Re: SILUG Presentation

[Tony Zafiropoulos <tonyz@ctitek.com>]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, James L. Burke wrote:

> Hey Folks,
> 
> I just wanted to make sure everyone in the group was informed about an
> upcoming meeting that I will be participating in.
> 
> Many of you may remember that we had some visitors a few months back from a
> local recruiting, consulting, hiring, and training firm (Janet Micheel of
> RCH).  This firm is sponsoring the July Belleville Chamber of Commerce
> Business After Hours.  They wanted to have a presentation on Linux and the
> Open Source Movement.


I would be more than happy to help in providing my projector and/or my
RH7.1 laptop,

I would keep the presentation basic, and push the marketing facts.

Do you have a Presentation ready on your laptop?  (I cc'ed the marketing
group in the metro area whose primary focus is promoting Linux/open source
with a marketing flavor)


Actually James.... you need to make this very fluffy with hardly any
technical stuff, I would say that you will have 50% of the attendees
involved in some type of sales position.

I went to a couple myself....

<rant>
(IMHO)
The presentation should center on the most striking differences with MS.

 http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/10/microsoft_school/i
(great article of a licensing nightmare for a school)

Which is licensing, not just free beer but also free speech (I know you
heard this already, but the masses have not).



THE ACTUAL AUDIENCE SHOULD BE ANY PRESS THAT MAY ATTEND FOR ONE REASON OR
ANOTHER.....

</rant>

Sorry for yelling, need some sleep:)

This is a good opportunity, but don't expect the technical questions like
which module should I use in 2.2.17 for the latest zinger hardware.

More like....  What is that Linux company????

If Linux is free why does it cost something in the store???

Who supports Linux???

Does Linux run Excel??

(Actual Business owner questions. - names withheld for obvious reasons :)

Tony






> 
> I have agreed to give that presentation and basically I will be giving a
> "case study" on what Burke & Poirier Law Firm has done with Linux, Apache,
> Sendmail, MySQL, PHP, etc...
> 
> The Chamber's July Business After Hours is this Thursday the 12th at 5:00
> p.m. at the Clinton Hill Country Club on Old Collinsville Road in Swansea.
> I anticipate this presentation being about 15 minutes and them a question
> and answer.  I will be giving the presentation at 5:30 and again at 6:30.
> 
> I regularly attend these Business After Hours and find that these events are
> usually well attended by local business owners.  These small business owners
> are just the type of people who struggle with technology and the cost of
> licensing software and the cost of software that just doesn't work.
> 
> I think this is a good opportunity to promote the virtues of open source to
> someone other than people who already understand the concept.  These are
> just the type of people who could make open source a "mainstream"
> distribution method.  Also, the vast majority of these business owners don't
> want to learn how to do this themselves - they are not likely to become
> SILUG members ... they just want it to work! and undoubtedly one of the main
> questions I will get will be about support.
> 
> Therefore, I thought some SILUG members might want to show up and help
> answer questions and, especially for those of you who consult for a living,
> you could help demonstrate in person that there are professionals who can
> support Open Source Software and help small businesses take advantage of
> this licensing alternative.
> 
> If anyone is interested in helping out with this event it should only take
> about an hour and a half of your time.  I would like to have some technical
> expertise available for the possible Windows NT advocate/heckler (though
> truthfully I could probably handle two MCSE's with one hand tied behind my
> back) and it might also be interesting to have some cool demo's.  I will
> only have my laptop running Red Hat 6.2 there to give the presentation on
> ... if someone wanted to bring a box to let people see other things running,
> that might be good.  Remember, these are business owners ... they may not
> find the latest compiler very interesting, but a demo of the latest release
> of Ximian Evolution might get their attention ... anyway ...
> 
> Any help anyone can offer would be great and it might be a good way to meet
> business owners who need knowledgeable, honest, qualified consultants ...
> 
> Please let me know ahead of time if you wish to help.
> 
> Thanks,
> jburke
> 
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-- 
Tony Zafiropoulos
CTiTEK, Inc.
Supporting Linux one system at a time
Ph:  314-726-5080 x101
Fax: 314-726-5085
Cel: 314-504-3974
tonyz@ctitek.com
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character
 give him power." 
 -- Abraham Lincoln

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