[Hamara-devel] Fwd: Re: Promoting Hamara

[Vikas Tara]

On 02/03/15 08:55, Raju D. Vindane wrote:
>
> On 03/01/2015 05:58 PM, Vikas Tara wrote
>> Hi Raju
> Hey Vik, Hi
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This year I will be Adding Hamara GNU/Linux to the List as well 
>>>>>> as a BeagleBone Black.
>>>>>> I'll also add the Raspberry pi 2(Given to me at HamaraConference) 
>>>>>> to the booth this time.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll keep some DVDs burned with Hamara and Debian, which I will 
>>>>>> distribute with the people.
>> How did you get on? Would love to hear people's feedback about hamara 
>> linux
> We had 4 different things at our booth. 2 SBC's and 2 Operating 
> Systems. RPi2 & BBB, as well as Debian and Hamara.
>
> A big *Thank you to the Hamara Design Team*. My request for some 
> designed material for the booth was handled well by Hamara Design 
> team. But Due to delay from my side informing the Design team of 
> Hamara, not everything was happening on time. I informed the team 
> late, the sent me the designs late. And I couldn't get the Hamara Flex 
> printed for the booth.
> But we learn from our experiences. I will get them printed soon. So I 
> can use them for any other event next time.
Still, thanks for the efforts you put in - let's talk about materials 
that we can supply you for future events?
>
> I did kept the Hamara Flex design on an External monitor attached to 
> one laptop. So people coming to the booth were seeing and asking about 
> it. I was wearing the Hamara T-shirt there. Some people were curious 
> about it. Some people who knew nothing about Linux asked "*What are 
> the advantages you get using Hamara over Windows?*", I answered them 
> well. I did a feature tour for people interested in Hamara.
>
> I also told curios people about  our efforts on *Hamara Sugam*, and 
> its availability on different SBCs. I explained the use cases where 
> SBC's can be used by people. Like creating Low cost Computer labs in 
> schools. I also made them aware of our plans on creating the networks 
> for enabling communications in remote parts of the country.
This reinforces our current view then and also a big reason for 
establishing the hamara project. People are unaware that these things 
exist and the other distros are not particularly focussed on educating 
users in this direction.
>
> Not everything goes smooth. I got into a *fierce discussion* with some 
> person about Hamara. He was raising the question, "*Why are you guys 
> doing the same thing again & again?* Instead of contributing to the 
> main parent Projects." He was well aware with the GNU/Linux 
> ecosystems. It was tough to talk with him, but I did handled this guy 
> well. I assured him that we do take care of our Upstream and 
> Downstream and will always do. We will not do what Canonical is doing 
> with Ubuntu, taking everything from the community and returning back 
> very little. And we are more focused on the needs and requirements of 
> Indian users. At the end I managed him to try Hamara. He said that he 
> will give a try to Hamara for sure.
Well done! Yes, you will face this everywhere - but I think the example 
you have given above more than validates your position. If most people 
don't know about linux, then we are achieving something by making them 
aware and focussing particularly on the needs of the Indian user base.
>
> We were also having Debian GNU/Linux on another system. We were 
> getting good questions and Interest there as well. On two more systems 
> We had the RPi2 and BBB as well. Still very few people know about 
> Single Board Computers, and were amazed to see a full computer running 
> from a credit card sized board.
> The school kids from nearby goverment schools were amazed as well. I 
> had gcompris and tux paint installed on the RPi2 so these kids can 
> play with it. I kept the Big Buck Bunny video running up on one 
> System. The schools kids enjoyed it well.
>
> FYI, GMRT is the worlds largest Radio Telescopic centre. And a Science 
> Day event happening there gets a footfall of over 20,000 people in 2 
> days. But this year it happened only for the first day. *The second 
> day was washed out due to heavy rains.* The booths are setup on 
> grounds and it all was wet on the second day. The second day got 
> cancelled and we had to wrap up there.
>
> Overall the event was a good experience. We did commit some mistakes, 
> but we'll learn from it and will not repeat them again. Present along 
> with me there were 5 more people at our booth, who handled the people 
> with the explanations  and resolved there queries. I *will* *post the 
> photos from the event soon* on my Diaspora account 
> (https://joindiaspora.com/u/rajudv ).
>
> This experience will definitely help further in building up the Hamara 
> GNU/Linux users and developers community and taking Hamara to more 
> people.
>
Thanks again for the effort you put in, please let us know about any 
upcoming events that you are thinking of attending?

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