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Leaflets Ubuntu and FLOSS

 

I have uploaded a few items to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IdeaWall

Only one has -direct- Ubuntu content - the Ubuntu information leaflet. The editable files of all are available no problem but I uploaded pdf for reference.

The Ubuntu information leaflet is in active and current use at local (UK) events on an information table I run under a FLOSS banner (http://infopointproject.org/wordpress/materials/infopoint-guide/). It is relevant when people have already heard about Ubuntu and want to know more. The Some details are relevant to my own personal area locally and include my email address, which I always specially draw attention to when handing it out, and I also verbally invite contact. Over about three years I have handed out a LOT of these and am always surprised when I find that in that time only a few people have ever actually used the email. It is intended to be printed A4 double sided and folded twice. It is almost exclusively used for attenders at events like computer fairs.

An article I wrote for an older persons organisation: Ethical and Community based Computer Programs. This was published in the organisation's UK national magazine and apart from one mealy mouthed response from a person who said he liked to pay for his stuff, I received a few dozen direct email responses with questions, which I followed up individually. It did show that an advertising article will generate interest, but also that local hand holding is vital. My objective for the item was to broaden awareness of an alternative system for PCs.

The colour leaflet is aimed at 'street level' handouts, public libraries etc, and is intended to arouse some interest and inform about FLOSS at a very basic level. Our public libraries in UK are run by local government and will reject any leaflets which are apparently commercial, or political. Windows is their de facto standard, and local library management has no professional (or personal) knowledge of anything else, it is deferred back into the bureaucratic hierarchy. Free software has an obvious element of a political agenda, so this partly explains the absence in the leaflet of freedom dogma or explanation. Also, it is traditional that when something is free (gratis) there is -always- expected to be a commercial catch (I know, I know), and commercial advertising is not allowed........
I note that the colour leaflet does contain a few typos.
The narrow focus on Openness rather than freedom and social benefit also has the deliberate objective of keeping the initial message very simple. I have used nearly 1000 of these in just over a twelve month period. I use a sicker on the contact area giving the URL of:
www.theopendisc.com/education
www.theopendisc.com
www.opensource.org
Local Volunteer:
(my email)

It does mention Ubuntu, but only just. Most Windows users need to go through several stages of FLOSS discovery. Initially - to be aware it even exists, then to know it is Libre. Only after that will they be able to appreciate that Windows itself may be replaced by some strange community based system which is taking over the world....

I hope the uploads can be useful fro ideas or whatever?
--
alan cocks
Ubuntu user