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Re-purposing a Student Tech Service Group?
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun Sep 21, 2008 08:45 AM
from the quake-3-server-farm dept.
from the quake-3-server-farm dept.
discards writes "I help run a student group at a Canadian University. For almost 15 years we've provided students with services such as web space, email, wireless internet on campus, cvs/svn, database access, mailing lists, etc., all using Linux and FOSS. In recent years, however, we have faced becoming obsolete. The university now provides wireless access, people get their email from other places such as Google, which also provides free svn access, web space, and so forth. Since we have a large amount of decent, usable hardware, as well as space, funding and a very fast internet connection, we are looking to possibly reform instead of just withering away and dying. We would like to ask Slashdot for ideas as to what we could do; preferably something that cultivates student research or provides an otherwise useful service to students, though all ideas are welcome."
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Entertainment (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like all you have left then is to provide entertainment.
Re:Entertainment (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe the game could focus on a school campus, and everyone goes to class via avatar.
The violent clash of ideas could get down to virtual fisticuffs.
Professors could do grevious bodily harm to annoying students.
Endless possibilities.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Sounds like all you have left then is to provide entertainment.
You could try something like creating your own Pandora.com radio station and encourage students to make their own and share them.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Music (Score:3, Funny)
Pirated music. :-)
Student start-up hosting (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Student start-up hosting (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't believe that students wouldn't rather have hosting locally rather then in some place in the USA.
Make it cheap, make it usable, make it useful.
Run tech courses, educating students about different technology.
Run LAN parties.
Do things that require face to face communication, and that people can't get some other place.
Do tech support and trouble shooting for people's websites (which they won't get else where).
Try and integrate into different departments, especially science related ones, and host data, run resource intensive programs etc.
Expand your eligibility criteria, open it up to arts students.
Also check out other student groups around the world, for example: http://www.tucs.org.au/ [tucs.org.au]
Most of all, enjoy.
Parent
Incubator (Score:4, Interesting)
Start a business incubator. Help tech students learn the basics of accounting, business law, incorporation, etc. and hopefully have some good ideas come to fruition. Provide hosting and support for student businesses. Provide CRM instances for students to track their contacts.
They will pay it back big time if they make it big.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think parent hit most of the things that I feel are missing as a university student. Good list
I will add one thing though. Some universities have tools for online collaboration (such as Sakai [sakaiproject.org] or other courseware tools) that allows students to create project sites and work with other students to share resources. If your university doesn't have something like this, I think it's something many students would embrace - especially students running other campus organizations.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
i think you're probably right, but maybe there's something along those lines that would be acceptable for academic networks/donated hardware.
this might not appeal to most students, but perhaps they could help members develop/host/manage free web services & applications. instead of just offering a straight-forward web hosting service where students can only upload static files, you could form an organization geared towards developing free online services for the campus community. members can then learn h
meatspace... (Score:2)
You could focus on local projects, find an on-campus place for OSS projects involving just the school(and encouraging students to cooperate) build school spirit or something. Even better start one or two, get them involved and evangelize.
I doubt the web hosting is going to be able to compete with google, byte for byte, but having one that's relevant isn't always about size...
A few basic needs. (Score:5, Insightful)
Tech support would be number one on my list of helpful services.
The other thing that would be helpful is basic computer education. Yes, I know that most people in college already know how to work on the computers, however some, possibly older students, might be embarrassed to admit they don't know everything they feel that they should know. Confidential, one on one tutoring can eliminate the fear of admitting they aren't fully up to speed.
Re:A few basic needs. (Score:5, Insightful)
Even advanced computer education would be useful. I'm a PhD computer science student, so I see the holes in undergraduates' knowledge of computer technologies, i.e. things that they're simply expected to know for a class and never taught. I also see how frustrating they find it to try to fill these holes in with self-study while maintaining a full course load.
Big examples that spring to mind include things like basic Linux commands, LaTeX, Maple, MATLAB, etc. Offer workshops for students where you teach them how to at least get started with these technologies and I'm sure that you'll have some interest.
