Re: [lp-ca-on] Activism Location Re: Software Freedom Dialogue Strategy (was Re: SFD Street Activism)

[Blaise Alleyne]

On 28/08/16 01:29 AM, Logan Streondj wrote:
> As in real-estate, it's all about location, location, location.
> 
> Now the real-estate we are vying for is people's minds in relation to
> computers.
> 
> We are asking for a major life change, such as switching from Apple or
> Microsoft products to Libre RYF GNU/Linux ones.
> 
> Based on my studies of such things, it is easiest to get people to
> make major life changes, when they are already making other major life
> changes.  Such as if they are transitioning from one period of life to
> another, or are moving to a new place.
> 

Yes!


> The classic example of people transitioning from one period of life to
> another is retirement, and university. Retirees have a lot of money,
> though generally limited technical skills, and not as much energy to
> invest into reading smallish letters on a screen.
> University students, freshmen in particular, have limited funds, and
> are eager to learn. So are our ideal candidate.
> 

Yes!!


> If properly formulated can get a slew of even non-IT students using
> Linux, due to the cost savings, and productivity gains.  For instance
> LaTeX can properly format all submitted papers in a professional
> manner, properly formatting all bibliographies, greatly reducing a
> common student hassle.  Also the format can be changed from one style
> to another to fit a different professors needs with just a few words
> difference -- instead of having to pour over formatting documents for
> hours.
> 

Yes, lots of reasons why university students would experiment with new software.

I really think this kind of outreach would be most effective on a university 
campus.

The only reason I didn't mention university locations is that we're looking at
weekends... If it were Mon-Thurs, or even a Fri, the St. George campus at U of T
would be fantastic (maybe at St. George / College, right in from of the
engineering / CS buildings; or at St. George / Harbord, at the centre of campus
in front of the biggest library). Anytime maybe 10 or 11am until 6pm ish (when
people are heading home or heading into night classes)

But on a Saturday or Sunday, a campus location wouldn't be worth it...

I was thinking maybe more to trial this in a larger group on a weekend at an
off-campus location, and then if there were a few of us say in Toronto that
wanted to cover U of T, hey, I'm on campus 3-4 days per week this semester...

I think campus locations would be great for recruitment, and perhaps even local
campus clubs to continue this kind of outreach -- I'd love to help start a
LibrePlanet UofT club (that is part of LibrePlanet ON, but a hyperlocal chapter
that might run UofT-specific stuff in addition).

I think we could use a clipborading project like this to get students from
universities, and in particular we might be able to recruit Computer Science,
engineering or maybe philosophy students to have a LibrePlanet presence on their
own campus... (Philosophy/theology classes have been the only non-technical
classes where I've spotted a couple other GNU/Linux users in the wild!)


> As I was walking along the shores of Owen Sound watching the fishermen
> fishing for their derby prizes, I noticed their lures, their reels and
> their large nets.
> 
> Important is to both provide the lure (productivity gains, free
> software, good ethics), as well as the follow through, reeling them
> into our community, and catching them in a safety net of support, so
> the can get through the initial tough times of learning command line,
> vim/emacs, ssh etc.
> 
> So a flyer like "What can Free Software do for You?",
> should include all the elements. People like relationships, knowledge,
> energy/money and foundation/stability.
> 

Yes... any ideas on a good existing example? Or maybe we create something really
simple...

Even a business card with a few URLs on it could be great.

(We also talked about collecting emails of those who were really interested.)



> I found a map of the Universities of Ontario:
> https://bufa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ontario-Universities-Online.j
> pg
> 
> Of the places mentioned,  Waterloo and Toronto have multiple.
> I figure if we have a rolling campaign should be able to cover them
> all, over the course of a few years.
> 

I think targeting the larger campuses, esp. those with well known computer
science programs, like U of T and Waterloo, would make sense -- but
cross-referencing that list with places where we have LibrePlanet Ontario
members who'd actually have some daytime availability to do the initial
recruitment (or else we'd need to find another way to recruit the first students
and bootstrap a campus club).

Seneca @ York would be huge too, with their CDOT program, they run the annual
Free Software and Open Source Symposium, which is one of the only large
community-run general free software / open source conferences that I'm aware of
in Toronto.


> Obviously it would make sense to approach the ones strongest in IT
> first, while it may be "preaching to the choir", can get some regular
> members, and thus have ongoing local support groups available for
> other future students.
> 
> Like I know for engineers they have elaborate frosh traditions,
> however I've not heard of any such things for IT people,
> perhaps there could be crash courses in GNU/Linux,
> with camaraderie gained through the mutual hardship
> of learning command line, console editors,
> LaTeX and shell scripting.
> 


haha yeah. I'm *super* interested in this, and as a part-time U of T student
still involved with a couple campus groups, I'd happily help start and run a
LibrePlanet U of T!

I also have quite a bit of experience working with a national non-profit that
provides support for campus clubs across Canada... I have some experience with
campus activism and student groups... I think it would be a great way to reach
people, influence society (through influencing the hackers and leaders of
tomorrow), and bring a ton of new people into LibrePlanet ON... to build an 
army!

Blaise


> On 08/25/16 10:59, Blaise Alleyne wrote:
>> On 25/08/16 10:22 AM, Stephen Paul Weber wrote:
>>>> Whether to congregate in one location to do this together, like
>>>> the biggest city or most central city with members
>>>
>>> I'm not opposed to making a trip to Toronto to do something like
>>> this. There certainly is more foot traffic there on average.  Do
>>> you have a sense of what places in Toronto would be good to
>>> target for this sort of thing?
>>>
> 
>> Yes, from other activism.
> 
>> Like, an intersection like Queen/Spadina has a ton of pedestrian
>> traffic -- and perhaps even more of a young and hipster ish crowd
>> that might be somewhat receptive to this kind of thing? And people
>> might be out for an afternoon or something.
> 
>> I've been around the downtown at many different intersections...
> 
>> While I think downtown Toronto would be a great place, I also don't
>> think it would be totally necessary. If there's a location with
>> enough steady foot traffic anywhere, it could be worth it -- like
>> in the main stretch in Owen Sound on a weekend? Or a downtown /
>> main street stretch or something, like King Street in Waterloo
>> maybe? (Not sure what pedestrian traffic is like.)
> 
>> I think Toronto would make sense for a day that we're all trying to
>> get together to do this and debrief. But I think it could also be
>> fruitful for smaller groups to run this is smaller cities too.
> 
>> The limiting reagent here is more likely to be the number of
>> volunteers than the number of passers-by, because we have nothing
>> visible (e.g. posters, video, display) here, so we're only going to
>> reach the people we talk to. As long as there's enough of a steady
>> stream of people that all our volunteers can be having frequent
>> conversations, I think it's worth it. I think a lot of smaller 
>> places could have a stretch with a steady enough stream of
>> pedestrians to keep a couple LibrePlanet volunteers busy.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature