For those who didn't attend the meeting last night, we talked a little about the idea of producing a linux focused TV Show. From that discussion we decided that the best thing to-do would be to have the main part of the discussion through the mail list. So, here it is... Firstly, I think we need to decide who our target audience is. This morning I came up with notion that generally, users can be broken into several groups. The first group are novice users. These are people who use a computer, but the concept of an operating system or the idea that windows isn't just "part of the system" and not removable is alien. The second group is "advanced" users. I think most of us would fall into this group. We understand OS's, hardware, software and all the digital glue that holds it together. The third group is educational users. These would be people who work in some education institution and they're interest in linux would be from the standpoint of deploying it for cost savings and/or using it as an education tool for teaching. The forth group would be corporate suit types. These are the people who read the trade rags, but don't have a clear understanding of what linux. They've read lots of conflicting FUD on the subject and aren't sure how linux could be used in they're environment or what the real TCO would be. Personally, I think we should go after groups 1-3. The reason I'm not too worried about the fourth type is that now that redhat had decided that they're going to go full force into the enterprise environment, they'll be busy spending lots of PR dollars convincing the suits. What do people think. Also, if it is the consensus that we should focus on groups 1-3, should we narrow our focus even more? Thanks, Tim.
The first group are novice users. These are people who use a computer, but the concept of an operating system or the idea that windows isn't just "part of the system" and not removable is alien.
I would suggest there is an "intermediate users group. This group is not afraid to play around with different OS's, hardware and software and know how to configure their software of choice. However they rely heavily on configuration tools to apply much of the digital glue to make their systems usable and/or secure.
The second group is "advanced" users. I think most of us would fall into this group. We understand OS's, hardware, software and all the digital glue that holds it together.
The third group is educational users. These would be people who work in some education institution and they're interest in linux would be from the standpoint of deploying it for cost savings and/or using it as an education tool for teaching.
The forth group would be corporate suit types. These are the people who read the trade rags, but don't have a clear understanding of what linux. They've read lots of conflicting FUD on the subject and aren't sure how linux could be used in they're environment or what the real TCO would be.
--mike
Hi all Keller, Tim wrote:
Firstly, I think we need to decide who our target audience is. This morning I came up with notion that generally, users can be broken into several groups.
snip, snip
What do people think. Also, if it is the consensus that we should focus on groups 1-3, should we narrow our focus even more?
I have a hard time picturing how you could get something which would be meaningful/interesting for the novice group and not bore the hell out of the advanced group (and visa versa). The closest I can imagine is starting with some introductory stuff in 1+ half hour bytes and then progressing to more advanced topics with the idea that you have brought the novice group up to speed for the more advanced stuff and the experts can skip the early part and drop in later. The problem here is that now you have a lot more work to do. In turn, this makes me think a crawl-before-walk approach is best. Thus I would start with the novice group and, if you don't lose them, plan on going on to the deeper material in round two. I have just been viewing a tape I made of Brian Greene's Elegant Universe (Nova). I could not help watching it from the context of our interest in doing a similar thing for Linux. The Nova show was clearly aimed at the novice. And it worked very well. The general format was about a sentence or two on something with a quick transfer to some eye-catching visual effect ("eye candy"). For instance, jumping now to our topic, one could start out with some catchy "grab 'em" introduction like Narrator: We're going to let you in on a well-kept secret: you don't have to spend a lot of money to get good software for you computer. Followed by a shot of a "user" complaining that he/she is going to have to spend $X to upgrade to WindowsX, another that it will cost $Y to upgrade to OfficeZ and then one of our dorks with "Hey, I can do all that for $30, or even for nothing if I wish! From here you could move to a collage of floating GNU, LINUX, TUX's, Linus, Maddog, Stallman, etc with the narrator saying welcome to the world of what is called open source software, Linux, GNU, penguins saving money and evading the grasp of companies who try to make your their captive audience. etc Slide: Avoid the Gates of Hell, Use Linux! Narrator: Want to learn more? Just jump on board and fasten your seat belt. Take the tour of the world of Open Source! ? Snippet of a Disney world like train heading off to Open Source Land. Narrator; Let's start at the beginning, or actually the beginnings. First we have a guy in Cambridge (back drop changes to Stallman) who got very upset when he ran into computer programs that he could not see inside. It also bothered him that computer programs were not freely exchanged. (Back drop could have some key Stallman quotes on this issue) etc to gnu emacs etc Narrator: This leads into the "second beginning": Narrator: About this time, a young guy in Finland (Torvalds now on the background) was etc etc. snip, snip Narrator: So what exactly is Linux? (Background of