FLOSS training

[Jaco]

Hi guys,

I've recently had a client/contact ask me re on-site training for some
FLOSS products (starting with the Ubuntu desktop product-suite); they'd
rather spend their money on training on FLOSS products than buy the
proprietary counterparts & specialist training on that.

Other than tapping some of my other contacts, are there any companies,
institutions or individuals that specialise in such training?
I can't really find all that much, other than local training for CMS's
(such as Drupal) & training on education/training software (Moodle,
Koha, etc). There are online resources (such as tutsplus.com), but
that's not what they're willing to pay for.

Any recommendations, please?

Kind regards

- Jaco

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[Tim McNamara]

Jaco, this is a nice thread to start. Am interested in the depth of
desktop support in NZ.

IMHO talking about FLOSS in general terms is probably too broad.
Perhaps it would be better to outline which applications or domain
(e.g. small business, retail, education, ...) your client is focused
on.

Post by Jaco
Hi guys,
I've recently had a client/contact ask me re on-site training for some FLOSS
products (starting with the Ubuntu desktop product-suite); they'd rather
spend their money on training on FLOSS products than buy the proprietary
counterparts & specialist training on that.
Other than tapping some of my other contacts, are there any companies,
institutions or individuals that specialise in such training?
I can't really find all that much, other than local training for CMS's (such
as Drupal) & training on education/training software (Moodle, Koha, etc).
There are online resources (such as tutsplus.com), but that's not what
they're willing to pay for.
Any recommendations, please?
Kind regards
- Jaco
_______________________________________________
http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug

_______________________________________________
NZLUG mailing list ***@linux.net.nz
http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug

[Jaco]

Post by Tim McNamara
Jaco, this is a nice thread to start. Am interested in the depth of
desktop support in NZ.
IMHO talking about FLOSS in general terms is probably too broad.
Perhaps it would be better to outline which applications or domain
(e.g. small business, retail, education, ...) your client is focused
on.

Thanks to everyone for the fantastic response, guys! Exactly what I was
hoping for.
I've purposely left this request open-ended, since this seems to be a
definite gap in the market & is something that will need to be addressed
if we hope to foster more wide-spread adoption.
I referenced the Ubuntu product-suite since most (all?) of the packages
in a standard installation ports well to other OS's - windows & mac, so
it could have fairly wide application.

This particular user/client is a small retail business that I've
convinced to adopt FLOSS software where possible & the uptake's been
positive.

Initially, they're looking for just some basic training on some graphic
software, Gimp & Inkscape, so that they can make some basic product
mock-up's & post stock images to their website.
If that goes well, I could see this leading to some other packages too.

On a side-note:
This could be an opportunity to build up some material for greater
consumption: training at $50-$75 per person, per hour (or some such
arbitrary number), but a 10% discount if they permit the recording of
the session to be placed in an online repository under a permissive
Creative Commons licence for others to make use of for their own
training needs.
Just thinking out loud here....

Cheers

- Jaco

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[Dave Lane]

Post by Jaco
I've recently had a client/contact ask me re on-site training for some
FLOSS products (starting with the Ubuntu desktop product-suite); they'd
rather spend their money on training on FLOSS products than buy the
proprietary counterparts & specialist training on that.

I'd also be interested in hearing more about this, Jaco. Can you give
examples of the apps for which they'd like training? FOSS covers a wide
spectrum :)

I do know about people who have developed teaching curricula (secondary)
for FOSS apps like GIMP, Blender, and Inkscape, as well as general web
design (using FOSS tools).

The conventional wisdom seems to be that apps like Open/Libre Office are
passe (as is MS Office) - it's assumed that everyone needing to know
those already does. More people seem to be moving training towards
web-based apps like Google Docs.

Post by Jaco
Other than tapping some of my other contacts, are there any companies,
institutions or individuals that specialise in such training?
I can't really find all that much, other than local training for CMS's
(such as Drupal) & training on education/training software (Moodle,
Koha, etc). There are online resources (such as tutsplus.com), but
that's not what they're willing to pay for.

Would certainly be interesting to compile a list - we'd be happy to host
it on the NZOSS website.

Cheers,

Dave