From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 05:11:49 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Nytt intervju X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/commitdiff_plain/18e0dcc1a49534ee687ce108fe37dd357303c646?ds=inline Nytt intervju --- diff --git a/blog/draft/2012-05-skolelinux-mike-gabriel.txt b/blog/draft/2012-05-skolelinux-mike-gabriel.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..05cf05db7d --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/draft/2012-05-skolelinux-mike-gabriel.txt @@ -0,0 +1,180 @@ +Title: Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel +Tags: english, debian edu, intervju +Date: 2012-04-15 11:30 + +

Debian Edu and Skolelinux + + +Mike Gabriel + +> * Who are you, and how do you spend your days? + +My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel, +Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner +(Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed +by Angela). + +During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator and +part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work touches +free software topics whereever and whenever possible. During the +nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in +becoming an osteopath. + +Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel) have +set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at +introducing free software into schools. The project's name is +,,IT-Zukunft Schule'' (IT future for schools). The project links IT +skills with communication skills. + +> * How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu project? + +While preparing our own customized Linux distribution for ,,IT-Zukunft + Schule'' we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to reinvent +the wheel. What schools really need is already available, people said. + From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux distributions +that target being used for school networks. + +At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a +commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen, +Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we +went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing +and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian +Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that +got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most +attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within +the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself. + +Parallely, we talked to many local and not-so-local people. People +teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data protection +experts, other IT professionals. + +We came to two conclusions: + +First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in bits +and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit by +100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup whereas +most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard IT +solution. The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and +customizability, so that individual adaptations here and there are +possible. +In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a standardized IT +system for schools (a system that is still to some degree +customizable) there is still a lot of work to do here locally. Debian +Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting point. + +Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at all + (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions for +handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What has +been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment of +people into using IT and teaching with IT. ,,IT-Zukunft Schule'' tries +to provide an approach for this. + +Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains, +defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in +Nothern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT +equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin) +teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there +spare time. + +We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were networked +with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school here +around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to +teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi +non-existent until 2010/2011. + +Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in +class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this +avoidance do exist. + +We discovered that noone has ever taken a closer look at this social +part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey for a +technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with +several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals +and they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT +management at schools, an approach that includes the people at place, +will be new and probably a gain for all. + +> * What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu? + +There is a list of advantages: international context, openess to any +kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian, the + different installation scenarios possible (from standalone +workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within +project communication, honest communication within the group of +developers, etc. + +> * What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu? + +Every coin has two sides: + +Technically: BTS issue #311188, tricky upgradebility of a Debian Edu +mainserver, network client installations on top of a plain vanilla +Debian installation should become possible sometime in the near +future, one could think about splitting the very complex package +debian-edu-config into several portions (to make it easier for new +developers to contribute). + +Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should find +out more about the network of people who do the marketing for Debian +Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany promoting +Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are there other +groups like that in other countries? How can we bring these marketing +people together (marketing group A with group B and all of them with +the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last meeting of the +German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people there being +rather disconnected from the development department of Debian Edu / +Skolelinux. + +> * Which free software do you use daily? + +For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all. + +For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For serious +text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for more +artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox. + +I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the +development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI. +PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently +is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center. + +For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde as +web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber I +have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also the +Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive whiteboard. + +My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake. + +> * Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to get schools +> to use free software? + +Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people, +enrol people. + +> * Who should be interviewed with this questions in the future? + +Angela Fuß + +Not for public: without Angela's skills in communications our project +IT-Zukunft Schule would be dead already... + +> The result will show up on my blog and on +> . + +Greets, +Mike + + +[ 11-line signature. Click/Enter to show. ] +-- + +DAS-NETZWERKTEAM +mike gabriel, dorfstr. 27, 24245 barmissen +fon: +49 (4302) 281418, fax: +49 (4302) 281419 + +GnuPG Key ID 0xB588399B +mail: mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de, http://das-netzwerkteam.de + +freeBusy: +https://mail.das-netzwerkteam.de/freebusy/m.gabriel%40das-netzwerkteam.de.xfb +[ application/pgp-signature ]