[Linux-aus] Microsoft Offer to Australian University Students ( James Collier )

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On Sun, 9 Mar 2008, James Collier <james.collier412 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Regarding earlier discussions on this topic.
> Thanks to everyone for their advice.
> I've printed a few OpenOffice.org posters to place up around the uni.
> I've also contacted the Monash Student Association, I'm currently in the
> middle of negotiating a meeting with him regarding a software freedom
> day here. Also on that, I'm certainly not experienced in this area, so
> if anyone could help I'd be very grateful! I've contacted LUV regarding
> this too.
> The MSA president also suggested I write an article for the student
> newspaper, that I've drafted. If I could ask a few of you to proof read
> this for me, once again I'd be very grateful!
>
> Nathan Bailey, thank you, yes it was a global email.

The article is pretty good, but here are a few suggestions:

* 'free cost' often makes people think that there is a reduction in quality. 
Obviously this isn't true with FOSS. I would focus more on value than cost.

* You make a lot of exclamations, which gives the article an alarmist tone. I 
believe a better approach would be to assure people that trying FOSS is easy 
and smooth, without the kinds of surprises that one would associate with 
exclamation marks.

I'd be happy to help you refine the article if you like. I'm currently doing 
similar work on the LA guide to FOSS[0] and leaflets for various expos[1] 
(which you might want to link to in your article).

Sorry for plugging my own stuff everyone! :)


[0] http://www.linux.org.au/linux
[1] http://www.slug.org.au/~yama/fliers/

-- 
"Science helps a lot, but people built perfectly good brick walls long before 
they knew why cement works." - Alan Cox
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