This is my 7th event specific on Fedora after becoming an Ambassador.
Ashutosh is already doing good for promoting Fedora in Aurangabad. He earlier did
Fedora 21 release party at his institute and took number of topics around Fedora.
During
FUDCon APAC we were talking about doing Fedora 22 release event at Aurangabad. Plan was to do it bit bigger with one of the major institute in Aurangabad. Thought will take some break after FUDCon and decided to do it in August.
Ashutosh had initial discussions with
"CHH. SHAHU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING". Most of the details regarding Release events are available at
Wiki page.
I have been never to Aurangabad and wanted to be there but was not sure whther i can actually make it. Most of the time during discussions with Ashutosh i was like plan as per your convenience and if possible i will jump in the last moment. Decided date as a 21st August and luckily me too able to make it :)
I think event we did happened in good time. Red Hat GLS team recently signed MOU with CSMSS for "Red Hat ACADEMY - Hands-on curriculum for academic programs". There is already excitement on Free of open source software's. We were even more lucky that Business Development Manager - Ipsita Chatterjee was there. She shown interest for supporting Fedora activities and ask to inform her whenever any support required.
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| Yummy Cake of Fedora 22 release |
Coming back to event, Fedora release event i have attended till date used to be small scale i.e. around 20-50. This was an exception and bit bigger in scale. Around 250+ students were there. All the things happened very formally. Introductory talks from Principle and HOD of CSMSS. Then felicitation of guests. Before starting actual program we did release of DVD's and cut the cake.
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| From left: Ms. Ipsita C, Principle Dr. U. B. Shinde, Me, Mr. Ashutosh B, Pushpendra C. Hod. Dr. S. P. Abhang |
Normally i like to talk on Fedora + Globalization. But since this was first event at this college. Talking on Basics of FOSS and Fedora was important. Started with
basics of foss and introduction to Fedora.
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| Few nice moments |
Then Ashutosh started with demonstrating installation of Fedora 22. Initially we started with netinstall iso but somehow it was not working well. Then we changed iso. in meanwhile we started asking questions to students and Red Hat GLS gave few goodies to students who gave correct answers.
I think demonstrating installation of Fedora is very important, specifically at places new to Fedora. It gives bit more confidence and also motivate person to try Fedora. After major steps of installation, while packages were getting installed
Pushpendra started his talk.
Pushpendra Chavan travelled from Pune to Aurangabad specially for release event. He delivered talk on "Features of Fedora Workstation". During his talk he also motivated students by telling his own story about how he came to field of FOSS.
Lastly i did closing of release event by talking on
How to contribute to Fedora and how it can help to students. This talk was well taken by students. It provided ideas to students regarding what they can do in Fedora. I also mentioned about recent proposal to council regarding providing
certificate to students doing contribution to Fedora.
Unfortunately by this time it was already 1:45pm and everyone was hungry. We missed Q&A session. But still we were there for some time and answering to queries of students.
In the morning we mate with HOD Dr. Abhang and really impressed with his interest in moving Fedora ahead. We had quick meeting with principle where we had nice discussions on Fedora and open standards. CSMSS college is just in there third year but if one see progress its excellent. Management is very supportive and very much interested in Linux. They believe in Free and open source. Libreoffice is already is use by all CSMSS staff and they have already moved couple of LABS into Fedora. Infrastructure is awesome. Most of the latest technologies already in CSMSS including digital board. (At least i saw it first time). I mentioned to management about Fedora certificate to students for completing activities.
Special thanks to Ashutosh for taking initiative for this event, CSMSS Principle Dr. Shinde and HOD Dr. Abhang for hospitality and arrangement and Pushpendra for travelling Aurangabad for this event.
Going forward we need to conduct couple of session to educate CSMSS students further on Fedora. Soon i will discuss with other Ambassadors, Developers and plan one.
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| Group photo with Fedora 22 DVD's |
