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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
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
Do anything but show them source code.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.....
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!
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)
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.
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
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
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...
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
This would at least raise some eyebrows.
Innovate or become obsolete.
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.