‘Til All Are One

Donna Benjamin rounded a small group of us together to write a letter to Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education. The result was widely syndicated, hopefully building some mindshare in the process. The Education Expo proved to me more than anything else that FOSS is quickly becoming acceptable to the general public — the trick is in how you promote it.

So where to from here? How can we capitalise upon the gains we have made?

Perhaps our greatest single weakness is the perceived lack of professional support. I think OSIA should be doing more to address this (note: I’m not implying that OSIA isn’t taking this seriously). Here’s an e-mail I wrote to the osia-discuss mailing list (which is unfortunately subscriber-only):

The best thing OSIA can do is fight the popular notion that there’s no
professional support available for FOSS. We can beat the TCO and Freedom
drums as hard as we want, but few organisations are willing to entrust their
computing to ‘community’ support.

I managed the Linux Australia stand at the Education Expo a few weeks ago, and
my impression is that FOSS is on the cusp of mainstream acceptance:

http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2008/06/29/education-expo-report/

Schools are crying out for ways to get better value for their dollar, but they
aren’t going to even think about FOSS if they can’t get professional support.

If I run the stand again next year, I’d like to see some involvement from
OSIA. At the very least, we should have available some leaflets showing that
yes indeed there is quality, paid support for FOSS.

Also note that FOSS isn’t Linux. We got the most interest in the
OpenEducationDisc, a compilation of FOSS for Windows.

On the community side, we can continue to make FOSS more acceptable to school administrations, bureaucrats and politicians. Here’s my idea:

My suggestion is for us to build a Web site focused on open education in
Australia. We already have the perfect vehicle: http://openeducation.org.au.
However, at present it’s just a messy wiki more suitable for our own
brainstorming than for being a public-facing resource.

The wiki should of course remain, but I propose that we build a proper,
presentable Web site that is directly accessible via the
http://openeducation.org.au address.

Why do this when we already have http://linux.org.au/education? Open Education
is much bigger than Linux, and certainly should not be anchored to it. Here’s
a short list of what it can include:

• FOSS
• (GNU/)Linux OS - on servers
• (GNU/)Linux OS - on clients/desktops
• open standards
• open languages/libraries/APIs
• free content/culture
• open learning
• open curriculum

To be honest, I fear that we might be only hurting ourselves by tying open
education to a completely Free computing environment. That might be a worthy
aim, but few institutions are going to switch over all in one go. By offering
a migration path (or paths), a school can migrate more comfortably at its own
pace. We ought to be providing real choice, not just a binary ‘with us or
with the terrists’.

FOSS (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Scribus, etc.) can run on operating systems
other than Linux. To use the recent Education Expo as an example, we got a
lot of buy-in through the OpenEducationDisc, a compilation of FOSS for
 Windows.

Also note how I split Linux clients from servers. Linux’s place in the server
realm is very solid, but convincing an institution to accept a Linux client
solution is tougher. And by ‘client’, I mean either traditional desktops or
thin clients. The latter are often cost-effective and represent a real
strength of Linux, but are often overlooked or even have regulations working
against their adoption. On the server side, we have some great educational
tools such as Moodle and LAMS.

Open standards obviously include things like file formats and protocols, which
will become even more relevant as we see more applications (proprietary or
otherwise) pick up standardised methods of information exchange such as ODF
and PDF. This should also ease the integration of FOSS into pre-existing
environments. It also can include languages and all things related. Why are
schools still teaching Visual Basic when they could be teaching Python?

The final three points all link together. Most notably, they are not dependent
upon technology at all. Your average teacher isn’t a technologist, and
shouldn’t have to be. Knowledge can be shared and organised openly just like
code. Wikipedia has proven that great things can be built if ordinary people
are given easy to use tools.

Where to from this point? I suggest that we work towards getting a CMS running
at openeducation.org.au. We’ll have to agree upon a design and the message
that we want to purvey. Content creation should be separate from technical
ability, so the CMS should be simple enough for anybody to contribute.

Here is some inspiration from the UK:

• http://www.openschoolsalliance.org/
• http://schoolforge.org.uk/

The UK education sector appears to be much further ahead of us in terms of
embracing openness, and I think we can take some lessons from their efforts.

To clarify one thing in the above, I wrote the text for http://linux.org.au/education, but I never felt comfortable with it being there. So much of open education has nothing to do with Linux and Linux Australia shouldn’t be diverting its focus to dwell on it directly. With a more independent Web presence (in collaboration with Linux Australia), I feel that we can be much more effective.

LotD:   Open sourcing Australia: OpenAustralia.org goes live

Two weeks ago, we had the Education Expo.

Here’s my report, as co-ordinator of the Linux Australia stand:

Education Expo
Sat 14 to Sun 15 June
Rosehill Racecourse, Sydney

The Education Expo is an annual trades show targeted towards the K-12 educational space. Visitors consist of families and educators. Linux Australia once again had a stand, with volunteers spreading the word about free and open source software.

As always, we were very successful. With each passing year, the level of awareness of FOSS noticeably improves. Whereas at previous shows we would spend much energy expounding the basic concepts of FOSS/Linux, this year most people had either heard of it or were already using FOSS products such as Firefox and OpenOffice.org.

