At the beginning of these meetings, it is one person's job to provide some form of 'professional development', usually an activity or game to teach some skill, idea, or trend directly related to their job. My turn is coming up soon, and I would like to introduce my co-workers to the idea (and to some, the way of life) of Open Source. There are many examples of Open Source software and communities out there to reference (Mozilla, Wikipedia, MySQL and... oh yeah, Linux), but has anyone come up with or come across a method to introduce it in a quick, fun, and informative way to a wide variety of people each of which possess a even wider range of technical skill? Did I mention it has to be fun?"
How about creating or buying a ready-made "computer on a stick"? That is a USB memory stick...there's a fair bit of open source software, OS, apps, utilities etc., that can boot from a USB drive. You can put this together or buy one from third-party vendors. Another inexpensive alternative would be to pass around a "how to" sheet to your group after you give them a demo off a USB drive. On it you could also include the PCmag reviews of OpenOffice reassuring Microsoft Office compatibility. If you want to go the extra mile, you could even set up the Mozilla browser with all the open-source resources bookmarked like wikipedia, Wikinews, imdb, openmedia.org etc. It's an eye-opener for those not familiar with open source. More here: http://mp.blogs.com/mp/2005/07/on_computers_on.htm l
you could always try the whole falling thing you know where everyone catches the falling person. then demonstrate it if everyone tried to make there catching system "propritary"
It's always fun to have your oppinions matter. Maybe collaborate a cool fictional car, that everyone can have a say what goes into it and everyone can make a difference.
Ask everyone in the group to imagine a simple piece of paper.
Ask them:
What would use a blank sheet of paper for?
What do you know about where the paper was manufactured?
What do you know about the inventor of paper?
There are few simple alternatives to paper. Sure there are whiteboards / chalkboards / computers / sheets of mylar, etc., but each has limitations that are not inherent to paper.
Ask them how they would feel if it suddenly cost $300.00 to purchase each sheet of paper simply because the biggest vendor decided that that was what they wanted to charge. What would they do to get around this barrier to their productivity. The alternatives aren't very convenient for most people. Would they look into making their own paper?
Then tell them that there is a community that is offering other ways to manufacture paper that drastically decreased the cost - back down to the previous rate - how would they feel about that.
Better still, what if that community were all volunteers, whose goal is to make access to this type of information / service / activity available to as many people as possible?
This is rather simplistic, and doesn't address a lot of what OSS/FOSS is about, but it is a simple way to introduce the subject.
It wouldn't hurt if you could download an Open Source paper airplane design so that they can build $300.00 paper airplanes at the end of your chat.
- A
I'd personally start by installing and putting Firefox as the default browser on their computers. If you have extra computers lying around, i'd set them up in your lounge or other central location with an easy distro of Linux installed(Mepis, Ubuntu).
Go to the w3.org and put Slashdot.org through the validator.
Bring a couple hundred viruses into the office, they'd be glad to not use proprietory windows afterwards.
Enemy Territory.
Okay, some further explanation might be in order - it's an FPS that was released free to the public. It can be used/modified by anyone who is interested because it is - Open Source. And play a game or two (if your office can handle your l33t pwn4g3 sk1llz!) before steering the conversation in to the other good things about Open Source.
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
Most people outside of IT (and many who do work in IT) could not care any less about the politics of software. They don't really care about this "Open Source" thing. And why should they? What they care about are applications that install and work as close to flawlessly as possible (or at least allow them to accomplish their tasks with a minimum of problems). I really don't think you'll get much more than "Gee, that's interesting... By the way, after the meeting, can you come by my cube and show me what I'm doing wrong with this Excel macro?" If I where you, I'd "introduce" specific applications (like OpenOffice, Firefox, other more specific applications...), not the concept of "Open Source". The accounting / administrative / human resources / other non-IT folks cjust have other things to worry about.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
you say these people are techs like yourself?
Show them the beauty of OSS software ^_^. Find some software that doesn't work they way you'd like (it could be web-based software such as minibb, or desktop-oriented, such as the gameboy advance emulator Visualboy Advance), edit the source code, recompile it [if needed], and then show them the software, changed to fit your needs. You simply can't do that with closed-source software.
There is only one way: swear to them that Linux was responsible for the removal of GOATSE!
Tru that, my gay nigga...tru that. When yoos at the round table of niggas, let them know I can't attend because I'm outa diapers.w
Why not introduce OpenSource to them by example?
Example:
You one person a piece of paper and ask if that person want to type something of interest down on that paper.
Then you tell him/her to pass the paper along to someone else
Further - tell everyone that anyone who wants to see whats on that paper can get a copy right away (ok..I hope you have a photocopier standing by)
Now that everyone has a paper with all these "fun" suggestions or words on the paper introduce to them - the fact that they've just participated in an opensource project.
By that you can demonstrate the quick evolution process that a developement project can have if willing participants freely participate in an "OpenSource" project.
That is a dead-giveaway for you to start introducing real world examples of your own (insert long interesting speech here), and will be sure to make your audience listen.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Have each person write a paragraph for a story, and allow each other person to edit parts that they feel could use work. Use it as an illustration to show that if people pitch in and contribute ideas to a project work can be fun, and much faster than conventional methods of doing work.
I would shoot myself if I had to do this.
Prime examples of wasted time at the work place. You know what would make this even worse? Having to do something like this with co-workers you hate. Even so, I think I could make it fun.
"Today, were going to play some reality television. I want everyone to vote for someone to leave the office. Now, while this isn't indicative of that person losing his or her job... it just might help.
It's secret ballot... so have at it... I should also mention that not choosing another individual indicates you are not a "Team Player" and will be autmoatically chosen for not submitting a ballot."
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Emule http://www.emule-project.net/ is without a doubt one of the most popular open source apps (over 125 million downloads from SourceForge).
;-)
You can teach your coworkers how to acquire pirated software, music, dvds, and ebooks all for free. Certainly a valuable professional skill, especially if one wants to take work home with them.
And you can't beat the fun!
Do anything but show them source code.
"open" the source slowly and seductively.. I am definitely having fun! errr and getting info too....
From reliable reports, it's epidemically infective in offices that have never encountered it before.
Sort of like when the Europeans introduced smallpox to the Western Hemisphere, there's no resistance.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
...something they can take home and run on their computer UNMODIFIED. Mozilla, Firefox, OpenOffice, Gimp, etc.
:)
Let them decide if they want to trash their existing software in a jump to a full linux machine on their own. If they think they might want to but aren't sure, give them a Knoppix (or similar) CD to play with BEFORE they trash their software.
It's the forcing them into an all-or-nothing situation that will turn them away from you faster than girls from pocket-protector-wearing, tape on the bridge of the nose support on your glasses geeks.
--
telnet://sinep.gotdns.com -- TW2002 and LORD registered!
bork bork bork!
Give them each a copy of The Open CD. It's got games and screensavers and a bunch of work-friendly Free Software on it too.
Did I mention it has to be fun?
It's called swinging, aka "Open Source IRL."
How about making a black box that blinks in a certain order known only to you. Let them try and figure out what it does, and see how long it takes. Now open the box and pull out the instructions. Simple.
Microsoft Sucks, F/OSS Rocks. I get mod points now right?
How about some CD's (or wallet CD's) that have open source software on it. You can get them started with the OpenCD, then Damn Small Linux, then maybe Knoppix. Try demo'ing them.
Don't be a Hem, find some new cheese.
Walk into work in a penguin costume and a baseball bat. Then walk around from cube to cube smashing anything MS related chanting screaming "Linus is lord!".
AZBYCXDW...
ACBDEGFH...
You can transverse any collection of letters (i.e. sentences, product names) in this manner to memorize them.
Also take a look at the "Name Game". One thing holding back discovery of good ideas is prejudices like "It's just for young people/people some age younger than 18". It isn't just that the good idea is viewed that way as much as ways of discovering good ideas is thought of that way.
Lincity on a few linux laptops. I was really addicted to that game for a few weeks. It's better than any game that comes with windows. Install frozen bubble on there too http://www.frozen-bubble.org/
Set up Xfce with these and other games. Maybe the Gimp. Even Vlc (Videolan) with some porn movies. Hey, I think I have a project for home...
I had a few friends and coworkers I wanted to turn onto Linux. This entailed creating instructions for them, burning four fedora core or mandrake discs, explaining how to set up a dual boot with several partitions and, in the end, turned out to be more trouble then it was worth. I stopped suggesting it, but it wasn't so long ago that I was a freshman in college and a friend of mine handed me a debian disc....
.exe available). Or perhaps they'd enjoy the simple beauty of emacs...well, maybe you should leave out emacs.