Parent
additionally: you gain a lot of experience! (Score:3, Interesting)
If on the other hand you are religiously against using/teaching licensed software, why not take control over some orphaned but useful
Re:A few basic needs. (Score:5, Insightful)
.
If MATLAB is what is being used on campus then MATLAB is what you teach.
Parent
Re:A few basic needs. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because MATLAB is still the best tool around in its field, by far.
Not that that stops the religious idiots.
Parent
Re:A few basic needs. (Score:5, Insightful)
Computer hygiene, that's what I would call it. There needs to be a massive educational campaign performed across the United States. This needs to be approached like a major Public Health issue.
It's good that we have good systems administrators, but that basic knowledge is too centralized. In this new networked world, everybody needs to know how to maintain and clean their computers, just like everybody needs to know how to go the bathroom and properly wash their hands.
So what I'm suggesting, since you already have the infrastructure and the manpower is that you start an outreach program. Get them young, preferably before they start posting stuff on myspace. And target all the adults that are computer phobic, basically survey people in the corporate/working world, and target all the ones that check on their survey that they're "not good with computers".
Now, I'm not saying this is going to be easy, and I'm not saying that this is even glamorous work, but this needs to be done. An outreach program, a PR campaign, a manifesto, a think tank, etc. Start these efforts locally, and as you slowly gain success -- expand them outwards.
Parent
Excellent Idea! (Score:3, Interesting)
Then my fortunes changed when I had the chance to buy a used Altos 8086 computer running Microsoft's version of AT&T Version 7 Unix called "Xenix" ( [wikimedia.org])
What was great about it, is that it had a program called "learn" ( [bell-labs.com]) which was a tutorial that taught both Unix and C.
It's a shame that "learn" is not included in modern Unix and Linux distros. That would be a valuable resource for students that would otherwise only b
Do something for inner-city youth (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget college students. Do something for inner-city youth. Gather old computer parts from your school or lbusiness, put them together, install linux and give them to schools with limited computing resources. Involve the students in this process as well. Teach them how to install linux. Then teach them how to administer their own system.
Re:Do something for inner-city youth (Score:5, Interesting)
I can second this.
I set-up a computer with Xubuntu for where my wife worked.
She had 3 interns that used it to enter int information into a spreadsheet (updated info on local businesses), type some letters, and write an article for the local weekly paper.
A simple computer like that available outside of school was a huge plus. These kids were not even particularly inner-city (though definitely poor).
The ability to type things up outside of school was a matter of maintaining dignify and face amongst their peers (nobody wants to be the dorkus that stays late at school to type, aside from the safety of getting home after dark in some areas).
An oldish computer and a USB drive can make all the difference in someone who wants to accel, but is not driven.
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
Call me! (Score:5, Funny)
-----------------
Stephen Pilgrim
Assistant Manager
RIAA campus solution recruitment
Re:Call me! OK! Ring ring, Hello? Hi! BEND OVER! (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a Canadian college, so it's the CRIA [wikipedia.org] that they have to deal with... though it's not like there's much different between them.
I have an idea for a great project that the article submitter could do, it would be great at any college. Most especially any college in the US. In fact I would like to thank the RIAA for essentially proposing the idea, and in fact having it passed into law here in the US.
H.R. 4137: College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2008 [govtrack.us], signed into law on Aug 14 2008, and mentione [slashdot.org]
Re:Call me! OK! Ring ring, Hello? Hi! BEND OVER! (Score:4, Insightful)
While a clever way to comply with the law, this is wishful thinking. Most students will avoid the service because it doesn't have $RIAARTIST1 or $RIAAARTIST2.
To give some perspective: my college has a well-publicized campus radio station, but only a small percentage of students listen to it over ClearChannel stations.
Parent
A help center (Score:2, Insightful)
Move toward becoming a help center, someplace for students to turn to for assistance.
Students need help in all areas from install software and setting up their machines for classes to virus removal and re-installation of their operating system.
