Draft of letter requesting a (Indian) college to host a mini debconf
Hi,
I'm sending this request letter out to English Localization and Publicity,
in case they have suggestions re wording.
For context, this letter was originally sent to the Debian Indian mailing
list by Praveen. His message appears below.
I've edited it quite heavily. Thanks also to assistance from Anthony
DeRobertis.
Please keep the letter as text while circulating. Thanks.
Regards, Faheem
Hi,
Digital Freedom Foundation (dff.org.in) is offering to help us reach out
to colleges across Maharashtra to conduct mini debconfs.
Please suggest modification to the letter, its a first draft so I may
have missed some points. We can also add it to a wiki page if there is a
lot of suggestions.
Thanks
Praveen
###########################################################################
Subject: Request for hosting a mini Debian conference (mini debconf)
at your institute
Debian is a Free Software operating system developed by volunteers
across the world. It is used on laptops, desktops and servers. This
project started in 1993, and 58.5% of web servers run on Debian or its
derivative Ubuntu as per the W3Techs survey[1]. You can learn more
about the Debian project at www.debian.org. The Debian community is
reaching out to students to offer them a chance to learn by working
with us on various aspects of the operating system. We have been
organizing mini Debian conferences since 2010 in various cities,
including Pune (COEP, VIT), Mangalore (NITTE), Calicut (NIT),
Kuttippuram (MESCE). We are reaching out to more colleges so as many
students as possible will benefit.
Unlike many other fields, software engineering students have the
privilege of studying how widely used and state of the art software
like an operating system works. A mechanical engineering student will
rarely have the chance to see a BMW, Mercedes Benz or a Ferrari being
designed and manufactured, let alone have the chance to work with
designers and manufacturers. Thanks to the Free Software revolution,
any software engineering student can see how software, including the
Linux kernel and thousands of other free programs, is designed and
work with developers to make new innovations. Just as it is critical
for a medical student to gain familiarity with the human body, it is
similarly important for a software engineering student to learn how
software is written, maintained, used and improved in the real
world. Most of the time students learn only theoretical concepts or
trivial software as part of their curriculum. Working with Free
Software projects gives students an opportunity to work on software
which is used in production all over the world.
Advantages of contributing to Free Software projects include:
1. learning how software is produced in the real world
2. learning how to solve real world problems
3. learning with some of the best programmers in the world
4. learning tools and processes used in software development
5. learning how to work collaboratively in teams
6. learning to communicate technical problems effectively while
working remotely.
In a mini Debian conference, members of the Debian community share the
work they do in the community and guide students to take up projects
to improve the Project. This includes talks and workshops on basic
topics like ``Introduction to Free Software'', ``Securing
communications on the Internet'', or advanced topics like
``Maintaining Debian packages'', “Version Control with Git” (or
Mercurial), “Bug squashing parties”, etc.
A mini Debian conference requires class rooms/lecture halls with
projectors for talks and labs for hands-on workshops. It is better for
the conference to last more than a day, to allow more time for talks
and for participants to interact with each other. In this case, we
also request accomodation for speakers and delegates, and also for
students from outside the host institution, to enable them to
participate.
[1] W3Techs survery of Web Servers
http://w3techs.com/blog/entry/debian_ubuntu_extend_the_dominance_in_the_linux_web_server_market_at_the_expense_of_red_hat_centos
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