We should have some kind of initiative to attract (specially students) towards FOSS. May be awards,bountys,scholarships etc will surely attract people.
On 5/14/05, Puneet Goel puneet.maillist@gmail.com wrote:
On 5/14/05, Krishna Pagadala krishnaact@yahoo.com wrote:
Punnet, Sorry. I live in US, so I cant be of much practical help. So while emails matter, I was not sure that I another comment would useful.
That doesn't matter. Whatever and wherever you can help that should be fine. Even though I am also on move much time for my bread and butter and again in few days I may go out of India but still we can try to push things in our own capacity.
Coming to the matter on hand. I think that only a handful of students in any given college will be interested. I think we should target them by personal contact. My plan of action would be to drop into a CS lab, catch the students who are in there of their own interest (not just because it is a lab period), and see if they are interested. 1st and 2nd years students are ideal.
You are right in this. Personally I also don't expect too many people to join. If we can bring 500 active participants, then also I will think that our work is accomplished, and we have achieved something significant. Why I was talking big numbers is simple. If we target thousands then only 100 will come. So let's target as many as possible, we will get some cool folks for sure (Marketing's first mantra). Pulling 500 resources should not be that much difficult considering if all of us try best in our capacities.
From the FLOSS report http://floss.infonomics.nl/report/Final4.htm#_Toc13908256 We know that 2/3rds of the FLOSS community are motivated to join and stay in FLOSS for the following reasons.
- Share knowledge and skills.
- Learn and develop new skills
I think we should try to find common ground on those reasons. Also we should mention that their job prospects will improve (and they will, it happened to me).
You are absolutely right. People who know this and understand this are there and will always be there. They are already contributing to projects and that's why wheel is spinning. But we shouldn't forget one more point that by doing this http://www.communitycode.org/ kind of project, we are pulling new people towards FLOSS. Once they are in then they will be in for sure.
I am quite surprised that nobody took Thejesh up on his offer of money. Maybe an award kind of system (from FSF) will be more useful.
FSF can take this kind of initiative without any problem.
I am quite keen on IT@School, and Skole Linux, if anybody wants to take it up, I will be more than happy to fund it with small amounts of money.
great idea.
Hope more people join this discussion and lend us their ideas, particularly FSF people.
Cheers! Puneet
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