Re: [school-core] Affero's concept

["SteelHead" <bill@ries-knight.net>]

I can speak to this ...

In the past I have attempted to make a place for SEUL at conferences and
shows as they come to our area and there is one basic barrier... Money
  In the past we have been helped by Linux Mandrake  as there were (at that
time) similar goals for both entities.. SEUL could help the end user with
its adoption and Linux Mandrake was/is a very novice friendly distro.  Alas,
LM and all of the rest of the Linux Industry is in survival mode, spending
little or no money outside of core operational needs, and very little if any
is available to outsiders.

Why money?  These conferences and shows, with very few exceptions, are
looking to generate revenue because it is their business model, they are
promoting a "consortium" of like minded companies, or they are collecting
operational funds for other activities. In all cases they look at the
vendors wanting booth space, and how they fit the show model.

Can the vendor attract people to the program or show?  Can the vendor
generate direct revenue?  Is the vendor capable of providing an enhancement
to the program to keep people on the show floor longer?  This is not all
they look at, but they are the questions that I have had to answer.  Unless
we can convince the conference and show promoter it is in their best
interest and that we can provide a really useful piece to the shows program,
they only care if we have money.  Additionally, unless the show floor is
really undersold, if we are not a good fit in their view, we may have no
chance to get in the show.

Just a few words from my view.

Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: <XIARCEL@prodigy.net>
To: <schoolforge-core@schoolforge.net>
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: [school-core] Affero's concept


> I believe I missed the Affero concept as originally presented?
>
> I imagine that it is very difficult to break into the educational
> trade-shows if such a barrier exists...
>
> Have we attempted to negotiate with the holders of these
> conferences, pointing out that we have no "product to sell", no
> "revenue to generate" from these visits?
>
> On a side note...perhaps there are editorials, op-eds, etc...that
> can be done in educational journals?  Are any of us educators by
> trade?  ((Do any of us work for the educational system in some
> manner?))..
>
> Another way, perhaps, to get our name out there... is to approach
> the "homeschool" front.  These are educators of a different
> sort... but they strong mind-share there might also help...
>
> ~Dave
>
> --- Original Message ---
> From: Doug Loss <drloss@suscom.net>
> To: schoolforge-core@schoolforge.net
> Subject: [school-core] Affero's concept
>
> >Just so we can continue the discussion on this, I'd like to say
> >something about where financial support would be very useful.
> >
> >About a year or so ago we realized at SEUL/edu that we were talking
> >to people who already understood and agreed with our positions, but
> >we weren't reaching people outside that group who we needed to
> >convince.  What we (and all of us here, actually) need to do is to
> >present the case for free and open resources in education to the
> >_educational_ community, not to each other.  To do that, we need to
> >attend educational conferences as exhibitors.
> >
> >Unfortunately, that's not nearly as easy to do as it is to attend
> >Linux conferences.  The educational community expects to be marketed
> >to, but not to be approached by grass-roots organizations.  For that
> >reason, exhibitor space at its conferences is ofter prohibitively
> >expensive, precluding participation by any except corporations.
> >That's a self-fulfilling prophecy situation, but there it is.  Any
> >funds we could generate should (I think) go toward having a presence
> >at various technology in education conferences around the world.
> >That would include exhibitor fees, lodging and travel expenses for
> >participants, etc.  These things would require not insubstantial
> >amounts of money, but would have the greatest potential for
> >broadening the reach of our message.
> >
> >Outside of finding some well-to-do and generous sponsors, I think
> >the Affero donation method may be the best way we have of generating
> >the funds for such things as this.
> >
> >--
> >Doug Loss                 All I want is a warm bed
> >Data Network Coordinator  and a kind word and
> >Bloomsburg University     unlimited power.
> >dloss@bloomu.edu                Ashleigh Brilliant
> >
> >
>
> ~Dave
>                ||* Projects, active *||
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>   >http://dustyscript.sourceforge.net/<
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>
>