[AktiviX-discuss] More daft questions from pseudo-troll

[Dan]

Hallo,

Sorry, but I've no-one else to go to!  One question to anyone, some to 
the Sheffield contingent specifically -

1. I'm designing an e-citizenship course for WEA.  (God knows how this 
happened... it's a funny old world!)  In my usual way, I have the will, 
but not the know-how, to try and make this as open source as possible.  
Mostly we'll have to use Microsoft stuff, although I'll get Mozilla and 
Thunderbird installed in the teaching room here.

This won't be so relevant in the short term, because the course is going 
to be pretty basic - but WEA's longer term aims (and those of the Adult 
Community Learning Unit (ACLU) of the Council) are pretty good.

Like me, however, they lack an understanding of the details of other 
community options - particularly open source ones. 

I was wondering, first, if anyone had any thoughts they might want to 
share on ICT and empowering the community - genuinely doing so, rather 
than just showing people how to fill in their tax return online.

And a question for Sheffield bods more specifically: the long term aims 
include a whole range of things, including community radio, the use of 
digital audio-visual media, etc.

I wonder - is there anyone willing to meet with me and WEA, to 
brainstorm what might happen in the next year or two?  Some things that 
cross my mind are -

*Getting WEA to either contribute to Aktivix, so that a section of it 
could be used for e.g. setting up e-mail lists and websites.  (What I'm 
going to try and do is work with asylum seekers, refugees and minority 
communities to use the web to communicate with each other, as well as 
find out about and share info with their countries of origin - if they 
want to!) - or vice versa, aktivix advising WEA and the council on the 
free provision of the internet, perhaps through a WEA-owned server.

*Finding out how to spread wireless (e.g. Shefnet, although I can't get 
the link to work just now!) and getting open-source-ready PCs being used 
in the community.

Someone would have to make the case to WEA, and it could be quite 
difficult to convince 'em, but is anyone willing to give it a go?

Also: someone from the ACLU asked me to find someone willing to talk to 
them about how to upload audio and audio-visual files - what's the best 
format, etc.  (I was talking to them about the ease of uploading AV to 
Indymedia... speaking of which, they're quite happy for me to promote 
Indymedia in the classes...!) 

They would pay for someone to do a presentation on this.  If anyone can 
provisionally offer, I can find out how much they might pay.

Cheers!

Dan

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