I suggest showing them how to edit photos in The Gimp 2.0 in Win32. Or maybe making documents in OO.o in Win32 (there's an easy
Maybe you should start with simple tools first like pdfcreator on sourceforge. Or even show them how to use GAIM instead of 3 different IM programs. Maybe let them toy with NASA World Wind?
Most of these suggestions are just tiny steps, actually running Linux was one of the greatest eye-openers I've ever experienced.
My work here is dung.
Play a game where each person contributes their expertise. Tell a collaborative story, or make a drawing on the white-board.
One person draws something, then each person takes a turn 'fixing it.'
Or, play a mini-game of "Clue." You come up with something like maybe 'Dumbo.' Then you tell one person to draw an elephant while you give everyone else individual clues as to specifics about what you want this elephant to look like.
The Clue people tell the elephant person small changes to make for the elephant to look more like it's supposed to. (You can have the clues be images, to more accurately explain what the clue givers are supposed to describe.)
Okay, so that's nothing like "Clue." The point is, you involve your coworkers in an exercise where they each contribute to help the outcome achieve a more desired shape.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
In my experience, most people have trouble understanding the business model that open source companies make their money off. They will by now have heard something about open source, so they will likely have some preformed opinion on that issue. The most conservative will insist on skewing the licence terms to the company because that how they are used to making money.
If you figure out a way to get the point across that the different business model you need for open source is not hindering your chances of succes, you will have your 'war' won. You will still have to battle the nah-sayers, but if you can show the money and how it's made, you win.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Yesterday's /. actually answered this question for you - look at the article "Free Beer That's Free as in Speech", and make a catchy presentation about open source that doesn't refer once to software, Mozilla, Linux or any of that nerdy stuff. I'm sure a few references to Bud/VB/Stella or whatever the brew of choice is in your part of the world will do enough to conjure up images of big bad software monopolies versus the equally good open source little guy.
:-)
People understand Beer. Beer is fun.
Introduce the staff to the fun and excitement of installing Firefox and using Extensions. Most of them don't require a great deal of skill and regardless of the industry you work in, many of them can be extremely useful. Adblock is an easy one. Mouse gestures could also be. Show the staff how to navigate the Extensions site and take them through the installation of a few, then encourage them to each go out and find an extension that would help them in their job.
This has a dual effect. It will increase the number of Firefox installs in your office (which will probably increase your job satisfaction as you decrease the spyware outbreaks you have to deal with) and will do the job of promoting open source software.
and say "FREE AS IN FREEDOM, BIATCH!!!!!"
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like
Reason: Don't use so many
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like caps. It's like
Why not use a Knoppix CD to demonstrate Firefox, OpenOffice.org, and Linux? Then give CDs to anyone that wants to play with it. They can try it all with no risk.
Given that your audience has a range of technical ability, just showing them software isn't going to cut it. One idea would be to grab a bunch of customised knoppix distros. For example, there's a Linux Audio LiveCD which, if topped up with lots of Creative Commons samples, would probably allow you to have a pretty good attempt at some on-the-spot DJing (disclaimer: I haven't tried the CD, I have no idea if it's any good). I don't know if there's an equivalent for video, but that would also be cool. And, of course, there's always Games Knoppix. Burn a bunch of each type and pile 'em up on the table so people can grab whatever they want on the way out.
Two important caveats: firstly, make sure the CDs run properly on the demonstration computer - I know that Knoppix has some trouble with my mum's new LCD monitor. Secondly, if you want to demo more than one LiveCD, you'll probably want to have more than one machine rather than waiting for each Knoppix instance to shut down and the next one to boot up.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
just install firefox on a comp and give to them, show them all the extesions and other good things about it that IE doesnt have, like security. now that doesnt sound like much fun maybe but after using IE for a long time i bet they find it funny
See if you can get Linux installed on this piece of crap. I've had such bad luck it's ridiculous.
First the MGA Mystique is never ever ever recognized by the X11 - EVER!!! Oh sure, Knoppix can figure it out, to give me false hope, but then I try installing and nope! Not fedora, not suse, not mandrake, not ubuntu. None of them recognize it.
So I switch to an ATI card and I get ubuntu installed, but there was some error configuring something and it fails. so i try again and again and again and I give up after the fourth time.
So I switch back to fedora and it won't recognize my mouse. Now this is a pretty standard simple mouse. But nothing I do can get fedora to see the mouse.
so I install windows with MGA card - fine. I install windows with the ATI card and the mouse - fine.
I wipe it all out to try linux - because that's my main goal, and this time I try mandrake and it doesn't see the mouse.
WTF!!!!!
I think your office mates would love open source after first trying to install linux on my machine, and then trying to install windows.
yup. Love it the way I do.
Just in case you didn't see it before: TheOpenCD is a project - at least partly - developed with this in mind.
Chock full of F/OSS software for Windows, it's a great tool to introduce MS entrenched minds to the availability of quality, alternative software.
http://www.theopencd.org/
Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
Mozilla, MySQL
Try getting permission to contribute to one of those "open" projects and see how far you get.
Why not show them some real OSS? They might not work properly (think GNOME, Linux), but they are open: every idiot who has once written a line of code in GWBasic is allowed to change core functionality.
Of course, the kernel is deeply broken since 2.6.7 and is only in a working state because Suse fixed the idiots' idiocies, but hey: it's open source.
Great days we are living in. We are jolly geek giants, we walk the earth, with compilers.
One phrase. Frozen Bubble.
Fun, exciting introduction to Open Source.
But, then again, nobody would have any productivity for the rest of the day.
Luke
----
Tired of answering tons of basic computer questions for friends and family? Send them to ChristianNerds.com instead!
Firefox, Greasemonkey, Platypus, BetterSearch to name a few are pretty fun and interesting. RSS Feeds as well can encourage some people(As well as save them time while reading the news during work hours!).
All I can think of, other than PenguinRacer that is. =)
Try to give: ... and so on, and then ask them to make an omolete by convincing each other to that you pan is better to do the omollete.
- 1 pan to each participant;
- The same number of eggs as participants to one of the participants;
- Salt to another;
- Dishes to another;
Secretlly promise sushi lunch to one or two of the participants if they get the ommolet on the pan they have.
After some time reveal you secret agrrement, and ask each participant to give some of the things youo gave them.
Finnally you will have Open Source lunch;
- Everyone gave very little, but all gainned.
or
"I found it faster to explain the effort of open sourced projects when i show wikipedia,"
(I am portuguese. If you think my english is bad, try posting in portuguese!)
I am portuguese. If you think my written english is bad, try posting in portuguese!
Our Host: Hey, kids! I'm Open Source Bob! Today we're going to have informative fun with the wonder of open source.
Children: (dead silence)
OSB: And here to help me is my sidekick, Tickle-Me-Tux, the Linux penguin! Say hello to the children, Tux!
Tickle-Me-Tux: (takes a draw from cigarette) Hey, kids.
C: (tepid cheers and puzzled looks.)
OSB: Where shall we begin today, Tux?
TMT: (stares at OH while grinding out cig under foot) Look, kids, it's all a lie. Open source is a fun thing, but when you need to get things done in the real word and in mass numbers, just buy a fucking Winblows box and be done with it.
C: (uncomfortable giggles and a few sobs)
OSB: Um. Yeah. Well. Tux. You did get the updated script?
TMT: Script my fuzzy black and white ass. Hey kids, any chance this is a reform school? Any of you got a shiv? How about a nice sharp protractor?
OSB: Tux!
TMT: For fuck's sake, I can't go on living this lie, like some sort of craven icon of hope and desperation for the geek set. Hey, you. Fat kid. Would you fall on me? All I want now is the cold, silent, endless sleep of death.
OSB: That does it, Tux. It's back to the hot box for you. For a month. And you can forget those conjugal visits from Gadget Mouse.
(OSB grabs Tux and storms from the room)
TMT: Like I can get it up anymore, you fucking ballsucking cockgobbler. Hey, you in the back, toss me that drain cleaner. Hurry! Dammit! Augh! Someone fucking kill me!
C: (open bawling from the kids who haven't fled screaming)
Bring in a stripper with OSS tatoos
SLAX Linux is perfect to start with, Hand out some SLAX Mini-CDs. Have two choices, SLAX KillBill for Intermediate Computer Users, and SLAX Popcorn for Novices. SLAX
The problem with most open source software are that they are designed to elevate pain from working with closed source software. Open Source doesn't really give a person pleasure, just relief from pain. The trick is to figure out how using open source can actually give pleasure. You need to find tools and applications that actually can give people pleasure.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Make a list of popular, successful Open Source programs. For example:
Give a brief synopsis on each of them, and then ask how many of your colleagues have heard of one or more. Then throw a curve: Continue speaking, and itemize the cost per program by comparing with other examples of such software. (i.e. the latest edition of MS Office retails for almost a grand). Now say: "These programs and their alternatives are compatible, deployed in many hundreds of companies and countries. They have a loyal user base, are easy to use, and are well known for their professional quality.