floating packages of Redhat, SuSE, Caldera, etc). ---- Linux in the broad sense, GNU/Linux, Linux/GNU distros, snip snip Narrator: So let's take a look at a computer running linux (Background a KDE/Gnome desktop) Here is what you get. Notice that, as you might expect since they are all doing the same thing, it is very similar to various Windows desktops. You have menus, (Background open menu with mouse), you can open applications (Background open something which pops up quickly ), you can read mail (Background --- you've got the picture) you can "surf the web" (Background a good porn site :-)) etc. snip snip Narrator: So how do you get into this wonderful world etc etc. Well, as usual I got carried away but the above does show a few things. Principally, a lot of work would have to be done on getting those background shots since they are the stuff which keeps the audience's attention. Secondly, I found the actual script came fairly easily. The process was essentially to get and idea of flow (This would be a sequence of topics the group agreed flowed well, including nothing spurious and leaving out nothing necessary), picture what graphic (this is video!) would accompany/achieve that, and add the narration to keep the audience on track. Note also that one has to make sure one's internal enthusiasm is translated (and probably amplified along the way) to the screen. For example, if we were to get to the second, for-the-more-expert stage, I would want to see some "Hey this is cool" expletives in the script! At this point, the idea of sitting in a studio with a camera pointed at some "talking head" does not strike me as a good way to go unless you are interested in selling sleeping pills. Time to shut up and see what the rest of you think. doug
I checked with Shrewsbury's studio; all we need is one Shrewsbury resident to be the sponser to use their studio. The resident must fill out a form and they become a member. No costs are involved to be a member. We may have to buy some tapes; they use miniDV for digital recording. Anyone who uses the equipment must get a bit of training. That's not a big deal. Walt On Thu, 2003-11-06 at 10:38, Keller, Tim wrote:
For those who didn't attend the meeting last night, we talked a little about the idea of producing a linux focused TV Show. From that discussion we decided that the best thing to-do would be to have the main part of the discussion through the mail list.
So, here it is...
Firstly, I think we need to decide who our target audience is. This morning I came up with notion that generally, users can be broken into several groups.
The first group are novice users. These are people who use a computer, but the concept of an operating system or the idea that windows isn't just "part of the system" and not removable is alien.
The second group is "advanced" users. I think most of us would fall into this group. We understand OS's, hardware, software and all the digital glue that holds it together.
The third group is educational users. These would be people who work in some education institution and they're interest in linux would be from the standpoint of deploying it for cost savings and/or using it as an education tool for teaching.
The forth group would be corporate suit types. These are the people who read the trade rags, but don't have a clear understanding of what linux. They've read lots of conflicting FUD on the subject and aren't sure how linux could be used in they're environment or what the real TCO would be.
Personally, I think we should go after groups 1-3. The reason I'm not too worried about the fourth type is that now that redhat had decided that they're going to go full force into the enterprise environment, they'll be busy spending lots of PR dollars convincing the suits.
What do people think. Also, if it is the consensus that we should focus on groups 1-3, should we narrow our focus even more?
Thanks, Tim.
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[image] [image] [image] Walt Sawyer wsawyer@norfolk-county.com
I have a few thoughts to offer... Given the format of Community Access Programming on local cable, you have 30 minutes. Period. (At least in Shrewsbury.) If my experience in the past with these productions holds true, you don't have a lot of time to work with and it is very rare to see a multi part show, even from long established programming. (Never mind the editing and work that goes on behind the scences - 30 minutes translates into weeks of work.) 30 minutes isn't a lot of time. Even a high school class is 47 minutes these days, and that gets you one topic, say for example, work = force x distance. There will not be time enough to adress more than once audience, or more than one simple topic for that matter! If you are about to say "but wait, we don't have to limit ourselves to 30 minutes, we can produce what we want" then I would answer, that's true! But, just as true is my next question - who you gonna show it to and how? So, now that we have established the cart and the horse, we need to make a few decisions... I'm thinking that 30 minutes is just enough time (barely) to show a "teaser" piece that talks about Linux "the product" and what it can do. No techno-geek talk (because you will invariable try to cover too much in too little time), just something that will interest the audience enough to want more. 30 minutes is just enough time to show everyone how they can configure a Linux server to support their own real estate business or construction business or oil business or... as well as interest the experienced novice who might want to try getting out from under their ISP. When they want more, then you can talk about follow-up episodes, or direct them to WLUG at the end of the episode (or both). The WLUG site could have video available, metting topics, and so forth... Steve
participants (5)
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doug waud -
Keller, Tim -
mlong＠datalong.com -
Stephen C. Daukas -
Walt Sawyer