Also, you could set up a paid tutorial service for applications used in some of the accounting (and other) courses.
There is a real need for something like this on all campuses and the University IT department just does not have the manpower to provide it.
Tom
How about... back to Education? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why not take on a bigger challenge, and focus on teaching? Run small mini-classes on various topics, teach programming at all kinds of different levels, how to solve engineering problems numerically, etc. Since it is an engineering/design school, you can provide some kind of (real-life or online) forum helping people use technology to solve problems. I suppose this will somewhat depend on how your college's schedule works, but you will find that students will make time for you if you're providing a useful service. You've got the hardware -- now you just need to find a niche to add the value.
--
Hey code monkey... learn electronics! Powerful microcontroller kits for the digital generation. [nerdkits.com]
What a similar group does (Score:5, Informative)
I have just joined a similar group, the Harvard Computing Society (http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/ [harvard.edu]). We try to provide more up to date web services to student organizations. We provide web hosting for student groups that is capable of running all the latest web goodies like Drupal, Mediawiki, sql, and the like. We also maintain mailing lists for student organizations, and advocate for better tech practices at Harvard. There are also lots of other cool projects in the pipeline that may or may not go anywhere but are fun to work on: IPtv, content aggregation from student org websites, internet phone, and other off the wall ideas. I am still new to the organization, but everything seems to work very well.
Taking this successful example, I would suggest taking advantage of the fact that you can be less bureaucratic than the school's general IT staff to provide more modern web tools to student organizations.
Back up service (Score:4, Informative)
How about offering a back-up service for students work? Sure, you currently offer services that could be used as such but your average student has no idea how to do it. Offer a nice simple web interface that allows them to upload files that they really wouldn't want to lose.
As other posters have pointed out, you could also move into entertainment services and help for recent graduates.
I wouldn't ditch things like the svn/cvs, webspace and database access though. My CS department used to run their own services and having them on campus was great since I could go ask our helpdesk people if something went wrong or I needed extra space etc.
What Doesn't Google Offer? (Score:5, Insightful)
...like private email (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Off topic, but when did everyone on Slashdot start saying 'IP' when they meant 'data'? It seems to only be about a month ago. Weird.
Back on topic, offering truly private storage in a computer society network is tricky. The people with root will be other students, who aren't paid. If you start claiming really private (rather than 'we don't think you're interesting enough to bother spying on your mail') storage then you open yourself up to all sorts of liability issues.
We noticed over the past few years
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting. On your off topic point, I can't speak for everyone here, but when I say IP I mean patentable or copyrightable material, both of which are a subset of "data".
On your other point about private storage, well, that's exactly the discussion that needs to take place, IMO. You're very correct that it's a thorny issue in which all of the "trust" issues come into play. Perfect discussion for a University! And a great purpose for a becoming-obsolete-data-center-at-a-Uni to put itself to.
Free/Libre Content Production (Score:4, Interesting)
The key is that your users need to have a motivation beyond saving money. If someone is with you to simply save money they will be easily lured away by a cheaper competitor. You need to get people involved because they are passionate about what you do.
Maybe start up a content production cooperative (movies, music, stories, ...) with a policy of releasing everything under a Free license? Your student group can provide all the production facilities and branch out into buying microphones, cameras and so on. Make it even more interesting by having an open "bazaar style" production process too, instead of just presenting finished projects.
Get a bunch of people together who are passionate about freedom for arts and technology. These people will stick with you for the long term.
There is plenty of infrastructure now for the Libre movement (svn servers, web, email providers, source forge...). Don't compete with that which is is well established. What is needed now is plenty of fantastic content under Free licenses, with which we can run the mafiaa out of town.
Re: (Score:2)
Mod parent up!
A Wikipedia club, to use the academic resources and databases available to a university to make the free encyclopedia better. (Or a Citizendium club, if you hate Wikipedia - CZ are working hard to recruit in academia.)
ask the students? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds like you're a solution in need of a problem. Try asking the students what you can do for them. I'd probably start with the postgrads since they tend to actually need things, and know they need it.