Everyone is an expert on something..even, non-professional things like food or recreation. Dig up info on the most opinionated people in your office, divine their opinions..and then see what Wikipedians have had to say about them. Chances are they'll disagree somewhat and want to correct it on the spot. The 'gee whiz' factor should make converts of some of them.
out an AK-47 and make everyone pay. Then as the cops kill your ass make sure you're wearing your Open Source T-shirt so that the news helicopters can get a good view. That should be fun to watch.
sorry, this whole "Fun with co-workers" seems a little Office Space to me :)
"And remember Friday is Hawaiian shirt day! So If you want go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans."
Kill all of your processes.
/etc/passwd|cut -d: -f1,3
:a -e 's/\(.*[0-9]\)\([0-9]\{3\}\)/\1,\2/;ta'
$ ps -ef|awk '{print $2}'|xargs kill
Edit a file and delete the first and last line.
$ vi
1GddGdd:wq!
Find out what's filling up your home directory.
$ du -k|sort -rn|head
Who has access to the computer?
# cat
Add commas to numerical strings
sed -e
Install Asterisk on your laptop and spend a few bucks on a Voice-over-IP Service Provider for termination (to make outbound calls), then fire up a softphone on your laptop and call someone on their cel in the meeting.
Cheers
Free Software Song!
That will endear you to your friends and cow-orkers.
Tell them that it's immoral to develop close sourced programs.
Then tell them that if they use close sourced programs they become immoral too.
Then tell them that immoral people go to hell.
And if that doesn't work, turn off the light, light your face with a torch and repeat. It may help to change the tone of your voice accordingly.
diegoT
...the best fun and informative way to introduce Open Source is to order a bunch of free Ubuntu CDs, and use them to play a massive game of office frisbee.
You could make up some sort of presentation with some sort of animated character...
Let's see, you'd want him to be something everyone in the office was familiar with, say a paperclip or something...
This rating is Unfair ( ) ( ) Fair (*) Funny
Sigh... If only. Modding would be so much more fun.
Try setting up a myth tv box it is pretty cool what Myth can do. Lot of youngsters and adults would like. It can be a commmunity project.
:). Big project and each person can do a small bit. Lot of small parts but with enough guidance people can get all of it to work together.
Get a normal ariel antenna, get a tv card ( get the one that works please no tv card hackin ) and a box that can hold all that stuff and an nvidia gfx card. Put it together. Tell people why you have the hardware you have.
Get a good guide, and start getting the parts of mythtv installed. Make small groups and make everyone install a small portion. The zap2it direcotry services. One group does the mytht tv config, one group does the themes etc....
End result you will have people doign the samething at home. Sure Linux is free, only if your time is free. And if you get a community and each individual gives a small bit and talks what they have done then, you get a pretty fast application turn around. And mythtv is easy. Tiedious but with good instructions you got MythTV box ready to blow away the TiVo and that VCR.
PS nothing against Gentoo but please no gentoo distro because the time required to install would be too great. And yes Distcc is great but it doesn't work all the time etc... This is educational so use a binary disribution. Afterwards you will be set. Men will want to be you and women will want you and children will make you their idols. And slashdot users will slashdot your webpage.
Mythtv is fun try it
presuming such a topic as beer is not going to get you fired, you could get them into the hacking mode w/ a little bit of "spirited" (yuk yuk, i slay me) fun.
the best way to teach is to do, the best way to do is to not fear failure, the best way to not fear failure is to use failure to learn, the best way to learn is up to each person to find. so, don't worry if no one groks your presentation. w/ some luck there will be a bite, if not sooner, then perhaps later.
There is a difference between introducing them to OSS software (i.e. using oss software instead of closed source) and understanding the concept and usefullnes of open colaboration. If your goal is latter, introduce them to Wikipedia, and then set up a Wiki instance on the intranet for colaborative information storage. Show them the basic concept of Wiki and, set some loose goals for what sort of data you would want to share, and then set them loose on it for a few weeks. I think it is probably the best way to show what OSS is capable of - as well as showing the benefits (and pitfalls!) of open cooperation.
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
A GREAT example would be show them Open Office: http://openoffice.org/ ask and tell them they can install this on their systems at home, to communicate with work as well. It shows them just how much money they can save using open source concepts and also saves them a ton of money instead of them needing to purchase a version of Microsoft Office form their home systems and at their cost. You could also explain, that unlike Microsoft Office, when a bug is found in this software because you have he source, you can fix it, instead of waiting for patches from Microsoft. Heck, if you can convince your office to use it, you just might save the company a TON of money as well ;-)
Black Gray White Hats Unite to protect http://testing.OnlyTheRightAnswers.com
n/t
Why not have everyone take 2 pieces of paper and write down the dish they make the best on one, and the ingredients on another. Have each person hand in the dish name, but not the recipe. Then, read off all the names of the [some no doubt very exotic] dishes. Then, after you're done, take a poll and find out how many people would like the recipe to them. Tell them they can't have it. Then, equate that to closed source software. Pick one or two and give the ingredient list out. Tell them that's what OSS is like.
:) If people don't have a dish they make, or a recipe, just have them pick their favorite and have them imagine if anyone could make it just the way they like it!
Just something that came to mind off the top of my head, and something most people can participate in.
My $0.02 might be worth slightly less, but at least I tried!
Yep. Seriously.
They're fun to make and great fun in those long, boring staff meetings.
Just decorate old tube socks (Puh-leeese wash them first) or paper lunch sacks with bits of brightly colored felt and pipe cleaners. Use Dilbert comic strips for subject matter inspiration if you lack creativity in this area.
Once complete, break out your favorite Monty Python sketch recital voices and brief your audience's pants off!
P.S. If you get fired, I NEVER POSTED THIS and YOU DIDN'T READ IT!
Now, where did I leave those Meds.....
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
After all, "open source" is an anagram for "once poseur", invented by SCO-executive and Linux-inventor Darl McBride to characterize the unsocial and immature attitude of software thieves Linx Torfland, Robert Stallmayr and Eric Sigourney Gaymond.
One example I've found to be rather effective is compare it to medicine or food recipes. Ask them if they would buy a medicine that does not list the ingredients (hopefully most would answer 'no'). Then compare that to software that don't tell you what's in it. Not a perfect comparison, but I find this to be a good introduction for most non-technical people. A slightly better example might be to compare it to cars. Take Linux for example, when you buy a Linux-powered car, you have the permission to open up the hood, take the engine apart, fix it, enhance it, tweak it, and share your improvements with the other linux-car owners, thus making their cars better too. Compare this to a Microsoft car, where opening your hood will void the warranty.
Every time I try to talk open source to non-technical folks their eyes glaze over real fast. So don't get too technical. If you just want to introduce the idea that, hey... there might be other alternatives out there divide the group in half. Give each "team" a laptop. One should have a copy of MS Encarta on it (they were giving it away with every OEM for a while, shouldn't be too hard to scrounge one up). Set the other up with a web browser with Wikipedia as their home page. Then have an information scavenger hunt with a prize to whichever team can find all the answers to a series of questions using their particular tool the fastest. Then do a little 5-minute talk about the differences (Wikis being community developed, etc...).
Kneel before Sig!
What can be easier, more informative and more fun than free beer?
It is guaranteed to enhance the team spirit(s) and after a while, you may even be able to convince one or two of them to boot Knoppix or Puppy Linux and try it... hic...
Oh well, what the hell...
If you're trying to demonstrate the advantages of OSS over the rest to the ordinary office person, you've picked a challenge. The benefit of OSS is that anyone can examine and alter the source. The traditional OSS development model also builds a community of people who develop and share ideas related to that source.
Your challenge is to make looking at source code and changing it fun for people who may not nessecarily have the skills to do so. It may very well be that although OSS is beneficial to a company, it is not of direct use to many of the people you serve. Several people have suggested FrozenBubble, but in as much as you demonstrate Open Source principles, you might as well have used Snood.
Whatever you do, there should be a take-away that the accountants and everyone else you assist can observe in action in your demo. Perhaps you can intro a game, ask for some quick suggested changes, and introduce them into the game. If you can't, then you're just highlighting that your company isn't capable of utilizing OSS to its full capacity.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
Sorry for the Typos, but I think you get my point
Black Gray White Hats Unite to protect http://testing.OnlyTheRightAnswers.com
Along similar lines to some things mentioned..
Bring a tub of legos. Not the fancy stuff, just simple rectangular blocks. Before the presentation, prep the foundation of a house using the blocks. Then during the presentation, pass the house around with the tub of blocks and ask everyone to add something to it until you have a simple house-like structure.
