Title: Debian Edu interview: Dominik George
Tags: english, debian edu, intervju
-Date: 2013-12-22 09:50
+Date: 2013-12-25 13:40
-<p>The Debian Edu / Skolelinux project consist of both newcomers and
-old timers, and this time I was able to get an interview with a
-newcomer in the project who showed up on the IRC channel a few weeks
-ago to let us know about his successful installation of Skolelinux in
-his School. Say hello to Dominik George.</p>
+<p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+project</a> consist of both newcomers and old timers, and this time I
+was able to get an interview with a newcomer in the project who showed
+up on the IRC channel a few weeks ago to let us know about his
+successful installation of Debian Edu Wheezy in his School. Say hello
+to <a href="https://www.ohloh.net/accounts/Natureshadow">Dominik
+George</a>.</p>
<!-- http://www.dominik-george.de/images/foto.jpg -->
project?</strong></p>
<p>I think that happened some time around 2009 when I first attended
-<ahref="http://www.froscon.org">FrOSCon</a> and visited the project
+<a href="http://www.froscon.org">FrOSCon</a> and visited the project
booth. I think I wasn't too interested back then because I used to
have an attitude of disliking software that does too much stuff on its
-own. Maybe I was too unexperienced to realise the upsides of an
+own. Maybe I was too inexperienced to realise the upsides of an
"out-of-the-box" solution ;).</p>
<p>The first time I actively talked to Skolelinux people was at
-<ahref="http://www.openrheinruhr.de">OpenRheinRuhr</a> 2011 when the
+<a href="http://www.openrheinruhr.de">OpenRheinRuhr</a> 2011 when the
BiscuIT project, a home-grewn software used by my school for various
really cool things from timetables and class contact lists to lunch
ordering, student ID card printing and project elections first got to
that it rocks!</p>
<p>Secondly, there are marketing reasons. Life's bad, and so no
-politician will ever permit a setup described as "Debain, an universal
+politician will ever permit a setup described as "Debian, an universal
operating system, with some really cool educational tools" while they
will be jsut fine with "Skolelinux, a single-purpose solution for your
school network", even if both turn out to be the very same thing (yes,
<p>I run Debian GNU/Linux on all PC systems I use. On that, I mostly
run text tools. I use
-<ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm">mksh</a> as shell,
-<ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/jupp.htm">jupp</a> as very advanced
+<a href="https://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm">mksh</a> as shell,
+<a href="https://www.mirbsd.org/jupp.htm">jupp</a> as very advanced
text editor (I even got the developer to help me write a script/macro
based full-featured student management software with the two),
-<ahref="http://mcabber.com/">mcabber</a> for XMPP and
-<ahref="http://www.irssi.org/">irssi</a> for IRC. For that overly
+<a href="http://mcabber.com/">mcabber</a> for XMPP and
+<a href="http://www.irssi.org/">irssi</a> for IRC. For that overly
coloured world called the WWW, I use
-<ahref="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/">iceweasel
-(Firefox)</a>. Oh, and <ahref="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a> for
+<a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/">Iceweasel
+(Firefox)</a>. Oh, and <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a> for
e-mail.</p>
<p>However, while I am personally aware of the fact that text tools
are more efficient and powerful than anything else, I also use (or at
least operate) some tools that are suitable to bring open source to
-kids. One of these things is <ahref="http://jappix.org/">Jappix</a>,
+kids. One of these things is <a href="http://jappix.org/">Jappix</a>,
which I already introduced to some kids even before they got aware of
-Facebook, making them see for theirselves that they do not need
+Facebook, making them see for themselves that they do not need
Facebook now ;).</p>
<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
<p>I believe that the right strategy is showing them the benefits. But
that won't work out as long as the acceptance of free alternatives
grows globally. What I mean is that if all the kids are almost forced
-to use Windows, facebook, Skype, you name it at home, they will not
+to use Windows, Facebook, Skype, you name it at home, they will not
see why they would want to use alternatives at school. I have seen
students take seat in front of a fully-functional, modern Debian
desktop that could do anything their Windows at home could do, and
that need it? I have, and found it to be nothing less dramatic than
plain criminal.</p>
-<p>That said, the only feasable way appears to be the bottom up
+<p>That said, the only feasible way appears to be the bottom up
method. We have to bring free software to kids and parents. I have
founded an association named
-<ahref="https://www.teckids.org">Teckids</a> here in Germany that does
+<a href="https://www.teckids.org">Teckids</a> here in Germany that does
just that. We organise several events for kids and adolescents in the
area of free and open source software, for example the
-<ahref="http://kids.froscon.org">FrogLabs</a>, which share staff with
+<a href="http://kids.froscon.org">FrogLabs</a>, which share staff with
Teckids and are the youth programme of
-<ahref="http://www.froscon.org">the Free and Open Source Software
+<a href="http://www.froscon.org">the Free and Open Source Software
Conference (FrOSCon)</a>. We do a lot more than most other conferences
- this year, we first offered the FrogLabs as a holiday camp for kids
aged 10 to 16. It was a huge success, with approx. 30 kids taking part
projects / homepage.git / commitdiff