Hello all,<br><br>Spring Quarter is here, and Open Source Club is still alive. But, I am unsure how long. Nothing threatens us immediately; but there is a threat that I have felt -- stagnation.<br><br>Our format has generally been to have someone give a presentation on a topic that they either know about or are interested in learning about. These presentations are a great learning experience, both as a presenter and as an attendee. But there is a factor working against us: We have a small meeting-going membership, with few new faces. This tends to mean the same awesome people are always presenting equally awesome things.
<br><br>I am not sure that this format is sustainable. We do not advertise our presence to the outside university. We offer few outward-reaching services/events. The only way we can grow is through word-of-mouth, which sadly is not enough to reach all those who could be interested in Open Source.
<br><br>Computer software is something that most people interact with on a daily basis. Students today grew up alongside the personal computer. Very few computer users know about open source and the awesome operating systems and applications that are readily available to them. We are an organization that is too inward-facing. Student organizations are supposed to work for students and other interested parties, and I believe we are not giving back to the OSU community as much as we could and should.
<br><br>I think that we should work to advertise, explain, and showcase the open source offerings to the students of Ohio State. For the most part, we have been preaching to the choir -- those who know what open source is and what possibilities it offers.
<br><br>We've made an outreach before, with the Open Source Workshops of last Spring Quarter. We had a moderate attendance at those meetings. This quarter, we should work to offer another series of workshops. Last quarter we thought that workshops revolving around
OpenOffice.org/media creation would be a good idea.<br><br>So, I'm asking, what ideas do you have for club format, outreach, and Spring Workshops do you have?<br><br>It could be as simple as us standing on the Oval handing out Ubuntu CD's. I'd love to hear everyone's ideas.
<br><br>-- alex<br><br>