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Re: Linux International General Developer's Fund: Request
Hi,
I have left the LI technical board off of this discussion for a few minutes
so their mailboxes won't get too full.
I would like to thank Gary for being so elegant in describing both the need
for "documentation training" as well as training in Linux in general.
Now let me tell you a special need that I see:
There are more and more Linux events worldwide. All of them want speakers
to talk about the latest "Linux things". Developers are always welcome, but
there are too many events (and will be even more) for even all of the developers
to keep up (as Guylhem says "we also have our real lifes"). But by using
documentation people to give some talks about how the things work, how to tune
them, etc., we get a triple whammy:
o more speakers for more events without driving everyone crazy
o better training for attendees
o direct feedback to the parts of the software that needs better
documentation
Of course it takes time to develop and give a talk, but for someone who knows
the information and how to organize and present it, it takes only a short time
to do that effort. And for that time you get at least some sponsorship to
cover the trip to some exotic place (Asia if you are from Europe, Europe if
you are from Asia, Cleveland if you are from outside the USA, South America,
Africa....I think you are getting the drift). This does not mean that you have
to be on the road constantly (you pick the times you are available).
Most of the time I would hope that LI member companies would fund these trips,
but in case there is a special one (Linux Kongress comes to mind), perhaps
LIDGF money would help.
In addition to all this, I have been toying with the idea of a Linux
"Exchange Student" program. I had a pilot of this program with a student
from Poland, who came to the USA to travel about for the summer and talk to
various Linux user groups about three topics of his choosing. It was great.
Red Hat paid for his bus (yes, bus ticket) around the US and helped him
schedule groups. The groups paid for his sleeping arrangements (often in
people's houses) and showed him the countryside (usually a cityscape) and
he paid for his "between meals". Over a seven week period he saw most of the
USA (albiet quickly), and even went rafting on the Colorado River. He was
loaned a laptop to allow him to show his slides, and he bought nationwide
Internet access so he could keep in touch. I think we could get each major
Linux vendor (and quite a few smaller ones) to sponsor such a thing. But
we need interesting, knowledgable speakers who can speak the native language
of the country they are visiting (or else agreement from the sponsoring
country that the language the speaker knows is "acceptable" for that country).
This program (of course) would probably be limited to students or other people
who could take lots of time off.
What would be great would be a Linux Documentation Speaker's Bureau, something
along the lines of the one that SSC set up under
http://www2.linuxjournal.com/cgi-bin/frames.pl/lr-toc.html
My two cents.
md
--
=============================================================================
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director, Linux(R) Intern'l Director of Linux Evangelism
Linux International VA Linux Systems
80 Amherst St. 1382 Bordeaux Ave.
Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Internet: maddog@li.org maddog@valinux.com
WWW: http://www.li.org WWW: http://www.valinux.com
Voice: +1.603.672.4557
Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association
(R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries.
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