Re-purposing a Student Tech Service Group? 185
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."
Entertainment (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like all you have left then is to provide entertainment.
RESTRUCTURE, BUT, AS A SECURITY HELP CENTER? (Score:1, Interesting)
Perhaps this type of guidance & aid to your fellow students may be of use (as a "new type of service" your group may offer others), ala points such as are noted in this guide online:
HOW TO SECURE Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003, & even VISTA, + make it "fun-to-do" via CIS Tool Guidance (& beyond that):
http://www.tcmagazine.com/forums/index.php?s=997120fdbd632fa871dc28209608c6a3&showtopic=2662 [tcmagazine.com]
* Simply changing your role, & the services you could offer others, is a start...
( ... & that is a start, right there, in the points in that URL above!)
APK
P.S.=> CIS Tool, & the other points (many of which 'layer ontop of' CIS Tool's points for securing a system), also applies to various *NIX variants (& distros, such as are seen in Linux for instance/example) - so, thus, you're NOT "solely restricted to Windows users, only" etc. et al ... apk
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.
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.
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.
Online backup (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A few basic needs. (Score:1, Interesting)
Run a series of classes like "Intro to Unix 1". Make sure they are only about an hour long, and that they go home with a very good cheat sheet.
Re:Entertainment (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:A few basic needs. (Score:1, Interesting)
Big examples that spring to mind include things like basic Linux commands, LaTeX, Maple, MATLAB, etc.
LaTeX is fine, but not Maple/MATLAB. Why not teach Octave and r-project (stat like) instead? They're Free as in libre and more importantly (if $ is a problem), free as in $0.
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 mentioned here on Slashdot [slashdot.org] a few days earlier, contains the following requirement:
(29) The institution certifies that the institution--
(A) has developed plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including through the use of a variety of technology-based deterrents; and
(B) will, to the extent practicable, offer alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property, as determined by the institution in consultation with the chief technology officer or other designated officer of the institution.
I think it is in fact a FANTASTIC idea for colleges to "offer alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property". There are a multitude of sources across the internet for Creative Commons or other 100% legal music. I think you (and any other college) should set up a hosting site on your internal network. A huge easy repository of hundreds of gigs of 100% legal 100% non-RIAA 100% non-CRIA music. They want colleges to offer an alternative to the illegal downloading of their music? I say we damn well give them exactly what they want. The most effective way for a college to deter illegal downloads is to drown students in an overwhelming more-than-you-can-eat supply of legal downloads. Trying to block students from illegal downloads is a largely hopeless task because students are going to find ways to circumvent those blocks to get what they want. But if you get students hooked on more-than-you-can-eat legal music downloads, that is the most effective way to reduce or eliminate the desire for RIAA-music downloads. For any college in the US, I suggest this is the best and most effective way to comply with the law. If you are in Canada or anywhere else, I still say it's a great way to get a jump on things before the RIAA-CRIA-or-other-clone comes knocking. You can tell them that you already have an official school policy and program in place to minimize the downloading - illegal or otherwise - of their music.
The simplest system is just to have a basic server on the campus network hosting all of these files, but there are endless ways you can expand and improve upon that service and build a powerful community interest in it. You could have some sort of streaming service. You could have individual student accounts with some mechanism of tracking individual "collections" of the songs they like and playlists and maybe personal ratings of songs. You can have some simple way for students to recommend and "share" these songs with each other. You could set up some sort of streaming "radio channels", and maybe even a way for students to run "radio channels". You could use the data on student music collections or song rankings to to do intelligent recommendations of other songs they may like.
You can do something as simple as a minimalistic webserver just hosting the files, or you can build it as big and as advanced as you like. By having this on the campus internal network you cut down on external ISP bandwidth needs.
Oh, and the best part? Getting to bask in the delicious irony of giving the RIAA&friends exactly what they asked for with a big fat FUCK-YOU-UP-THE-ASS-SIDEWAYS-WITH-A-PING-PONG-PADDLE.
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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 be exposed to an OS (which will remain nameless here) that was designed for computer illiterates.
This is your chance to make sure the next generation can at least perceive the elegance and thought that went into making an OS and programming language that was designed by and for programmers, instead of by and for businessmen.
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)
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 open source project. Or start your own. Make sure it is an interesting software so you can get fellow students enthusiastic about it. To stay in the Matlab field: you could work on numpy, perl::pdl, or add modules to gnu-octave. If that's too boring, why not make your own 3D animations, or programmable interactive robots, as a teaching project for students. Depends a bit on the background and interests of the people in your group at the moment.
Another idea: start an online platform for freelance projects for students. Try to get local companies involved. Students can get their first work experience, you get a lot of organizational and communication skills. As a student group you are probably not allowed to have the group make a profit from using campus facilities, so if you will calculate a provision you have to make sure you invest it in students parties :)
Re:Do something for inner-city youth (Score:2, Interesting)
Gather old computer parts from your school or lbusiness (sic), put them together, install linux and give them to schools with limited computing resources.
Most people not involved don't know this, but trying to donate to public schools can be incredibly frustrating, at least in parts of the US and especially in urban areas. Public school bureaucracy can be stifling. I have some friends who have worked with Techserv at Drexel University in Philadelphia. I have seen poor inner-city schools with almost no computers and no budget spend months or longer going through "proper channels" just to accept a donated computer. I naively thought that they would just accept them under the table but no, they have to go through the bureaucracy. Here in Philadelphia we have plenty of schools that need computers, but last I checked, Techserv has a large storage room packed with good hardware that they have trouble giving away.
Not that it is not worth doing. Just be prepared for some hair-pulling frustration and have plenty of storage space.
Student cluster in a similar situation (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Student start-up hosting (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.
First of all, don't stop (Score:1, Interesting)
As a student who goes to said university, I can honestly say that EngSoc is not withering away any time soon. The wireless that the university provides is ridiculously spotty and slow. I'm glad I'm an engineering student, or I wouldn't have a stable wireless connection on campus.
Ask the students who live on residence. When I lived on campus, I would have killed for a VPN or a proxy that didn't have throttled ports.