Austin Group Prepares for Linux Against Poverty.

Lynn Bender called a meeting Saturday at the Triumph Cafe in Austin to begin organizing the Linux Against Poverty 2010 event.

 I think to Lynn's and my own surprise, the number of people who attended actually exceeded those who signed up to attend.  We had 30 people attend the 2 hour meeting and many stayed as much as 30 minutes afterward to mingle and iron out other details



I believe that speaks volumes to how important the Linux and Tech Community in Austin believe this event to be. They are the backbone of this effort and these volunteers are going to spend June 19th busting their backsides to aid The HeliOS Project.

What amazes me is the number of people we have returning from last year...they know what is in store for them.

Bless their hearts...

For those that do not know, Linux Against Poverty is an annual event organized by Lynn Bender that gathers some of the top tech people in the area and assembles them to evaluate, triage, repair and then install the Linux Operating System on those computers.  The computers are donated by local businesses and individuals.  The repaired and refurbished computers are then given to disadvantaged kids in the Central Texas area via The HeliOS Project.

Last year's efforts netted The HeliOS Project 219 usable machines.  Those machines were received in July of 2009 and were gone by November.  You can see some of the pictures of the 2009 effort by clicking the above link.

Now I am going to be honest with you here...despite Lynn's best efforts, most of the local media fairly ignored us last year.  With the exception of KUT radio and Omar Gallaga, this event was pretty much blacked out.  This year however, there are some publicity possibilities looming that will bode well for us.  While I cannot say until they happen, we have reason to believe that our mostly-unaided success last year will draw some good media interest.

We'll see.

Regardless of that possibility, we expect some great results from this year's event.  People are already talking to their employers about what we are doing and we've caught the attention of two major corporates here in Austin.

Now to the gear and pulley stuff.

Linux Against Poverty 2010 will again be held at Union Park on 6th Street on the 19th of June.  My sincere and humble thanks to Greg Bodle for his generosity.  As Lynn stated on his website, most bar owners would have taken one look at the transformation taking place and slammed on the brakes.  Greg saw the bigger picture, which was properly painted by our volunteers returning his place to its original state when we were done.  We are extremely grateful for his gift to us.

There will be five Team Stations working within LAP this year.  They are:


Intake and Evaluation


Salvage and Parts


Material Handling


Repair


Install 

Building on lessons learned from last year, we used Saturday's meeting to streamline the process and build a workable system.  My further thanks goes to Roy Hall, Alex Thurlow, Andy Krell, Skip Guenter and Tom King for stepping forward and shouldering the responsibility for leading these teams.  We are going to be needing a Team Leader for Material Handling (fancy name for hauling computers and parts on and off of trucks).  You can see how this is being organized here or if you want to take part and join one of our teams.

Our goal this year is to raise 50K in usable computers and components this year.  If you are an employee or work with any business in Austin, please let them know that we can use their decommissioned machines and components.

Because the needs of our kids are the focus of our efforts, we have to turn down some stuff.  We need P4 machines at 2.0 gig processing or better.  Anything less will not allow us to build the machines to do the work these kids are being given today.  You can see specific equipment requirements here.   Of course, any equipment donations are tax deductible.  They can contact me at helios@fixedbylinux.com and we will make the arrangements.

If you care to sponsor Linux Against Poverty on any level, please contact Lynn Bender at Lynnbender at geekaustin dott org

And to those who are taking part in Linux Against Poverty 2010....

You guys Rock.

All-Righty Then...