ubuntu-evangelists team mailing list archive

[Rafał Cieślak <rafalcieslak256@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you for your replies!

First, I'll answer Octavian's question:

> What's the technical level of the audience? Do you reckon they have experience with other distributions?

Most of these people are going to be math students. Therefore I
believe that while little of them will have any extensive technical
knowledge, they will enjoy logical and sound reasoning. It is unlikely
that they will have any experience with any distro. Because here where
I live Linux is generally either know very little or considered as
some uber-geek stuff, I expect I might even surprise some of them by
proving that you can use a graphical interface on something that is
anyhow related to Linux... :-) so it may be easy to make a good
impression.

Vincent, this is a great deal of advice. I indeed should share my
enthusiasm, present myself as an Evangelist, and tell them what I love
about Ubuntu, not what an average person might enjoy. This way my
lecture would be much more honest, and therefore - convincing. Thanks
for this tip!

Randall, special thanks for you - that was so helpful!
You are right that a live demo is absolutely a must. If my audience
has not yet seen Ubuntu, it is likely that they will enjoy it's
simplicity of use, or the beauty of design. Mixing my stories with
demos can just do the trick!
I am honestly unsure about what pointers I should give. There is no
Ubuntu group in my city, and the Polish Ubuntu community is... well,
if I wanted to make anyone hesitant about Ubuntu, I'd point them
there. I'll probably end up recommending the global community
(forums/askubuntu/etc.), to minimize the their chances of unpleasant
experience when interacting with community.
I agree that explaining the philosophy, the ideas behind the project,
and personal stories and own experience will be much more valuable
then technical details or history. I will surely underline the role of
community in Ubuntu development! I have also considered contributing a
single, simple translation to Ubuntu (via Rosetta) during the
presentation: just to demonstrate why there are so many users, who
find contributing so easy, that they want to participate. I doubt that
newcommers would be interested in contributing, but that might help
them understand the analogy to Wikipedia.
Most likely, recording the performance will, unfortunately, not be an
option, because of the conditions under which the event will be held.
I will, however, share my experience an thoughts in as much detail as
possible. This may be a valuable feedback, especially to Evengelists
:-)

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!

Rafał Cieślak

2013/3/19 Randall Ross <randall@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Welcome Rafał! It's great to have you on the Evangelists team. I hope
> you'll find this to be the best collection of the most passionate Ubuntu
> humans anywhere.
>
> My advice:
>
> 1) Know your audience.
> What would make them enthusiastic? What are their interests? The more
> you understand their motivators, the higher your chances of making them
> excited about Ubuntu.
>
> 2) Give a great demo of Ubuntu, on a clean system.
> Show features that are appealing to them. Demo the capabilities of
> Ubuntu that really show off its strengths, in an interesting way. People
> love a great and lively demo.
>
> 3) Give a very brief presentation. (max 10 slides in 20 minutes)
> Skip the usual computer history and dry technical stuff. Tell them
> instead about Ubuntu's philosophy, which is *the* key differentiator
> over proprietary systems. Encourage them to visualize a project like
> Wikipedia where anyone with a passion can add to the project and help
> create it. Tell them the story of how you got involved in building
> Accomplishments as a very concrete example. Your passion and enthusiasm
> will be contagious. Tell them a story or two about people you've met in
> the community, with photos.
>
> 4) Give them a take-away.
> Prepare a small card or pamplet with pointers to deeper info. But more
> importantly, give them instructions on how to join your city's Ubuntu
> group. When you gather a few people in your city to enjoy Ubuntu
> together this will all get more fun and much easier too :) And, that
> gives them a place they can go to get questions answered by real people,
> which is something that no other OS offers: real community.
>
> 5) Have a friend video record the performance (if you can).
> This will help future Evangelists learn from your experience.
>
> Wishing you success my Evangelist friend!
>
> Cheers,
> Randall
>
>
>
> On 13-03-18 03:24 PM, Rafał Cieślak wrote:
>> Hello Ubuntu Evangelists!
>>
>> First, greetings everybody! As an Ubuntu enthusiast and a member of
>> community who actively promotes Ubuntu, I consider it a honor to be a
>> part of this great uprising project.
>>
>> I am sending this e-mail because I believe that one of this team's
>> aims may be to share ideas and experiences related to promoting Ubuntu
>> to a wider audience.
>>
>> Yesterday I have been asked to deliver a lecture concerning Ubuntu on
>> my local university. Sounds like a great chance to spread a word about
>> Ubuntu, right? Although a small audience is to be expected, I consider
>> it my duty to accept this offer, and to use it the best way possible.
>> I am free to choose whatever topic of the lecture I wish, and if this
>> idea succeeds, I may be given chance to deliver one or two more in a
>> later term.
>>
>> Although I could prepare the lecture on my own (I feel very confident
>> when speaking about Ubuntu, and my level of expertise is enough to
>> make up a interesting presentation), I am asking you for tips on
>> leading such event.
>> My particular questions include:
>>    - Have you ever done something similar? What was your experience?
>> What is your general advice? What should I pay most attention to?
>>    - Do you have any ideas concerning which topics should I present?
>> Most of the audience will likely have either minimum or no experience
>> with Ubuntu, so potentially I might go ahead with something like "What
>> is Ubuntu" or "Why is it cool", but that just sounds boring and
>> unoriginal (although such lecture itself may be indeed interesting). I
>> have also thought about presenting just the the purely non-technical
>> sides of Ubuntu (community, philosophy), but this, on the other hand,
>> would be not interesting to those who are completely new to Ubuntu. Do
>> you happen to have some cool ideas here?
>>    - In my local community the level of ubuntu-awareness is very
>> little. How can I ensure this will not affect my lecture's clarity, so
>> that ubuntu-unaware people could enjoy it too?
>>
>> I welcome all tips and experience you can share!
>>
>> Rafał Cieślak
>>
>
>
>
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