I know at my uni people found it hassle when needing to crunch data - server slots were a scarce resource and there was a lot of people scheduling things so they could crunch on their workstation over the weekend (often dropping in to see if it got stuck).
I'll bet there's a large number of other groups crying out for decent hardware, space, funding and maybe even the fast internet connection. If your group's services are no longer required it's time to hand the resources over.
Start a Chess Playing Site (Score:2)
The ICC is a good net chess club at about $30. per year. There is room for another. That would be more than true if you can create software to spot people who cheat by using PCs to find their moves before posting them. By the way the ICC model may be the best on the net.
Online backup (Score:2, Interesting)
Telecoomunications (Score:2, Informative)
Time to die... sorry. (Score:2)
~/ less (Score:2)
On the first attempt I pulled my cousins name & realized I forgot to empty the hat after Christmas last year. Then again, I suppose you could consider him one of the worlds problems.
Anyway, on my second draw I pulled Virtualization Technology from the new stuff hat and Homeless People from the problem ha
What every college needs. (Score:2, Insightful)
Start your own dating service for the students.
Sounds a little bland, of course, but since you have the hardware, bandwidth, and funding, you can spice it up a little: Either find some type of FOSS social MMO, or start your own.
Ask yourself this; What does every college student that hardly ever leaves his dorm need? Another way to procrastinate online!
Student research... (Score:4, Informative)
Knowledge botique (Score:2, Insightful)
Roskilde University in Denmark could maybe be an inspiration for you in that respect:
From their site:
QUOTE:
Welcome to the Science Shop
Roskilde University wants to bridge the gap between enterprises, NGOs, public institutions (externals) and students. By participating in the Science Shop students and enterprises/NGOs/public institutions contribute to the sharing of knowledge and know-how between universities and the world outside. And the university becomes better at targeting our programmes towards the labo
Security Education (Score:2)
Useful website resources for teachers. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm currently a student (after being an admin for 10 years) working on a history degree. The one thing every class wants is lively out of class discussion but you never get it with the "blackboard" clones. Make available a PHPBB workalike to instructors with easy to remember URLs (eg, HIS3660.youdomain.com).
With that simple tool an instructor can post videos, syllabus, and class material that can be seen from any browser.
You could probably even offer this to student groups including the, gasp, non-school sponsored ones that don't get resources (like the history club I'm in).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If Moodle or another Course Management System isn't fostering debate, that's not the fault of the software... they provide exactly the same functionality as PHPBB, and then some.
If you're lacking out of class internet debate, it's because the class didn't buy into the concept. (This happened in a class I took several years ago where we tried to use a PHPBB board, and it flopped.) I think the problem is that bulletin boards are not particularly conducive to collaborative learning.
Teaching about Virtual Servers & Server Securi (Score:3, Interesting)
How about using it to teach students about virtuali[s|z]ation? That seems to be a growing trend among businesses and could certainly prove to be useful, as well as giving them experience with a range of virtualisation offerings.
It would also (at least on certain virtual server products) allow them to work with a variety of different operating systems, without risking messing up critical servers, and possibly learning about snapshot and roll-back options using virtual servers.
In addition, they could learn how to secure different operating systems, and be shown an example of how a server might be hacked, and what to do to lock out the attacker, perform forensics, and repair the damage done (admittedly reputation is harder to repair than an OS/app), and when it's best to wipe everything and start again (or roll-back to a known good server image).
On a completely different track, you could try to start up a University-wide social networking site, and allow the Alumni to join it too. Use it for sharing events, knowledge, ideas, fun, jokes, etc, maybe even have an API so students can extend it like with Facebook.
Obviously this would require some management to ensure that students don't use it to break University rules, intimidate other students, allow copying of others coursework, sharing of copyright materials, etc, but it some of this could be delegated to responsible students, and give them experience and hopefully make them feel valued.
Suggestions from another student group (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)