[school-discuss] NECC 2007 Open Source Pavilion - Making Plans!

["Steve Hargadon" <steve.hargadon@xxxxxxxxx>]

OK, NECC is coming up (June 24 - 27 in Atlanta), and this is a
combination of a status report and a call for volunteers/help.

Please forward this post to your Free and Open Source Software friends!

NECC is the National Educational Computing Conference
(http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2007), and it attracts over 15,000
educators each year. It's one of the largest (if not the largest)
educational technology shows in the world. For the last several years
NECC has supported an "Open Source Pavilion" (apologies to Richard
Stallman) with a Linux thin-client lab for demonstration purposes.
Last year we added a speaker series, which is now a part of the main
NECC program. This year we are getting our own large room (!!) and
adjacent hallway space. Hurrah!

This years speakers can be seen at our organizing wiki:
http://necc2007.wikispaces.com/Speakers. There will also be two "Birds
of a Feather" sessions on FLOSS:
http://necc2007.wikispaces.com/Birds+of+a+Feather.

OK. Now, about getting help!

We need:

1. "Swag." We've gone round about on this, and aren't sure how
successful it is to give things away, but people sure like it.
CDs/DVDs have been the rule, but we wouldn't turn down t-shirts or
buttons or pens or anything. OK, you big-gun FLOSS companies--this is
easy stuff!
2. Logistical funding. We are bringing 60+ computers to Atlanta, a
couple of servers, and lots of networking gear. Got some extra cash?
We'd also love to get some brightly-colored t-shirts for our
volunteers.
3. Setup volunteers. We'll set up the lab and computers late Saturday
afternoon/evening. Maybe we'll get some pizzas and make it a party.
4. Volunteer for "milling around." The Open Source Pavilion needs
folks who'll just answer questions (mostly really basic) about what
FLOSS is. Come for an hour, or come for three days.
5. "Playground booths." These are 5 - 10 stations where we'll be
demonstrating different FLOSS programs. Previously we've showcased
OpenOffice, GIMP, Audacity, Linspire, SchoolTool, Edubuntu, Moodle,
Firefox, and Knoppix. We're open to just about anything that you'd
like to demonstrate that will give our attendees some good hands-on,
one-on-one demonstrations. We welcome proposals from commercial
vendors who will commit themselves to also supporting the FLOSS ideals
and helping out in general.
6. Podcasting. Want to record our speakers for posting audio
recordings of their presentations? (Paul Nelson?) Let us know.
7. Computers. It would help a ton to have computers/laptops we don't
have to ship from California for the thin-client lab. Also, each
playground booth will need two or three computers for demonstrations.
8. Students. Got some students who are using FLOSS? We'd love them to
help in the Pavilion and demonstrate at the playground booths. They
get a free t-shirt and lunch each day. We've even got some open,
unscheduled lab time and we could have them do short presentations!

You can go to the wiki (http://necc2007.wikispaces.com) to sign up to
volunteer or send me an email letting me know what you can do.

Also: For reference, my interview series on FLOSS in education is at
http://edtechlive.wikispaces.com. And are you an educational blogger?
Check out our all-day Saturday EduBloggerCon
(http://edubloggercon.wikispaces.com) 2007 meet-up.

Steve


--
Steve Hargadon
steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.SteveHargadon.com
916-899-1400