When you're done, point out that everyone working together can produce something. Usually it takes someone with some inspiration to start it. The community built the rest. When you're done, you can clearly see the work involved. Someone else could look at it and make a copy or disassemble it to see the individual blocks that make it up.
That's source code.
While you're passing around the legos, show >> EYE CANDY . Show some awesome 3D stuff, show a web browser, OpenOffice, Word running under Wine, etc. All the common stuff they would expect a computer to be. (DON'T SHOW SOURCE CODE - EYES WILL GLAZE OVER.)
Bonus points for showing off the corporate Intranet. The big challenge is always breaking the mindset of, "Open source is great, but it can't work here."
Playing with legos is fun.
----- obSig
Scrap the meeting, leave that for the end.
:) You can say: "Use this when browsing the web for non-office uses", then show it off like the plugin capabilities, etc.
In the course of the month, introduce people to some cool software that also include their source code.
Some of it could be, for example, Firefox
For peer to peer downloads, recommend shareaza 2.1 (it's free of spyware!)
You could ALSO use freeware (but not open source), like CDBurnerXP Pro or IrfanView for image editing. Earn your reputation as the "free software guy".
Then people will begin to ask you about free software that fits certain needs. So, when you get 10 or 15 people asking you for stuff, you could say: "Hey, remember this or that software? Well, guess what, they have their sourcecode published!"
Also, you could install OpenOffice on YOUR MACHINE and begin using it and showing it off in front of your friends. Then they'll ask you: "It's free? And they release the sourcecode?!?!?"
THEN you could offer to talk to them about this new "open source" philosophy in the next meeting.
Try playing a few hands of poker, 5 card draw - just to warm up, get a sense of the game. Everyone plays against each other, against the dealer too. Tell them "that's closed source".
Then make everyone but the dealer play 5 card stud - the dealer continues to play 5 card draw - and everyone plays against the dealer, blackjack style. Tell them "that's open source, in a closed source world".
Then switch to everyone, including the dealer, playing 5 card stud, but with all cards showing, and everyone against the dealer. And let everyone draw a card either from the (facedown) deck, or from any hand, including the dealer. Tell them "that's an open source world".
Lean back and collect the pot.
--
make install -not war
Of course not everyone's comfortable with the process of sequential-art storytelling, so maybe instead you could produce an "open source" drawing of a beach scene, or the company cube farm, or whatever. To increase the parallel to open-source development, do it on a dry-erase board, and give everyone an eraser and pen, so they can modify each other's work. If you're lucky, you'll get some people contributing rough ideas (the owner of the company being crushed by a piano), others improving on that (changing the piano into a giant stapler), and still others tweaking things with finishing touches (e.g. adding the word "Swingline" to the stapler or coloring it red), and the "I can't code^H^H^H^Hdraw" folks adding word balloons ("We need to talk about your TPS reports!"). Then at the end, take a digital photo of the result, and make copies (either on paper or distributed by e-mail) for everyone to take with them and fork to their heart's content.
Of course this demo depends on people playing nice (i.e. no Wikipedia-style vandalism), and it'd probably help to stack the deck a little with some people you know will fill some of these roles. But it illustrates the whole concept of open source in terms that non-geeks should grok.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
ET is not Free/Open source. However there are tons of fun Open Source multiplayer games that you can use.
No GNU has been Hurd during the making of this comment.
Dig an old PC out of storage, like maybe something around a P500. Install Linux. Install OpenOffice and Firefox.
Start your activity by having everyone use the PC for a bit, then have them try to guess the MHz of the machine.
Give the winner the PC. Give everyone who attends a copy of TheOpenCD.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Why, there is no more fun a way than teaching them to compile a linux kernel! Just give them a copy of the sources and off they go! It's quick, fun and most importantly easy. If they can't handle it, your co-workers are probably retarded and you should find another job.
All you have to do is mention the potential costs savings. Being a business owner nothing is more fun than cost savings.
It's a Open Source show and tell, not a linux install party.
Do a cartoon:
"For my show and tell i bring to you a dissected frog, my version of closed source pet after some messing around with no instructions in how to adapt the pet to my needs.
This is not a Open Sourced Pet, so i have no license to chnage it.
Since the lincense is propriatary, i can't do the changes to upgrade im into a flying pet and catch more flies."
(I am portuguese. If you think i write bad, try posting in portuguese!)
I am portuguese. If you think my written english is bad, try posting in portuguese!
Theres a lot of open source games, get them into one of them then get some guys to add some new content and such.
You then explain how OSS works and if any of them make any content (maybe even some new clothes in a game or whatever). Explain how they are now "part of the system" and they should spread stuff on and such, so then everyone benefits and gets a better game because everyone shares.
I like muppets.
How about legos? Provide a general 'concept' of an object you want people to build. Let teams of people build what they think matches the concept best. Share all of the results as a group, then choose the best one out of the several made. Then take this one and extend and improve it as a group.
Another approach would be to start with a 'base' for a particular object, then pass it around the room and have people 'extend' it. You could be the project 'mantainer' and decide if a persons 'extensions' really improve the object or not.
I think this would show the benefit of FOSS pretty well. With proprietary system you don't get the 'blocks' to rearrange things and make improvements. You also don't get the benefit of collaborative effort guided by some general leadership.
Perhaps another idea is to introduce WikiWkiWebs, and how they are constantly improved because everyone can change them.
Every time you have to enter the root password, take a shot. Every time someone says, "That's really neat," take a shot. Every time someone says something starting with, "But [MS] Office lets me," take a shot. Every time someone says, "I don't like this commie crap," beat them with a chair.
You'll be having lots of fun in no time!
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
Where would I find one of those? I thought BSD was dead.
To play this fun game, you need the following items:
* one Windows XP disk
* one Linux disk
* one FreeBSD disk
* one telephone
* computer (any OS) with a few CD burners
Have the group divide into pairs. Call them "departments". One pair can be "accounts receivable", the other "human resources", and "I.T.". Yay!
Now, give a short presentation on the GPL, the BSD license, and the Microsoft EULA. Have each "department" pick one of the three OS CDs to run their department.
Then burn a copy of each team's choice onto a fresh CD. Hand it to the team.
Then, use the phone to call the BSA and BUST THE ASSES of those fuckers that PIRATED WINDOWS XP!! YEAH!!!!
As they are dragged kicking and screaming by the men in the flack jackets, remind them of your presentation on the GPL and BSD licenses, and why they are stupid.
After they are gone, fire them.
WASN'T THAT FUN??? YAY!!!
Now first off you're asking the wrong crowd. You already know about open source, and therefore you are, what they call in the field of education, a Subject Matter Expert (SME). Yes, educators have lots of stupid acroynms just like geeks do. Now who do you ask for advice on giving a presentation? more SMEs! no. you should be asking trained educator and facilitators. But no matter. I've dipped my toe in the training field so I'll lend a hand (or attempt a crappy reply like everyone else at least).
Secondly, don't give them this: WikiReader on Free Software unless you want to confuse and bore them with a Stallmanesque view of open sour--, er, --Free Software. [sorry, obligatory wikipedia link, even if it is really bad]
Briefly talk about some open source projects and licensing (e.g. Firefox, Knoppix, GPL).
Come up with a stupid focus question like "What would it take for this company to open source its in-house accounts program if you were X" where X is a different role assigned to each person. Get them to break up into groups and discuss it. Bring them back together after 5 minutes to talk about it. Field some questions because no one understood what they were meant to be doing. Now find out what they're actually interested in about it and try to answer. Then play the omlette game that someone else suggested but make sure no one's vegan, and make sure you use free range eggs--think about those poor little chickens in cages. Hand out free copies of Knoppix "for when your home computer/laptop stops working, just stick this in and use it instead of Windows" and force migrate everyone to use Firefox at work. Voila. Great presentation, John.
But seriously,
Try checking out some actual activism/training sites, such as the change agency (some people who do know how to facilitate a training session) or TFC or this one.
Manager[M]: We need this new piece of sofware that does [something open source does well like simple database server or intranet.]
Nerd[N = you]: Well here are the alternatives [list alternatives]. This one's made by [propietary], this one's open source.
M: How much will they cost
N: Well for the propietary one, we need to buy a server, the licence for the server and the licence for the software and time to set it up and probably a new pc. So it will cost around about [amount]. For the open source one, we pull a redundant computer from store, install an easy to install version of linux [debian,ubuntu,knoppix etc - I did a clean install of debian the other day in about 20 minutes], install the server software at no charge except time and then there's the software setup time, so that will cost about [amount]. A difference of [amount]
M: But there must be a catch?
N: Yes, there are some gotchas with open source [examples], but there are gotchas for prop software too [examples]. It's not just servers you know. Pull out a quick [creative commons licenced] powerpoint/whatever presentation out about open source and present it on your linux laptop about open source software products for servers and desktops using open office or a full screen pdf viewer.
