What a great way to kickoff Linux Against Poverty 2010. Rackspace Cloud has joined Linux Against Poverty as our first platinum sponsor. For those of you who didn't know, Rackspace Cloud has been aggressively supporting open source projects such as Cassandra, Drizzle, Drupal, and others. We're happy to have them as a partner for this year's event.

-Lynn

Our goal this year is to deliver $50,000 in computers to Central Texas children. If you are interested in joining us as a sponsor, please contact lynnbender@geekaustin.org

The 2010 Install Fest is on Saturday June 19th. If you are interested in joining the following teams:

• Material Handling Team
• Install Team
• Repair Team
• Salvage and Parts Team
• Intake and Evaluation Team

please join the following Google group:

http://groups.google.com/group/lap2010

A few of these teams require intermediate or advanced knowledge of computer hardware. Details can be found in the the Google group.

We'll be posting additional volunteer opportunities shortly.

-Lynn

We'll be hosting a get together for LAP 2010 volunteers this Saturday morning at Triumph Cafe. This year's goal is to collect, repair, and distribute $50K worth of computers to Central Texas children. Your ideas, suggestions, and support will help us reach that goal.

Here's the details:

Linux Against Poverty 2010 Volunteers Meeting
Date: Saturday, May 1, 2010
Time: 10:00am - 12:00pm
Location: Triumph Cafe (Map)
3808 Spicewood Springs Road,Austin, TX 78759-8973

RSVP at Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113773008645616

I hope you can make it!
-Lynn

I just spoke with Greg Bodle of Union Park. Greg has graciously offered to let us use Union Park for this year's Linux Against Poverty Installfest. This is especially generous of Greg considering that we literally moved all the furniture on the first floor to make way for the install fest. (We moved it back though). Most club owners would be going "whoa! whoa! whoa!

Linux geeks moving furniture at the 2009 install fest.

Linux Against Poverty co-host, Ken Starks, just was awarded the Dewey Winburne Community Service Award at SXSW for his work with The HeliOS Project.

From the SXSW Website:
The Dewey Winburne Community Service Award celebrates the vision that technology is society's most effective tool to level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots.

I can't think of anyone more deserving of the award than Ken.

Read more at SXSW

-Lynn

Although Ken Starks and I made the decision more than a month ago, Ken has been patient while I wrap up other obligations.

We have decided that there will be a Linux Against Poverty Install Fest #2 on June 19, 2010.

For the first install fest, we set the goal of 200 computers for local children. For 2010, I'm going to set the goal at 300 computers. With 5 months to plan, I know that we can do it.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be release more details -- including signup sheets for volunteers.

I think this bears repeating. This last August, over a hundred people donated over 200 computers, over 50 volunteers refurbished and installed Linux on them. Those 200 computers went to local kids who one reason or another did not have ready access to a computer. That was our first go at it. I have no doubt that, now that we have the hang of it, we can do better this year.

Just like the first one, this event will be co-hosted by The Helios Initiative.

I'm looking forward to working with everyone again.

-Lynn

BTW, If you have a computer that you'd like to donate, don't hang on to it until May. Take it to one of the Helios drop-off locations. It will make a mighty fine Christmas present for a future geek.

Ken Starks, Founder of HeliOS and co-host of the first Linux Against Poverty Installfest, just informed me that he will be on the Gutsy Geeks Radio Show tonight at 8:15 CST. Ken will be speaking for about 15 minutes.

If you want the behind the scenes on how to take 200 frankenputers, and turn them in to working machines worthy of donation -- all in one afternoon -- you'll enjoy this interview. Ken is the Jedi Knight of LAP.

If you're not able to catch the show on Gutsy Geeks tonight, I'll try to arrange for a link to the stream.

-Lynn

Don Bender of PhotoBender just posted a set of install fest photos at Fotki.

I'm still amazed Tom's team was able to pack up and return the club to its normal self in 40 mins.

Benn (@agentgenius)and Lani (@LaniAR Rosales of the New Media Lab dropped by the install fest. Lani posted an article and set of photos

Chris Almond has a huge set of install fest photos posted over at Facebook. Chris took a really great set of photos.

I just received notes from Dario and Jonathan that they'll be posting photo sets soon.

