[Linux-aus] LA's SFD CD Run

[Mike Carden]

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 5:30 PM, Russell
Stuart<russell-linuxaus at stuart.id.au> wrote:
>  I don't recall anybody
> turning up to a Humbug meeting as a result of doing it.  But I hope it
> did a better job of I think SFD is all about - promoting Open Source
> software, than just handing out free CD's would.


You make a good point here about the difficulty of measuring the
results of Software Freedom Day activities. I gave out a lot of CDs on
SFD 07 and spoke with many people. I have no way of knowing whether I
made a difference anywhere or not. I don't recall seeing anyone turn
up for a CLUG meeting as a result of SFD, though it may have happened.

None of which is to suggest that we shouldn't get out there and raise
awareness - it's just that it is quite tricky to know whether you're
making a difference.

I too cringe a bit about creating yet more drink coasters as CDs or
DVDs so I did a bit of a web surf to see just how cheaply 1GB USB
sticks might be had for and it's still a bit costly. It's hard to
argue against the impact of optical media for the average person with
its large area for eye-catching graphics and its high recognition
factor.

I like the idea of professionally printed blank media ready to go to
LUGs to burn anything on to, but I wonder about the wisdom in leaving
the year off. If LUGs could 'bid' numbers of needed media, perhaps a
closer estimate of the true number needed could be made and wastage
kept to a minimum. I think there is real value in having the year on
the label as well as value in being able to have a new graphic design
or message for each year. If the economics of this just can't make
sense then I accept the need to make a generic label to cover several
years but it feels wrong to me.

Then there's the issue of content. IIRC we had The OpenCD to encourage
Windows users to try some FOSS, we had the Ubuntu release de jour and
a small number of other distro choices. Is it time to have a MythBuntu
live CD, an Audio Studio Live CD, an Open StreetMap CD, a... ? In
short, what content should have priority for best representing the
awesomeness of FOSS when trying to promote it on SFD?

-- 
MC