Calling fanboys, seniors and all members here

[infra_red_dude]

I'm really elated reading this thread. I applaud your selfless initiative and the service you are doing to the community. I've been following you since a long time (no, I am not a stalker! ) and I think you've given back to your school more than any of us and continue the effort

I don't haf much suggestions as the erudite TDF members haf said it all. You can prolly teach them something about troubleshooting common/simple hardware and/or software issues. This will be helpful to them in case they mess up something while experimenting on the computers.

I also wanna tell you that as always, you are one of the persons for whom I haf a lot of respect. You surely are - Sir Din!

 

[Rewspase]

Calling fanboys seniors and all members here

If they all stopped right now, there probably wouldnt be too much of an impact right away. Current student members of the forum recognize who they are, and their wisdom, and they appreciate their insight. Their previous posts are still around and will still be taken seriously, as will their

 

[Coool]

WoW...Gr8...

 

[din]

@infra_red_dude

LOL I am honored, I mean flattered I know you wrote all that thinking I will not bug you any more with lot of questions. No way I will keep bugging you. I am UB.

Anyway, nothing great about it. All you people are still studying. I am getting old and for me, its the time to give something back to the society and my school. So I am trying to do something which I can.

Back to the topic. I am going to install mediawiki in my website. And will pm the details to members interested. Together we can make a good syllabus.

I will keep you updated. Once again, thank you all for the valuable suggestions.

 

[thewisecrab]

Nice initiative. I hope it does well.

IMO you'll first need to clear the air about what "being good on computers" means. There is a lot of misconception about it. Some might say that just being capable of running a few progs means you are good on the PC (many of us will laugh at that) while some are really elite g33ks. Maybe you can look into that.

Also, it will be insanely grateful if you can clear the misconceptions of Linux and Apple on the grassroot level.
My friend (who considers himself a geek, beleive me, he is not. Heck even I'm not, but I'm more well informed than him) first thought the Linux is a virus and Apple only made iPods. (I dont know from where he got it)

He refused to believe that I used Ubuntu's live CD to recover his PC, and that I just fancied up an XP CD. He thought he could see the same apps installed on his Windows drive if we install Ubuntu in another partition (you know, he thought he could play CoD4, WMP, Winamp, Dead Space installed in XP on Linux, thinking Linux is an application, not OS)
These are just some misconceptions he (and I'm sure many others) has about the whole OS world. A little article on that, or a lecture on what is an OS will go down a long way in bringing about a very well informed bunch of students.

Just my 2 paisa. I hope you got the idea.

 

[din]

@thewisecrab

Thank you. Yes the point you mentioned is surely a valid one.

I installed the wiki - Finally ! I am also new to wiki language, but as MHG mentioned, it is easy to learn.

I sent private message to people who were interested. As I mentioned before, it need not be any specific time per day or per week. Even a one time post or a single page matters. So please let me know if anybody interested to add some points (if you are busy no need to write it in detail, just listing the main points will do) and I will make admin accounts for them in the wiki.

Once again, thanks a lot.

 

[hullap]

nice initiative din uncle
just my 2 cents, you should teach them about word processing and presentation using softwares such as MsOffice and Open Office. teach them about cross compatibility and extensions. and if possible, about online solutions too, like google docs and zoho.
maybe after they understand the basics, you should teach them markup languages like html and css(following the standards, not like cbse which teach only stuff that works on ie).
im interested in the wiki thing

 

[MetalheadGautham]

Hmm... found it. Wikia.com offers free wiki hosting which is better than from wikidot.com. Din, remember the pm ? Now hunt for a name for this project.

 

[din]

I agree with you, I mean if we put the wiki on a public domain, more people will be interested and the syllabus we prepare may benefit a much wider audience.

But I hate the ads and restrictions these free wiki sites put

Whatabout this - I can register a .info domain with a name not related to the school or anything. Then we can install any good script there and continue there.

Good idea ? Want to keep it neat and simple.

 

[infra_red_dude]

Whatabout this - I can register a .info domain with a name not related to the school or anything. Then we can install any good script there and continue there.

Good idea ? Want to keep it neat and simple.

I think this really is a good idea.

 

[Aspire]

Have that school/college subsribe to atleast two magazines. My pick would be Digit and Linux4You. They come with lot of stuff and tutorials.

Not everyone can be a geek or interested in computers an technology and those who want to be geek/techie and go forward will get attracted to these mag and we can get them into this forum.

