[PLUG] FOSS Activity and Non-Technical People

[Mayuresh]

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 07:21:58PM +0530, Vinayak Kulkarni wrote:
> When we raised this issue in our college, our administration said that when they are ready to pay then why we should worry about this issue.

On the contrary I also know of colleges that do show openness to try out
alternatives. It depends partly on how you make the argument and partly on
general openness of mind of persons responsible.

Firstly, when asking for option, one should indeed ask it as an _option_,
not a _substitute_ to whole existing setup. Having got such "favor" one
should succeed in demonstrating the value add due to the choice that has
been offered to so that others too slowly get interested in it.

Somewhat like the stone soup story ... (Search web for this folk story if
you haven't heard!)

Secondly the worries of administrative staff at such places are about the
maintenance and support of things that they don't know about and have
never been into. Sufficient volunteering is required, by say a students
group, to devote time to this etc.

Mayuresh.