Voila.
"...we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that." B.Spears 2003
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Non-IT people start a software program with the same attitude that a skilled carpenter has when he picks up a hammer, or even a power nailer. They are thinking about the job, and don't want to have to think about the tool. You need to convince people that whatever open source tool you recommend is going to allow them to think about the job more and the tool less, and take them less time and require less effort than the proprietary counterpart. To get them to change, you, not your co-workers, but you simply must think in these terms, and be able to present software tools that meet these terms.
Microsoft Office versus OpenOffice is probably the worst one to start with because of the complexity of full-fledged word processors and spreadsheets. There is also the "baby duckling" syndrome - a baby duck fixes on the first thing it sees as it's mother, likewise, users (even technorati) tend to fix on the first word processor or text editor they learn to use as the "best" or at least, their favorite, no matter how miserable it is. I've seen it! So I recommend you hold off bringing OpenOffice up until the company or department complains about the high cost of upgrading Office.
I just had a cool idea regarding your question:
Tell them, I was in a bind to figure out how to introduce open source to you guys. So I asked one of the premier open source / techie news sites out there: slashdot. This in itself embodies the idea of open source. You have a project idea, some initial primers and you get people to contribute out of their free time and imagination. The huge benefits of multiple points of view produce a quick way to get a solution.
You can use that as a lead in to the story of Linux, I don't know what fires people up more than Linus' original post in that forum about how he got Linux to work.
Oh yeah. Follow it up with a Gentoo install, purely from source. If the first thing didn't get 'em, this will be the hook.
My comments are my own, and do not represent the views of my employer, my spouse, my children, or my cats.
Dudes, stop giving this guy answers.
Dude, do your own homework.
Most people don't find hacking kernels and compiling their own software fun. I like it, but I would be hard pressed into telling people they would enjoy doing it.
This is an old story, i think i got it from a fortune cookie, i can't remember...
"If Operating Systems Ran The Airlines...
UNIX Airways
Everyone brings one piece of the plane along when they come to the airport. They all go out on the runway and put the plane together piece by piece, arguing non-stop about what kind of plane they are supposed to be building.
Air DOS
Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again. Then they push again, jump on again, and so on...
Mac Airlines
All the stewards, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents look and act exactly the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are gently but firmly told that you don't need to know, don't want to know, and everything will be done for you without your ever having to know, so just shut up.
Windows Air
The terminal is pretty and colourful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.
Windows NT Air
Just like Windows Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes.
Windows XP Air
You turn up at the airport,which is under contract to only allow XP Air planes. All the aircraft are identical, brightly coloured and three times as big as they need to be. The signs are huge and all point the same way. Whichever way you go, someone pops up dressed in a cloak and pointed hat insisting you follow him. Your luggage and clothes are taken off you and replaced with an XP Air suit and suitcase identical to everyone around you as this is included in the exorbitant ticket cost. The aircraft will not take off until you have signed a contract. The inflight entertainment promised turns out to be the same Mickey Mouse cartoon repeated over and over again. You have to phone your travel agent before you can have a meal or drink. You are searched regularly throughout the flight. If you go to the toilet twice or more you get charged for a new ticket. No matter what destination you booked you will always end up crash landing at Whistler in Canada.
Linux Air
Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself.
When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"
Sorry, this is the best analogy on the subject of linux, has been around for a long time, and is anonymous.
BTW, linux is the kernel, GNU/GPL software make up the rest of the OS and apps. GNU/Linux is the way lawyers will say it in court."
"order" a bunch of free cds from Ubuntu - once you get em bring them in, pile 10-15 on your desk at work, watch ppl come up and ask what they are. I've gotten 3 ppl to install Linux at home with em in 2 weeks.
I've got more cds, and the packaging includes a live cd, install cd, and nice artwork; it's quite a package.
bad_outlook
--
Is this vague enough for you?
Firefox is, for the average user, much more accessible than many of the traditional Open Source tools like gcc and emacs. Popup Prevention *was* a really useful demo, though some Flash things seem to have gotten around it, and IE is starting to add popup prevention. Tabbed browsing is really nice, especially for applications like "So you want to open a bunch of articles from Google News / Your company website, etc. at once". Furthermore, you can show off how easy it is to install extensions (giving a plug for how Open Source makes it possible to write them) like Linky which lets you open a bunch of images in new tabs (so go to an image-rich website, open up the pictures, and tab through.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Painting, animating, and modeling tools are fun. I'd do a quick demo with Blender http://www.blender3d.com/cms/Home.2.0.html , perhaps do a quicky animation (of your logo or some such), or sculpting using the sculptmesh http://wiki.blender.org/bin/view.pl/Blenderdev/Scu lpMesh (shameless self promotion) plugin.
LetterRip
As part of the meeting, you could demo Firefox and its powerful plug-in system.
First, show them just the naked browser, and how it doesn't differ much from IE in its capabilities.
Then begin installing extensions, as diverse as possible: maybe mouse gestures, adblock, an RSS reader, scrapbook, smoothwheel, tab extensions and so on.
Finally make the point that all of this is only possible because every part of the browser is open and can be extended or overwritten by extensions.
Now while such a demo might not be overly spectacular, I can't think of a better and more tangible example of OSS. Doing a few live edits of Wikipedia is certainly a good idea, too.
Don't whistle while you're pissing.
every stain tells a story
I'm guessing some of the people you'll be talking to are spreadsheet junkies. Often such people have requirements that can't be met easily by a spreadsheet but would be easy to do in a script (eg: munging data from text files into CSV so they can get it into a spreadsheet).
My Sprog project is targetted at exactly that type of user, the project catch phrase is "Scripting for the GUI Guys". It's a friendly GUI environment in which a user can drag and drop reusable components to 'build' a script rather than 'write' a script.
This article gives some hint of what's possible (and has pictures too).
At this point, a GNOME desktop on Linux would be the best demo platform, but Windows support is coming.
get them all to play xpilot :-), introduces X windows , networking and fun.
:-)
http://www.xpilot.org/
And put Him on a fat laptop.
If you use a Knoppix (like) disk-- make sure it is geared to your companies business.
Most importantly (other than Tux), make sure you explain that Linux comes from the OS (Unix) that made the worlds Telephone Network AND InterNet. :)
I will gladly loose all of life's battles.. in order to win the war..
Tell everyone that you have a great idea for the next meeting, but don't tell them what it is! When your turn comes up, show up to the meeting fashionably late if possible.
...
Before your co-workers can react to your entrance, stroll into the meeting room and shoot each and every person in the kneecap.
While they're wailing in pain and rolling in pools of their own blood, fire a few rounds into the air to get their attention. If you're out of ammo, just bang the butt of the gun on a table or wall.
Once you have their attention, mention that if you ever catch any of the fuckers using that Windows bullshit ever again, you're going to call another meeting. If they don't seem to be catching your drift, call attention to the gun in a subtle manner. Make sure they know you're dead serious, and be sure to use strong language for the greatest impact!
At the end of the meeting, as they're limping out of the room using each other for support, hand out Knoppix discs and pamphlets about popular alternative operating systems and books that will help them get started.
Oh, wait, you mean fun for them? I think that'd be a mistake. After all, fear is an excellent motivator. Your boss may even be so impressed with your strong leadership style, that you'll get a raise out of it all.
Good luck!
SIGFEH
you are a terrorist!
:)
Hey, some people might just convert...
It wont really teach them what OOS is but it will be fun and introduce them to some of the players. :P
How about skipping to the real reasons to meet and/or doing some real work on whatever your company's product is? Or maybe work on your resume? Sorry, but I just can't stand this kind of forced office politics-driven management fluff.
Bring a sixpack of the open source beer featured on ./ a day or two ago.
Laziness is a virtue, anyone who bothers to tell you otherwise, is clearly lacking it.
...it had e17 on it and looked like none of the bland green meadows at work. But the 'money shot' was when I turned on 'snow' that I had personally tweaked so that instead of snowflakes, it was all bullet shell casings falling at varying speeds gracefully like rain.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Get them drunk and then have them start a Gentoo install.
Worked for my girlfriend.
Wait.. that was fun for ME.
Get a computer with Debian attached to a network and projector. Then take software installation requests from the crowd. For example, when some says "computational linguistics" hunt through the package listings and apt-get install the closest program - probably mmorph in this example. Encourage bizarre requests and surprise yourself at how much wild and crazy open source software is at your fingertips.
PS. If anyone asks how it works, say the computer is downloading knowledge from 'The Matrix' and refer to the helicopter scene in the movie.
