Re: [school-core] Affero's concept

[David Bucknell <david@members.iteachnet.org>]

A number of us are teachers first and tech-workers second. I, as those of you 
who have worked closely with me know, am a case in point. (Read: tech skills 
severely challenged ;-)) There is no shortage of teachers on the list, 
actually. They're just busy teaching.

As for breaking into the tech fairs, that is not hard. It is just as Doug 
said, finding the money. There is the travel, depending on where the fair is, 
and the entrance/presenter fees. Sometimes the fees are waived if 
presentations are accepted. But there's still travel. I proposed and was 
accepted to present about open source at a big one: the essential schools 
coalition conference on the west coast of the US this year, and they did waive 
all fees, but I still couldn't come up with the travel money. 

So, I think we should continue working toward a stock presentation package 
that we can adapt for our purposes at local events. One way to start is for 
each of us to look into what's going on locally in ed and to propose a 
workshop or three and a presentation. If accepted, then we can call on our 
list friends here to help get ready. That would mean we'd be a step nearer to 
being ready when the next opportunity came along. Considering our geographic 
distribution around the world, we could be presenting all the time.

David
Quoting XIARCEL@prodigy.net:

> 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 *||
> Dustyscript (children programming): 
>   >http://dustyscript.sourceforge.net/<
> xTable: http://cxtable.sourceforge.net/
> Grapevine: http://grapevineproject.org/
> 
> 


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