Re: [seul-edu] seul-edu posting guidelines / Introduction

[Kerry Kim <kkim@redhat.com>]

Team:

Since I can't remember whether I introduced myself or not, let me take
this opportunity to do so.

> 
> We invite you, our new subscriber, to send a brief introduction of
> yourself to the list, so we can keep track of what resources we have
> available and who our audience is.
> 

My name is Kerry Kim, and I work as a product manager at Red Hat.  I
have a wife and two small children and we live in North Carolina.  When
I first moved to NC a bunch of my neighbors advised me to send my kids
to private school.  The quality of education my kids would receive in
the public schools here would be poor, they warned.

So I did some research and found that while the quality of education in
NC was not necessarily bad, it could use some improvement.  Furthermore,
I found out that technology spending per student in NC was $16 per pupil
per annum, way below the national average of $104.  In the course of my
research, I also discovered that there were many resourceful people all
across the country doing remarkable things to leverage open source
technologies in the educational sector - People using cost effective
open source technologies to stretch their IT budgets, people providing
effective open source learning platforms and other educational
technologies for K-12 students.

So I work at an open source company - duh.  I spoke to some people that
I work with and found that there were many like me who shared a similar
desire to see open source technologies become more widely adopted in our
schools, including our CEO.  After all that talking, people here were
itching to do something.  So we've met with some local area schools and
non-profit organizations and have begun soliciting donations of computer
hardware, software, and services.  We've also committed to demonstrating
a prototype "open source computer lab" at an educational conference in
October.  One of the short term things I hope we can do (with all your
help) is do some homework on what open source K-12 applications are
available and install/demo these on this computer lab concept.  Longer
term, I hope we can influence those application developers that write
critical software, to make their applications available on open source
platforms.

Sorry to be so long winded.  Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to
learning from you all and working with you in support of our common
goals and objectives.  I guess my Dad was right when he said "Wait until
you're a father, then you'll understand."  I used to be one of those
guys on the airplane that would wonder (out loud sometimes) why those
parents couldn't keep their kids quiet when the plane descended.  Now
I'm the one that gets all teary-eyed when I see that Office Depot
commercial on TV.

I guess its better late than never,




-- 
Kerry Kim			
Red Hat, Inc.			phone:	919-547-0012 x212
2600 Meridian Parkway		fax:	919-547-0022
Durham, NC 27713		email:	kkim@redhat.com