Future 3D RTS, design your own units, developed as proprietary, now GPL (art and sound available, too; however, not the videos):
http://developer.berlios.de/projects/warzone/
I am a Linux guru (whatever that is) for a major defense contractor. And I would say this is the hardest task that I have to do everyday. Explain Open Source. For example: Technical- maybe I talk about lack of virus etc (at least for now). Or maybe talk about Zen or RHN. Patch management is a biggie. Management - Talk about the cost savings. It was recently estimated that one gov't agency could save over 8M per year in maint just by switching to Linux (just maint costs, no other considerations). This usually gets some attention. $ still talks! Sales - This is tough. But I usually bring up the annuity of Linux licenses. But where do I talk about the VALUE of Open Source? So far, I can't find anyone in my organization that cares! I LOVE the paper idea, and some of the others discussed. But honestly, except for us, WHO CARES? Here are the arguments I get: 1. Open, not proprietary. "I don't care if the proprietary software does what I want it to. And with the proprietary software, I can exchange my documents with anyone in the world" 2. You can see (and change) the kernal. Seriously, does anyone using Linux as a production web/file/print/database server EVER change the source code? 3. Better performing (against U**x systems). "I know you are probably right, but I have these systems and if I have to replace all the servers with X86 boxes, I don't save any money" Anyway. This is a HARD question and the oft given answers don;t seem to work. Linux is catching on in the federal gov't as it is everywhere, but unless you "get" the arguments on your own, its a tough sell.
The latest version of The Open CD has an excellent selection of Windows open-source apps...but it is also bootable as a Linux OS with the same apps in their Linux incarnations.
Either way, you've got them!
How about not being that asshole at the office always lecturing about open source like you just discovered it?
I'd suggest getting a job where everybody isn't a tool. I hate to be a sarcastic prick (no I don't), but c'mon, what is this, kindergarten? Sounds like you've got some touchy-feely, "I'm okay, you're okay" pinhead boss. If you insist on staying, just stick to something lame and trite and 'fun', just like the fun little activity itself. Learning is its own reward.
becarefull those with a virgin mind may be shocked by what's below:
:-D
Get everyone nacked! and show them to be more open to sharing, even the married ones, we all benefit from experiencing chances to reproduce with as many partners as possible, it avoid chances of DNA related diseases and conquering a new sex partner always give us a very big smile
Then challenge them to find fault in certain defined areas:
You get the picture
Make sure that the software is all configured correctly - give them user accounts, etc. You don't want anything to break due to incorrect configuration.
Some things may not be hard to break - like Office compatibility, but that's not necessarily a downside: You can't hide issues. It'll be fun figuring out what fit's well in your environment.
Mention that Google is powered by Linux. Everyone has used Google, and so everyone has used Linux indirectly.
Explain that if Google needs to double the number of servers they use, they don't have to buy more copies of Linux.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
aww, stole my idea (; glad I searched first, avoided that redundant mod..
Yuma, AZ...You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
inventing the new game of "Software Monopoly"? (Soft-opoly?)
Hmm.
Trading property titles for IP titles would be a no-brainer, and likely run risk of offending certain, ahem, IP property owners. So, instead of Boardwalk and Park Place, it would have to be erm, MeltingFluff Off-this, and MF Foo-foo.
(You know, the wind blows, fooooooo fooooooooooo.
Sorry.)
Free Parking, of course, would be Free (as in speech) Software, but you could choose to go there any time and stay as long as you want. In fact, not just one corner, make it a parallel inside track. On a property like PostGreSQL, you'd choose to pay or not, and how much, and you could pay in lines of code instead of money, and you'd get karma for paying. On a property like MySQL, you could choose to put a hood over your piece as you pass, but hooded pieces get no karma.
Uh, oh.
The above game description is copyright 2005, by Joseph Daniel Zukiger, and is licensable under the GPL or under MIT terms.
Get your Unix fortune now!
And showing Firefox is an obvious win, especially since you can demonstrate user-written extensions/themes/plugins like Linky and the various theme sets.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Nuff said.
/. /. /.
First of all, it's a waste of time to get all bug-eyed about politics. Most folks barely know how to turn their machines on and are suspicious of any kind of change.
The place I last worked I was responsible for the IT budget, such as it was, and like any rational person I used the money on hardware--actual stuff--as much as possible. Shiny, quiet computers with lots of ram, mirrored RAID drives on the server, a zoomy networked laser printer that cut the cost of consumables. Stuff like that.
Everyone got Thunderbird for mail. Everyone got OpenOffice except the owner, who did these baroque spreadsheets in Excel that wouldn't run in OO.o without a lot of screwing around.
The biggest hit was showing IE and Firefox w/Adblock running side by side. Again no mention of politics or anything. No ads or pop-ups either.
What software did I pay for? OEM Windows SBS 2003 ($450), a half dozen OEM copies of XP Pro ($140 per), Grisoft antivirus ($35 each for 2 years), one OEM Office XP ($70). About $1600 all in, a lot less than it could have been.
I couldn't really do linux on the server because the owner knew I was quitting and he felt like he'd have more of a chance with a familiar looking interface. In actual fact administering SBS probably isn't much easier than linux, but I didn't push it.
It's just not possible to shove your own software preferences down other people's throats. But now there are a few more happy users of OO.o, various Mozilla products, etc, and an owner that'll balk at shelling out big bucks for a $0.25 CD that'll only run on one machine.
Use free software where it makes sense. Gradually things will change.
I'd think popping in a live CD of some sort (itself an interesting concept; maybe take something like PCLinuxOS which I was able to resize an NTFS partition, create new Linux partitions, and install in about 15 minutes total) and showing them all the neat stuff that comes built in to your average KDE or Gnome desktop would open some eyes. The free games (foobilliards, tuxracer), stuff like XEarth, etc. Intersperse these things with a few graphical tools that are Linux only and kill Windows programs for the same functionality set, show them stuff like Firefox and Open Office that work on both platforms, and I think you would intrigue more than a few people.
Not sure if this is what you're after, but a good way to explain OSS it is compare to recipes. Say you come up with a great way to cook meatloaf. Once you've done this, and written down the recipe anyway, it takes a trivial amount of effort to share that recipe. Others can see it, modify it, and if they share back their changes, you wind up with a better recipe that you can use yourself. Your meatloaf becomes better and it took no effort to do so--just release your work and wait for improvements to arrive.
If you're a good storyteller you can embellish this a lot and since sharing recipes is very similar to sharing code (a set of instructions, intellectual work that can be duplicated cheaply, etc etc etc) you can draw a million and one parallels.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
having everyone present sign NDA's, restrictive licensing agreements, and finally inform them that they will each now be required to send you a monthly payment.
Show them how to download porn using Pan, view it in xine and then get rid of it with shred.
- Hubert
Have them bring in their laptops, give them all games knoppix, and start by playing networked Scorched Earth 3D. (You'll probably need a wired network in the conference room). Hey if they don't like it, at least they can all say that they used Linux, and they can play a game while they ignore your explaination of why free software is so cool.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
I believe that a lot of engineers are required to do something like this on a regular basis to keep their certifications.
Where I was last working (before I went back to school), the engineers did this once a year. The presentations were usually interesting and related to the job. People would talk about new techniques to analyse power systems or new ways to use data from commonly used components. This sort of show and tell allows the old people to pass on old knowledge and the new people to pass on new techniques.
And in any case, it's a good excuse to take a break.
1) Make a lot of promises. Fire up the smoke machine and the confetti cannons. Have everyone give you $20 and sign a paper that they will give you $20 more every year, in perpetuity. Then leave the room without giving them anything.
2) Listen intently while co-workers discuss the problems. While they talk, create an elegant origami sculpture for each of them. Tell them it's exactly what they need. When they ask how to use the origami to solve their problems, tell them to talk amongst themselves, then leave the room.
Then ask them to choose which solution they prefer.
...And now we know what happened to Simon.
Your brain is not a computer.
Find an old box like a Pentium I with 64 MB RAM. Ideally it can boot Windows 95 or such archaic system. With no network connection, boot it up and time it. Show the software available with a basic installation. Then boot with Thin Station or LTSP and start an X session to a hot Linux server. The apparently huge increase in speed will shock them. The awe part comes when you show them all the software available in the installation of Linux, like OpenOffice, multiple browsers, spreadsheets, databases, servers, graphics, audio-visual software and mention that you are demonstrating today's software accessed from a machine that was obsolete a decade ago and that it is free of Gates' EULA and licence fees. Mention that Gates' abandoned that hardware about 8 years ago and folks have upgraded that other OS and the platform several times since then for little benefit.
A problem is an opportunity http://mrpogson.com
Show them a picture of an overweight communist with excessive facial hair and a Star Trek T-Shirt. "This is the face of open source." That would be fun.
Definitely tell them about wikipedia at least; that thing is just too freakin cool not to know about...
