I wouldn't start out teaching them how to install; as an earlier poster mentioned, it simply takes too long, and could quickly lose kids' attention. Just as important, though, is that so many distributions these days are easy--SuSE's install is downright mindless. Instead, just point them in the direction of some easy-to-install distributions.
What I would teach them is how to find the information necessary to modify existing installations--not simply "Use YaST to add a new package", but rather the process of finding answers to non-obvious questions. As a new Linux user, it took me some time to figure out how to find answers to my questions on the web (How to ask the right questions, I guess), how to use the answers I found, and perhaps most importantly, how to modify answers for one distribution to work on my distribution. There's a lot of information out there, but it's not always easy to use. Some questions that I remember fighting with included how to get Samba to work, running mySQL, creating virtual domains in Apache, How to get Tomcat and Apache to work together, How to get X to work on a docked laptop (actually I'm still fighting w/ that one).
My experience in teaching software development courses at both the local community college and at CMU has been that teaching students how to find information for themselves is one of the most important skills I can offer. Students that have learned how to do this have been more successful and more enthusiastic in my classes. They've also been more likely to pursue the subject matter both outside of class and after the semester has ended. I also suspect they are more successful in their careers, as they are more capable of keeping their skills up to date.
From my own experience as a campaign manager, I've found that voters associate you with your 2-3 largest themes (i.e. "Timothy, he's the guy who is going to lower taxes and make C'ville more high-tech...")
If the majority of your talking points don't tie in to those themes, the voters forget the points and don't have anything specific to remember you by ("Timothy, he's the guy that's for....uhhh, what the hell is he for?).
The "saving money theme" has already been beat to death in this thread, so I won't talk on it, save to say it's always a good one. Most of the slash-folks seem to think just using the cash to lower taxes is the only idea, but remember that you can also run on what you'll do with the extra $$--"I'm going to save our city X$ by using free software, and I'm going to use that money to offer free open-source training classes for you the voter, making you more employable during the current recession." This can tie in with the below:
Make tech one of your major themes. Local exec and leg are normally very focused on bringing jobs to the region; making your region more appealing to tech buisnesses is still a pretty valid agenda. Thus "making C'ville more high-tech" becomes one of your larger themes. Switching to open source, worker retraining and bringing in new biz can all be woven into that.
Slashdot Mirror
More fun than a nice game of chess. Not nearly as much fun as Global Thermonuclear War.
Anybody else notice the number of ads for "Certified Ethical Hacker" showing up with the story? Love that contextual advertising.
I wouldn't start out teaching them how to install; as an earlier poster mentioned, it simply takes too long, and could quickly lose kids' attention. Just as important, though, is that so many distributions these days are easy--SuSE's install is downright mindless. Instead, just point them in the direction of some easy-to-install distributions.
What I would teach them is how to find the information necessary to modify existing installations--not simply "Use YaST to add a new package", but rather the process of finding answers to non-obvious questions. As a new Linux user, it took me some time to figure out how to find answers to my questions on the web (How to ask the right questions, I guess), how to use the answers I found, and perhaps most importantly, how to modify answers for one distribution to work on my distribution. There's a lot of information out there, but it's not always easy to use. Some questions that I remember fighting with included how to get Samba to work, running mySQL, creating virtual domains in Apache, How to get Tomcat and Apache to work together, How to get X to work on a docked laptop (actually I'm still fighting w/ that one).
My experience in teaching software development courses at both the local community college and at CMU has been that teaching students how to find information for themselves is one of the most important skills I can offer. Students that have learned how to do this have been more successful and more enthusiastic in my classes. They've also been more likely to pursue the subject matter both outside of class and after the semester has ended. I also suspect they are more successful in their careers, as they are more capable of keeping their skills up to date.
Sorry martissimo, you are also incorrect.
.07 cents per song per listener.
.14 cents per song per listener.
.07 cents per song per listener. .14 cents per song per listener
Traditional Radio Stations pay no fees to broadcast songs, historically because such broadcasting has "promotional" value.
Some traditional stations also broadcast via the 'net. In these cases, they would pay
Internet-only stations would pay
So:
Traditional: free
Traditional + Internet:
Internet Only:
If the majority of your talking points don't tie in to those themes, the voters forget the points and don't have anything specific to remember you by ("Timothy, he's the guy that's for....uhhh, what the hell is he for?).
The "saving money theme" has already been beat to death in this thread, so I won't talk on it, save to say it's always a good one. Most of the slash-folks seem to think just using the cash to lower taxes is the only idea, but remember that you can also run on what you'll do with the extra $$--"I'm going to save our city X$ by using free software, and I'm going to use that money to offer free open-source training classes for you the voter, making you more employable during the current recession." This can tie in with the below:
Make tech one of your major themes. Local exec and leg are normally very focused on bringing jobs to the region; making your region more appealing to tech buisnesses is still a pretty valid agenda. Thus "making C'ville more high-tech" becomes one of your larger themes. Switching to open source, worker retraining and bringing in new biz can all be woven into that.