This way we can filter out those who really have interest in learning these things.

Just my two cents.

Linux4You for Village Children?
Plz drop this idea.
Go ahead with Digit and Skoar!

 

[kalpik]

I agree with you, I mean if we put the wiki on a public domain, more people will be interested and the syllabus we prepare may benefit a much wider audience.

But I hate the ads and restrictions these free wiki sites put

Whatabout this - I can register a .info domain with a name not related to the school or anything. Then we can install any good script there and continue there.

Good idea ? Want to keep it neat and simple.

Why not contact the many hosting guys we have on the forum? I'm sure they would be more than willing to donate you some hosting space!

 

[din]

Thank you infra, Aspire and Kalpik. And special thanks to thewisecrab for detailed messages. Everything matters and its a great help. I am sure together we can make it.

Ok, registered a .info domain with Godaddy. Setup webspace too.

Going to install tikiwiki - Their page says ..

TikiWiki (Tiki) is your Groupware/CMS (Content Management System) solution. Tiki has the features you need:

* Wikis (like Wikipedia)
* Forums (like phpBB)
* Blogs (like WordPress)
* Articles (like Digg)
* Image Gallery (like Flickr)
* Map Server (like Google Maps)
* Link Directory (like DMOZ)
* Multilingual (like Babel Fish)
* Bug tracker (like Bugzilla)
* RSS feeds (in & out)
* Free source software (LGPL)

And much more...

I think it will be comparable to wikidot. We may not need all functionality, can use only those which we need.

More on Tikiwiki - *info.tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php

 

[Aspire]

^^
My pleasure.
After all I'm helping poor village children.

BTW how much did the domain cost?

 

[din]

Domain = USD 1.2 (sponsored by one of my clients lol). Renewal rate will be different, but will worry about it after 1 yr !

Webspace = 200 MB for now, can increase later.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

What's the new address ?
Hmm and TikiWiki sounds like a good option.
Webspace @ 200mb is enough for now.
Bandwidth ?
Did you host on godaddy.com ?

EDIT: and about the name of the project, how was the name I suggested over PM ? eJalakam ? "Jalakam" means WINDOW in sanskrit for those who don't know and "e" is there for the same purpose as in eMail.

 

[Aspire]

What's the new address ?
Hmm and TikiWiki sounds like a good option.
Webspace @ 200mb is enough for now.
Bandwidth ?
Did you host on godaddy.com ?

EDIT: and about the name of the project, how was the name I suggested over PM ? eJalakam ? "Jalakam" means WINDOW in sanskrit for those who don't know and "e" is there for the same purpose as in eMail.

I knew that
Studied Sanskrit till class VIII.

 

[din]

Everything is setup and site is up now.

The script (back to mediawiki !) and domain name were selected based on majority of the pms I received. I set it so that it is open to all but edit by admins only. Admins in the sense all TDF members interested. Those who already registered on the school site, need not register again as the same username / password will work here. Also set a redirection from school website to avoid confusion.

So here is the site - Nothing much now, just basic install only. No content yet. And most of the page links goes to same page, those links were added as part of my test lol.

*www.itjalakam.info

Stands for - IT Jalakam - Jalakam as MHG said - Window in Sanskrit.

I think (as suggested by MetalHeadGautham) we can continue the discussion in the thread itself instead of pms. Please feel free to suggest / comment / criticize and contribute Always open to all suggestions and criticism.

Those who want to add / modify articles, please create a user account in the wiki and please let me know and I will change the status to admin immediately.

Those who are new to wiki (like me !) please have a look - MediaWiki User Guide

And as I mentioned before, even a single post or a single page in the wiki matters and it helps a lot. So please do not think that this is something for which we need dedicated time every day / week. Nothing like that.

Thanks again.

 

[MetalheadGautham]

First, decide if you want TikiWiki or MediaWiki. Because the students need to be exposed to everything, and having an in-house forum and CMS helps a lot.

What are the features in each ?

And BTW, wasn't there another project by the Kerala Government called IT At School ? Are you sure it won't confuse people as to which is which ?

And finally where are you hosted ? And what's the running cost ?

 

[MetalheadGautham]

First, decide if you want TikiWiki or MediaWiki. Because the students need to be exposed to everything, and having an in-house forum and CMS helps a lot.

What are the features in each ?

And BTW, wasn't there another project by the Kerala Government called IT At School ? Are you sure it won't confuse people as to which is which ?

And finally where are you hosted ? And what's the running cost ?