Re: [Debconf-team] Questions for the DebConf18 teams
Hi all,
Apologies as this would be a bit of a long mail.
Just to take the idea of a debian float further, the firefoxOS bus
idea was mine but not exclusively. The most earliest-modern precedents
I found some years ago rose from the 1896 "Plessy v. Ferguson"
suit/case that established the legality of Jim Crow segregation in the
U.S. Irene Morgan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morgan , Rosa
Parks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks , the fascinating
history of BSCP (was mix of emotions when I first read it)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Sleeping_Car_Porters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Sleeping_Car_Porters#Civil_rights_leadership
and of course Bayard Rustin's influence on it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustin#Influence_on_the_Civil_Rights_Movement
Freedom riders in 1961 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Riders
Then there were the high 60's where free love buses were part of the
popular counter-culture - Specifically
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Further_(bus) and many others of the
same era.
So the notion of using bus for change has there been for a long long time.
The credit for the success of FirefoxOS bus though rests squarely on
the shoulders of Mozilla India, as it's something to share an idea and
something else altogether to figure out the funds, the logistics and
do it. Unlike the 60's, except for the driver and a mechanic, almost
everybody on the bus that I know were either students or working
professionals. So they all took a day or two or more from work or
college and were part of that bus. They used the bus as an improvised
temporary school which had laptops and other SBC's (single board
CPU's). IIRC it was majorly funded by Mozilla i.e. fuel, lights almost
everything.
Coming back to now, you will need to figure out how sustaining it can
be. If you can figure out the funds, maybe it could be part of the
2017 Carnival too, you don't have to wait till the debconf to do that.
One way to explore could be using booths to do awareness building,
which we have been doing since 2014 and will be doing again this year
-
https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/gnunify-science-day/
https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/science-day-2016-at-gmrt-khodad-and-learning/
While we have been doing minidebconfs we also experimented with going
to schools on week-ends
https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/sharings/
https://harishnavnit.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/a-noble-gesture-giving-back-to-the-society/
This went on till 2 years, till when a new Principal came in and only
would let in "registered entities" such as Red Cross and others which
frankly speaking is/was too much "work" . We all did it as much for
the students as well as bonding with each other and learning skills
and bits of knowledge from each other in a relatively stress-free
environment.
One another initiative that has been happening but which requires
dedicated funds, personnel in learning are Mobile learning centres.
These came in a big way around 2010 .
There was some natural disaster - don't remember if it was the Ladakh
floods (2010) or something else but saw a few starting with Mobile
Centre Units
http://www.aviva.com/media/news/item/india-aviva-launches-mobile-learning-centres-with-save-the-children-to-bring-underprivileged-children-closer-to-education-12923/
http://www.ndsindia.org/navjyoti-development-society-mobile-learning-centres.php
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/hp-wow-mobile-learning-centers-india/
http://anchalindia.org/education-mobile-learning-centre/
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/tara-mobile-crches-launches-mobile-learning-centre/
The only international centre I know is -
http://www.mobilelearning.co.nz/
There probably are others. It is also possible that this may be a very
old idea in the global context (to use buses as a school in itself). I
did read about pretty big houseboats being used as schools in Thailand
circa 2008 or earlier so not much of a novel idea .
I/we came to know/have it in public consciousness from 2010 onwards only.
So I guess you have lots on your plate to chew on. It may be possible
to do something like above as many countries do have budgets to fund
such kind of initiatives, just need to know the right
politics/politician and have a team which would be ready to commit
time and soul.
Debian Edu https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/ or skolelinux headed by
Petter Reinholdtsen would be an excellent person to connect (CC'ed) if
you want to start of something similar. He probably would have lot of
tips and tricks to share.
I am sure Gunnar with his experience as a teacher would have lots to offer too.
@Gunnar - I just wanted to have a sense of distances involved between
cities. While the carnival would surely have been an attraction, from
what little I have heard, the city is cosmopolitan in nature, so
visiting anytime is cool.
Look forward if you are able to kickstart something :)
Fun fact : India taking cue from Brazilian Carnival, had long ago
appropriated the float idea, lookup 'Durga float' and 'Ganesh float'
in generic video sharing sites and you should be able to see them.
Till later.
--
Regards,
Shirish Agarwal शिरीष अग्रवाल
My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com
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