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?"

Comments

Open Source Computer on a Stick

[Ohmster]

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

Re:Get them thinking...

[AuMatar]

Expanding on the paper airplane thing might make more sense than hammering on the cost. Start with a simple paper airplanne, get ideas from the room to improve it. Eliminate what doesn't work, and keep building off what does. SHow that thats how the open source model works- individual contributors adding together neat ideas to make the whole.

Collaborative Effort Game

[Marc_Hawke]

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.

...or Wiki in general

[Em Ellel]

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