From demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu Wed Nov 2 14:14:59 2005 From: demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu (Borries Demeler) Date: Wed Nov 2 14:15:07 2005 Subject: [HSC-Unix] San Antonio Penguin Day Message-ID: <200511022014.jA2KEx8A019164@biochem.uthscsa.edu> Posted on behalf of Raj Boppana, UTSA: PRESS RELEASE October 14, 2005 ? WHO: THE URBAN-15 GROUP WHAT: Penguin Day ? An Exploration of OpenSource Software for Non-Profits and Individuals WHEN: November 5, 2005 Time: 9 am to 5 pm Registration Begins: 8 am WHERE: URBAN-15 Studio 2500 S. Presa CONTACT: George Cisneros ???????????????????? 210-533-2912 consult www.urban15.org for a map to the URBAN-15 Studio????????? Penguin Day ? San Antonio! Salsa-Net and The URBAN-15 Group are joining forces to host the first-ever Penguin Day in San Antonio, Texas on November 5, 2005. The workshop will be held at the URBAN-15 Studios located at 2500 S. Presa. The workshops are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with at-door registration beginning at 8 a.m. Admission for this workshop is $50 for organizations and $25 for individuals. On-line registration begins October 15, 2005 at: Penguin Day is a one-day intensive workshop and training session designed for non-profits, governmental agencies and individuals who want to know more about the opportunities and resources in the Open-Source community. In these times of intensive budget cuts and diminishing donations, communities and organizations are struggling to maintain their critical information systems and the software used to service their clients. The need to continuously upgrade software is the source of heated conversations in Board of Directors meetings in San Antonio?s NPO workscape. During this Penguin Day, IT professionals, community organizers and computer neophytes will participate in discussing the range of issues and options involved using Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS.) Penguin Day brings clarity to questions in the development and adoption of F/OSS for non-profits and works to demystify open source software. Guest ASPIRATION Facilitators at Penguin Day will: ? Demystify free and open source software ??Communicate philosophy and ideas of open source software in plain language; ? Build networks between nonprofit technology users; ? Document accessible how-to-practices and case studies; ? Help developers find ways to support nonprofits; ? Identify specific challenges that nonprofits face in open source software deployment. Penguin Day started in Philadelphia in March 2004 by a working group of nonprofit technology organizations: Aspiration and the LINC Project with the support of IBM and the IBM Foundation. Since then, Penguin Days have taken off, driven by popular demand: local organizations and Aspiration have been hosting Penguin Days in Portland, Oregon; London, UK; Toronto, Canada, Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; and New York, New York. In Fall 2005, there are Penguin Days planned for Portland, Oregon (Oct 15), Austin and San Antonio, Texas, (Nov 4 and 5), and Montreal, Canada. In the Winter and Spring of 2006, other Penguin Days will be hosted in Boston, Atlanta, and North Carolina. Topics addressed at local Penguin Days depend on the needs of participants and local nonprofits and developers and are developed in close collaboration with attendees. Sessions at past Penguin Days have included: ? Strategic Topics ? Reality check: Real world stories about non-profits using F/OSS ? Adopt an NGO: a conversation about 'Twinning Geeks' with nonprofit organization ? Migrating Your Organization towards Open Source ? Sustainability - Making the link to open source business models ? Lessons learned: A Real-Life Open Source Development Project ? For Riders: What do we need from open source software developers and why don't they just know? ? For Developers: How do we work with nonprofit IT staff and their IT providers?? ? Technical Topics ? Open source secure technology tools review ? The low-hanging fruit? Open Source Servers Made Simple ? Intro to Open Source for Non-Profits:?An Overview of Cases and Tools ? Organizing Activists Online with Open Source Tools You are invited to visit these resource sites for a full background on Penguin Days and Aspiration: www.penguinday.org www.aspirationtech.org www.nosi.net www.lincproject.org For more information you can contact George Cisneros at URBAN-15, 210-533-2912 or Dean McCall at SalsaNet, 210-422-9255? Come to Penguin Day in San Antonio (November 5.) What is a Penguin Day? Penguin Days bring together nonprofit staff, tech providers, geeks, consultants, and open source software developers for a day of learning and conversation.?? We???ll demystify open source for nonprofits, frankly address the challenges of developing open source tools, and learn about specific promising open source applications for nonprofits. ??If you are curious about open source software for your nonprofit organization, Penguin Days are for you! Register at www.penguinday.org. Who is behind Penguin Days in Texas? Texas Penguin Days are made possible by Polycot Consulting, the Austin Community College Center for Community-Based and NonProfit Organizations, Aspiration, EFF-Austin, The URBAN-15 Group and SalsaNet, and supported with in-kind support from local nonprofits and many volunteers.? What will I take away from Penguin Day? Penguin Days in Texas feature a packed agenda of interactive workshops, round tables, and "speed geeks. Topics include: * Introduction to Free and Open Source Software for Nonprofits * Local resources and who???s-who in the Texas Free/Open Source community * Helping techies and non-techies communicate * Overview of Free and Open Source desktop applications * e-Advocacy platforms * The Economics of Open Source: How free is "free?" * Selecting an Open Source operating system * Migrating your organization to Free and Open Source software * Funding, financing and sustaining an Open Source project * Creative Commons and Open Content * Speed Geek (a lively tour of projects and tools) What Are Others Saying About Penguin Days? "Penguin Day was great - I had an excellent day - made new friends, put a lot of faces to email addresses, had a whole load of fun - and got introduced to some new applications and distributions!?? Thanks again to everyone who organised the day, ran sessions etc - it made my 4,500 mile trip worthwhile!" Ian, from London, UK "Penguin Days are a fantastic opportunity to get together with a wide variety of people and understand more about the issues that surround open source.?? Unlike a lot of conference/gatherings, the emphasis in these is on meeting people and making connections that you carry out of them room.?? And that works. Marnie from San Francisco "Now on to Penguin Day??? Wow. For my part I was impressed by the international scope of the audience, folks from Great Britain, Canada, Kenya, Turkey, Ghana, Chicago and all points in between. The energy was great and the range of topics on the agenda meant there was something for everyone???.suffice it to say Penguin Day set the mark against which all other events will be measured in my mind." John from Chicago I Love It! How Can I Get Involved? Come to Texas??? Register at www.penguinday.org! Background Since 2004, Penguin Days have been held in Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon; London, England; Toronto, Canada, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. Hundreds of nonprofit staff, programmers, and activists have attended Penguin Days.?? Penguin Days feature humorous "speed geeks" (modeled after speed-dating) to bring programmers and organizations together to change the world--one byte at a time. ?? The Penguin is the symbol adopted in the early days of Linux as the mascot of this growing software movement. Texas Penguin Days are scheduled in Austin on November 4 and San Antonio on November 5. Other upcoming Penguin Days are scheduled for Montreal, Canada on November 20.?? Please contact us if you are interested in hosting a Penguin Day in your city! To register for upcoming Penguin Days, go to www.penguinday.org. ********************************************************************** About Aspiration: Aspiration, www.aspirationtech.org, connects nonprofit organizations with software solutions that help them better carry out their work. We want nonprofit organizations to obtain and use the best software to maximize their effectiveness and impact so that they, in turn, can change the world. We identify what is available and what is missing in NGO software arena, and foster relationships, delivery systems, and sustainability strategies between NGOs around the world. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: PenguinFlyer.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 263899 bytes Desc: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.02 Url : http://biochem.uthscsa.edu/pipermail/hsc-unix/attachments/20051102/1a658977/PenguinFlyer-0001.jpg