I'm still a bit wiped from the install fest. Ken, on the other hand, has probably refurbished another 50 computers. He's probably ready for some more.

We succeeded in our goal of obtaining over 200 computers for Austin-area children in need. The actual number is probably quite a bit higher. Many of the donations for the install fest were received a month before the event, and had already been refurbished and delivered. Nevertheless, thanks to everyone's generosity, we still had a truckload of computers on the day of the event. Yes, a truckload.

I'm still recovering from the event, but I wanted to go ahead and and share some of the first batches of pictures.

The Venue - Union Park

Thanks to our friends at BuildASign.com, we had some excellent signage. How could you this miss this?

Seriously, how could you miss this?

When I was planning the install fest, one of my major concerns was location. I went to my friend, Greg Bodle, at Union Park, and said: I want you to open your club up 7 hours early, so that I and 50 other folks can come in, haul a truck up, rearrange all your furniture, and repair a few hundred computers. By the way, you won't make any money on it. Greg, being the community-minded guy that he is, said yes. Furthermore, he opened his kitchen up so that there would be food for the army of geeks.

The fine folks at RGM Advisors picked up the tab for a buffet spread in the Boom Boom room. All day long fresh platters of food came out. As soon as one was empty, another followed.

The Setup

As promised, Greg was there at noon on the dot to open the doors, and we immediately began to transform Union Park into a 5000 sq ft. computer workshop.

Ken Starks, of The Helios Project has some shots of the truck being unloaded on his blog.

The Patio

Let start the tour on the patio.

We turned the front patio of the club into a receiving area.

Look at all those Dells. A special thanks to Jher for the donation of 60+ machines, and Thomas Mahler for the last minute donation of 20 machines.

We advertised curbside pickup, and all afternoon, people drove up and dropped computers off.

The front patio also served as a place to check machines for parts -- like RAM and harddrives. It was the initial testing area.

Come join us inside to see the rest

The Main Room

Tom King of the The Helios Project supervised the install teams. Tom was a little overwhelmed (can you tell?) by the idea of preparing 200 machines in one day, but he came through like a champ. I imagine that, with the first install fest under his belt, 200 computers will be a piece of cake for Tom next time.

Thanks to Andy Krell, Warren Kamealoha, and a few other generous folks, we had an image server and KVM switches -- better for installing 10 machines at a time.

Machines that had problems went to the back of the room where diagnostics and repairs could be performed.

These geeks weren't joking around. Many came with their own toolboxes.

To assure that everyone had plenty of energy, Brad Bannister from Red Bull came by the night before to drop a few hundred cans of Red Bull off for the crowd. By the middle of the afternoon, almost everyone had drank as least one Red Bull. Weeee! It was really funny.

I'll be writing more about the Austin install fest, and what's next for Linux Against Poverty, in the days to come. In the meantime, check out Ken Stark's take on the install fest at Blog of Helios.

A special thanks to all the folks who took photos and shot videos: Benn and Lani Rosales, Jonathan Arehart, Chris Almond, Beth Carls, Arthur Kendrick, and Don Bender. If anyone else has photos of the event, send me a note at lynnbender@geekaustin.org.

!!

I want to thank everyone who has reached out to us. Together, we will reach the goal of providing 200 computers to Austin-area children -- in one day!

If you still want to donate a computer, we will have curb-side pickup at Union Park from 1PM-5PM. You only need to pull up to the taxi stand, and we'll take the computers off your hands. You won't even need to get out of the car. Union Park is located at 612 W 6th St.

We already have enough folks on the install teams. However, we might still be able to use a few folks to help bring computers in. We are limiting it to 30 min shifts. Whether you want to help out or not, come down, say hello, and cheer the team on.

We are looking for a videographers and photographers to help document the Install Fest. For details, contact lynnbender@geekaustin.org

We are looking for one more sponsor to help with incidental expenses that have come up. If you are interested in helping sponsor Linux Against Poverty, contact lynnbender@geekaustin.org

I have to give a special thanks to Brad Bannister at RedBull. I asked the install team if they needed anything else, and they said Red Bull. I told Brad, and he offered to come by with coolers of Red Bull for the install team. Like I said, everyone has really come together to make this a success.

Don't forget. We'll be hosting a post-install fest party at 6PM. Hope to see you there!

-Lynn