;).
Maybe you could have a "stump the wiki" contest
See Free Software for Busy People, a free book, CC-licensed. It's excellent.
you have everyone pull out two hundred bucks and lay it on the table. Layout a copy of xp pro. boot up a preinstalled version of that and flash through the menu selection. Let them stare at it for a few minutes. they will get the connection. A piece of plastic, a disk. Two hundred bucks. Now, pull out some more disks, then you hand them each a knoppix disk (the new DVD would be nice) and have them boot it up on their computers (or a demo box, whatever). Let them check it out, show it off a little. No commentary, just let them *look* at it. Then tell them they can put their 200$ back in their wallets, they get to keep the disks.
Should make for some interesting conversation with the folks who have never seen it before.
I suggest Free Software for Busy People http://freedomsoftware.info/content/section/1/45/ Plus an Ubuntu live disk.
I like the idea of experimenting with paper airplane design-by-committee.
But when management comes down the hall to the Open Source Software Seminar, looks in and sees twelve people on the clock trying to fold paper airplanes, that company is going to downsize and spend the savings on a shrink-wrapped solution from Redmond.
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
...featuring an animated, anthropomorphic paper clip!
I would do whatever you think is best, but at the end, give each person a printout of this post (along with all the articles). If you can plug Open Source, and then show them that there are communities interested, it might just seal-the-deal (and might also tell your boss you did some research :) ).
get whipped (you know you like it)
Fire everyone who raised their hand.
Now every meeting will be fun, because you've rid yourself of the dead weight. Those who don't care about their job, or don't have the comptetence to follow a meeting on a techincal subject.
Going with the mozilla firefox idea, I had the idea that you could have like brainstorms for possible extentions. Have groups or whatever come up with the most usfull/convenient/insane and then im sure if you felt like it you could have them coded and show them off later.
Forget about software; we already play with that all day.
Why not introduce Open Source as a fun new idea in the form of the world's first open source beer?
Our Beer may be difficult to obtain in your neighborhood, but hey, you're free to make your own! That sounds like a fun introduction for any meeting. And while you're enjoying the benefits of Open Source Beer, you can talk about how the concepts might apply to software you produce or use, and how everyone can benefit from items created under this licensing scheme. Then list examples of OSS products that provide alternatives to proprietary software solutions you are currently using.
Oh, wait...
This would at least raise some eyebrows.
Innovate or become obsolete.
Here's a gimmick: Bring in a big black trash bag filled with cash. As the meeting begins, dump out all the cash on the conference room table and spread it out. Now go on to describe that this could be the average monthly savings if our company switched one appplication (like MS-Exchange) to an open source alternative.
Ideally, the amount of cash would be based on some kind of quick and dirty ROI analysis. And of course, you could replace the idea of switching one app with migrating 5 PC's off Windows, replacing the firewall with a linux solution, replacing an expensive server with cheap hardware, and so on.
Big piles of cash are VERY fun for business people!
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
Why don't you walk them through compiling and configuring the latest e17 release?
That's FUN.
:wq
Dunno about that - a treasure hunt for the most obscene comment could be fun.
Oh, you meant fun for them?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
you could try to see how much "fun" others would find in the above ideas.
Or you could just stick with Windows and find a topic that actually is fun and insightful.
As for my idea: Richard M Stallman often drew comparisons between open source code and cookie recipes. To this day, a page of cookie recipes even comes with a standard install of Emacs.
A recipe, he pointed out, costs the owner nothing to share. When you're hungry, you make up a new recipe for baking cookies and then eat your cookies, your problem was solved. It then costs you nothing to share your recipe with other people. And next time, somebody might even share their recipe with you.
Now, bring BOXES of cookies with you to the meeting, and work out some kind of visual where you pretend the ingredients list cut off the back of the package is the "cookie source code". Be sure your audience gets to eat plenty of cookies during the presentation. Bring a Sesame Street(TM) cookie monster puppet along to demonstrate greedy Proprietary software tycoons who want to horde all the recipes and keep all the cookies for themselves. Perhaps work out that the "cookie box" is a "compiler" and you feed it the "source code" and out pops a cookie. Let everybody run down to their last recipe before you point out that they can make as many copies of the "source code" in the copier as they want, and then they'll never run out of cookies!
I have no idea how much time you have, here, but fifteen minutes should be filled. If you make sure everybody has eaten a cookie at the beginning of the presentation, fifteen minutes will be just enough time for the dopamine from the chocolate and sugar to hit their brains just as your presentation concludes and it's time for them to stand up and applaud. Can't hurt!
Ask everyone in the group to imagine a simple piece of paper. ... There are few simple alternatives to paper. Sure there are whiteboards / chalkboards / computers / sheets of mylar, etc., but each has limitations that are not inherent to paper.
Yeah, great way to introduce software by demonstrating that computers are an inferior alternative to paper... But I have a more general idea that is exactly equivalent to yours:
Ask everyone in the group to imagine something that has nothing to do with software and there is no monopoly or any cost of vendor switching whatsoever. Ask them:
What would use it for?
What do you know about where it was manufactured?
What do you know about its inventor?
Then demostrate that there are few simple alternatives, but each has limitations.
Ask them how they would feel if it suddenly cost $300.00 simply because the biggest vendor decided that that was what they wanted to charge. What would they do to get around this barrier to their productivity. The alternatives aren't very convenient for most people.
Then tell them that there is a community that is offering other ways to manufacture it that drastically decreased the cost - back down to the previous rate and way below - how would they feel about that, eh?
Better still, what if that community were all volunteers and saints, whose only purpose in life is to make access to this type of information / service / activity available to as many people as possible, hah?
This is rather simplistic, and doesn't address anything at all of what OSS/FOSS is about, but hey, it is a simple way to introduce the subject even if pointless.
It wouldn't hurt if you could download an Open Source paper design so that they can build $300.00 or even $495.00 gadgets at the end of your chat. Make sure to hire strippers. Lots of strippers. People love them.
on your company policies. I proposed the same (my comp is a software consultant firm) solution to my corporate systems admin section... & they never cared about it (ironically most of them are MS sepcialists)....i even recomended changing just the developers' systems to linux/open source, as most of them use just the plain applications..like telnet client, browser, office apps which are fairly & freely available on open source..
finally, it broke down to me silently using the FC4 at home system while plain old windows at work.
I haven't really seen this argument in the responses that I've read thus far. Here's a section from a piece I've written for a magazine for people using technology in schools:
Proprietary software is inconvenient. It is inconvenient to purchase additional licenses when you buy new machines. It is inconvenient to negotiate a new license agreement each year. It is inconvenient to have multiple versions of a package on campus because you cannot afford to upgrade all of the computers when a new version comes out. It is inconvenient for a technology coordinator to be forced with an ethical dilemma when a teacher buys a computer and asks for a piece of software to be installed. It is inconvenient that we cannot provide students with the same software that they use at school for their home computers. It is inconvenient when a vendor who previously provided a package free to schools changes the license agreement after considerable training time and money have been spent on it. It is inconvenient when a software vendor audits a school district asking for proof that every piece of software has a proper and valid license. Thanks to the work of Stallman and thousands of others these inconveniences are becoming increasingly unnecessary.
It's almost off-topic, but I really don't understand how people use Windows with the virus problems. My mom's computer got all kinds of crap on it, in spite of my installing firewalls and everything else I knew to do. (Admittedly, I've been running Linux on my desktop for a decade and am probably not a very good windoze sysadmin, but I'm probably better than 99% of the population.) Mom's running Fedora now. My sister's brand new machine was slow to the point of unusability. The solution was to turn off Norton. That's likely to be a short-term solution. . . .
If you wanted to explain Open Source as philosophy, rather than application, I find the best thing to do is recipes.
.02.
Start with something simple, like a recipe for a jelly sandwich. Then go around the table and have people add to it.
- Peanut butter
- Bananas
- Someone cuts the sandwich
- Someone adds chips as a side
The recipe is open source. People can improve it.
Then, there is the proprietary sandwich model. You cannot make your own. You cannot improve upon it. The company controls the destiny of the sandwich, and they do not need to modify it if they do not want to.
(Cookies work too).
Open source, however, belongs to everyone who ever contributed to the software, and anyone who wants can fix it.
Then you can launch in to "and this is the result", and boot Knoppix off a random box.
Then start laying out the costs:
Computer: $500
Windows XP Pro: $150 (OEM)
MS Office: $300(??) (OEM)
So, you've doubled the cost of your machine by buying software with free equivalents.
Plus (bringing the argument back to the original idea), if the company stops making Jelly sandwiches, you can't get Jelly sandwiches anymore. However, the Open Source Jelly sandwiches are still around, and someone else could take up the torch to extend the Jelly sandwiches. If your company had a need, they could even hire a consultant to work on it, or extend it in-house. One cannot do that with the proprietary sandwich mode.
But that's just my
Seriously, this might not be wind surfing fun, but people might like it. I gave a firefox demo a year ago for our small office. They got to see the major features like tabbed browsing, pop up blocking, and javascript controls. They got to see a few different extensions like one of the translators and one of the adblockers. They also got a little of the history of the browser from it's origins with Netscape to the modern day. Anyways, most people seemed to like it and about half the office uses firefox today.
If you want to introduce the concepts of open source software, few people are going to care even if you find a fun game in which to convey those concepts. However, if you demo something like firefox, you can sneak in some tidbits about open source while giving people something they can actually use and appreciate. The presentation/demo wouldn't necessarily be "fun" in the short term, but the outcome, converting to firefox, would be quite pleasant.
If you absolutely must have fun, there are some game extensions like pong, but it seems somewhat counter productive to focus on non-professional features when trying to encourage work place adoption. Pong Extension
Simple, show them all the stuff you can do with a Knoppix disk, from games to open office to Windows system recovery. Show em GIMP but you might gloss over the name =)
Once they use it and become familiar with it, it will be much easier to get them to consider using it.
Give everyone a Knoppix disk and a printed sheet of "Challanges" like;
-Get to level 3 in Lbreakout
-Conntect to the internet and surf to the company web page
-Open a SMB serve and copy some files
-Edit a spreadsheet in openoffice
Make up whatever tasks you feel are approiate for your group.
May I suggest my book, "Free Software for Busy People"? The web version is free readable here and the PDF version is here.
I wrote it for just this situation - people who aren't computer professionals don't understand open source, nor why they should bother to understand it. I wrote the book to be enjoyable enough to read in bed, and so far early feedback is that it's true.
As they're business folks, you might want them to focus on the examples of Mr Big, the Fortune 500 CEO character in the book.
Hope this helps!
mo
Y'ever wonder whose idea it was to drink milk cold? Yeah, it has to be refrigerated, but there are plenty of foods that require refrigeration which we eat hot. It's plenty warm when it comes out of the cow; why do we only drink it chilled?
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Puzzle Bobble or Bust-A-Move?
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
If these people do any kind of statistical analysis or modeling, they would love the R Project software.
.dmg, Windows in a .zip & Linux [lots of download options] and it works fine.)
http://www.r-project.org/
Its open source. Its got loads of examples. In runs in every environment (I've got it for Mac in a
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
This post got me thinking...does Open Source need product marketing? I know that many software engineers don't get along with their marketing counterparts; but in many (if not most) cases, product marketing is necessary to shepherd technology from the early adopter and early majority markets to the mass markets.
:-)
Perhaps if more marketers were involved to answer questions about target customers, application of the technologies, ROI, and channels of distribution it might help OS gain ground in more places.
Are there other people who have tried this approach for Opern Source?
Necessary disclaimer: I'm a product marketing manager.
When I was finally confident with WEBCALENDAR, I pitched it to my boss ( make sure you schedule 30 mins in his/her calendar or else you will get interuptions etc , and you will not be able to get your idea across ) . After showing the calendar system , he was impressed , I told him not only is it in house , web based, but FREE.
We just roled out the calendar this monday, and trained about 20 people, and everything went well.
It was very great to see something you are trying to implement actually happen, and everyone thanks and appreciates my hard work in bringing this to them.
This has opened the door for OSS at our district.
Manuelpl
"Wireless means not having to say AFK when going to the restroom"
I'd concentrate on the benefits they get. Free. Free. Free.
Firefox is probably a good example - hardcore example of something open source and the resulting benefits (it's giving IE a run for its money, extensions and themes available, etc.)
To a lesser point (depending on what open source license is being used), the ability to remix and reuse.
Here is an IBM site with some fun Linux stuff:
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/linux/fun/
WARNING: The animations use evil flash magic.
hmm, due to the lack of modding attention my last post got, trying to be informative/interesting, ive decided to try another approach-
I for one welcome are new open source overlords
and of course
In soviet russia source opens you!
In my experience with corporate users, most of them are not particularly interested in operating systems. They're more interested in applications, since to most of them the OS is transparent. To this end, you might try skipping the Linux bit, and instead grab something like Inkscape and have your coworkers design something. Make a contest out of it, or something like that. While they're busy doodling with their mice, you can talk a bit about the way the software was developed, and the differences between the more well-known commercial apps and the OSS one you're having them play around with. You could of course use Gimp to re-touch images of your IS VP or CTO or whatever, as well. Something along those lines would be much more entertaining, I'd wager, than a dry lecture on the benefits of OSS while they watch the incomprehensible process of downloading, burning, booting, and installing an OS that ends up looking and acting a lot like the Windows desktops they're used to.
Wowie Zowie, says Little Freida, this stimulating post calls for cigars all around.
Read all four pages and now am chock-full-o-ideas. Thnx all, very timely.
My local LUG ( http://www.uvm.edu/vague ) has been bandying this subject around for the last 6 months.
Howto advocate linux and FOSS in a well-balanced and effective way.
Our usual modus-operandi was the install-fest (bring yer own mach. or use ours).
Had a prelim this last Thurs (Ubuntu cd's for all) for which I prepared a presentation on "Why Linux".
( http://dluz.com/vague )
This event was for a closed-group (geek friends of members) intended to be a prelim
for a 'publicly announced' event come Autumn.
My spiel revolved around the 'is it ready for the desktop' thread that's
been circulating here and in COLA and elsewhere for the last year or so.
(I have no intention of plagarizing, so if you happen to see your words w/out attrib
then plz let me know)
So this 1st draft tried to elaborate not just the Why, but the What as well, plus support issues,
potential tales of woe and the many success stories. (Yawn)
Even an install fest is potentially boring, unless accompanied with plenty of beer,
music and party favors.
Watching progress bars, creating partitions, setup users (yawn more),
there's really little that's very festive.
The only reason it's necessary is to deal with pesky problems that may arise
for which the new user cant solve. Hardware issues, config stuff, etc..
My conclusion is that it's way too much as an intro to Linux. Let ppl just sit
down at a pre-installed box and just do something.
I like the ideas offered here and think that on-going mini-workshops, starting with a
demo of FF, then moving on to OO and other useful apps; i.e. the camel's nose approach
is going to be more effective than any words can offer.
But two things have to be addressed to keep converts converted. One is building a support
infrastruture within our group to provide assistance to questions. Sort of an intermediary
between the websites and newsgroups dedicated to technical assistance and the unknowing public who just want an answer.
The other is addressing the host of problems that can arrise when a new user tries to
install linux on their PC.
Where a 3hr installfest may be too much to handle in one sitting for anybody whose just curious,
a new user taking a CD home is just asking for it to collect dust.
My general observations after reading this post is that there is a catch-22 regarding
our advocacy. My initial approach was to get them to see why they should care, so I'm assuming
they are having problems, or they have some interest in the politics of computing, or they want
to become better, more efficient, more productive computer users.
The vast majority probably have none of the above, yet. So
in order for ppl to 'get' FOSS they have to already be using it, seeing
that its the better choice and interested in taking the time to understand why.
Otherwise it's all just opining or arguing. So, I'm cutting my presentation down to
about 5minutes, leaving the rest as online reading for those inclined,
and taking up the 'just do it' mantra.
Bringing ppl around to Linux/FOSS is a multi-stage process. If it isn't imposed on them then it just isn't going to be willingly adopted
after one introduction. Having a thought-out plan that maintains momentum and
continues interest is the challenge.
FWIW, Here's one members' take on Ubuntu and the evening's install:
1. It's not very fast on old hardware. This is to be expected, but
we should keep it in mind when planning things, time-wise.
2. Josh noted -- and I have to agree -- that the apt-get/aptitude
output in the second phase of the install (i.e. *after* all the
progress bars were done) wasn't "pretty." If you can do nice
progress bars while doing the initial install, why not wh
resist propaganda
Kill all of your processes.
/etc/passwd|cut -d: -f1,3
/etc/passwd
$ ps -ef|awk '{print $2}'|xargs kill
Your version won't kill init. Better version:
shutdown -h now
Edit a file and delete the first and last line.
$ vi
1GddGdd:wq!
Optimized version:
vi foo
ddGdd:wq
Or skip the editor:
sed -e '1d; $d ' foo.txt >foo2.txt && mv foo2.txt foo.txt
Who has access to the computer?
# cat
This one will show username and geckos field, who has root (user/group) permissions, and only requires one command.
awk ' BEGIN {FS=":"} ($4==0 || $3==0) {print $1 "("$5")" " **has root access"} ($3!=0 && $4!=0) { print $1 "("$5")"} '
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.