One thing we did differently this year was place more focus on FOSS running on Windows. Our past efforts have been meet with some resistance, as installing a different operating system posed a barrier to entry that many would not surmount. We had plenty of copies of the OpenEducationDisc to distribute, in addition to Fedora, Ubuntu, Edubuntu and Mandriva.

The fact that the NSW Dept of Education is migrating over 40,000 PCs across the state to OpenOffice.org was a useful selling point as well.

Our marketing efforts have been improving with each event. Our message is becoming more refined, and our leaflets are becoming more relevant. On the technical side, FOSS is becoming easier and more accessible, with projects such the aforementioned OpenEducationDisc and Wubi leading the way.

Our Web presence is improving, too. It’s far easier to point a newbie to just one easy-to-remember URL instead of confusing them with a list. In addition, I built an education portal for Linux Australia just in time for the expo.

There were at least two other stands that were FOSS-friendly. In fact, one of the largest stands were demonstrating their Web-based software product on about ten computers, all of which were running Ubuntu. Other stands expressed real interest when approached.

Other highlights of our presence included:

• OLPC XO laptops (from OLPC Australia)
• Intel Classmate PCs (from Mandriva Australia)
• ASUS Eee PCs
• laptops showing Edubuntu

Rodger Dean has some photos of the event.

A big thanks to everyone who helped at the stand:

• Ashley Lynn
• Ashley Maher
• Brendan Puckeridge
• David Andresen
• Gloria Arnold
• Harrison Conlin
• John Arnold
• Megha Kanth
• Pia Waugh
• Rodger Dean
• Vicki Burke

A special thank you goes to Melissa Draper, who was instrumental in ensuring the success of the stand in more ways than one.

LotD:  Insurance company bets health on open source — I’m quite heavily involved in this project, so needless to say I’m proud of what we’ve achieved

The Education Expo is on this weekend. I’ve sent a couple of missives to our helpers. The second one contains some advice that would work well in many situations regarding FOSS (especially where marketing is concerned), so I’ll reproduce it (slightly edited) here:

Subject: Education Expo, this weekend!
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:29
From: Sridhar Dhanapalan <sridhar@dhanapalan.com>
To: SLUG Activities <activities@slug.org.au>

Thanks again to everyone who has volunteered to help with the Linux Australia stand at the Education Expo.

The expo itself runs from 9am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday. Entry is free. It’s a fun day for families with children in the K-12 space, so feel free to bring along your kids and make a day (or two!) out of it.

This year, the expo will be held in Rosehill Racecourse’s brand new Events Centre, and our stand is in a prime position right in front of the door. If you haven’t already, take a look at the original announcement and the Education Expo Web site.

I asked in my previous message if people could tell me when they would be available to help out. If you haven’t already, please let me know. If you’re unsure, that’s fine too: just show up and grab me at the stand.

I’ll be there at 8am on Saturday (an hour before it starts) to set up the stand, and probably at 8:30 on Sunday. I might need some assistance to set up, and also to pack up afterwards.

Some tips:

• Wear comfortable casual clothing. It might get hot in the exhibition hall.
• If you’ve got any Linux or FOSS themed clothing, wear that
• Wear comfortable shoes. You’ll be standing most of the time.
• Keep some water handy.
• Talking to stand visitors can strain your throat. Some mints can help.

Make it clear to visitors that there is a vibrant FOSS community in Australia, and especially in Sydney. Invite them to SLUG, which meets in the city on the last Friday of every month (next meeting on 27 June). SLUG has a segment known as ‘SLUGlets’, which is intended for newbies.

Familiarise yourself with the leaflets that we will distribute:

• http://linkpot.net/ravines/
• http://linkpot.net/dethrone/
• http://linkpot.net/tremolos/

Have a read of Linux Australia’s guides to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and FOSS in education. Remember to promote these to stand visitors as the best place to start with Linux and FOSS:

• http://linux.org.au/linux
• http://linux.org.au/education

One important point to remember is that Linux is not FOSS. We will be handing out copies of the OpenEducationDisc, which is a CD full of education-oriented FOSS for Windows. Not everyone is able to switch over to Linux cold-turkey, but we can get them started with FOSS on Windows first.

Similarly, open standards are not FOSS, but they are a good start. Inform people about the dangers of proprietary file formats, as seen with Microsoft Office, and promote in their stead open alternatives such as OpenDocument and PDF.

Show people that Linux isn’t strange and new. Many don’t realise it, but they are already using FOSS. For example:

• Firefox and OpenOffice are becoming increasingly popular. The NSW Department of Education is in the process of switching over >40,000 school computers to OpenOffice.
• Wikipedia is built around the idea of open knowledge, inspired directly from the FOSS movement (and it’s built on FOSS too!).
• Even Mac OS X has many important components based on FOSS, such as the kernel, file sharing, printing and the Web browser.
• About two-thirds of Web sites are served by the FOSS Web server, Apache.
• Most of the large Web companies (like Google, Facebook and Yahoo) are built with FOSS.
• It is normal for Hollywood films to be created using Linux.
• Linux is prevalent in a range of consumer devices.
• The popular ASUS Eee PC, and many of its competitors, come with Linux pre-installed.

Show people that Linux is easy to install and use. Ubuntu has an installer called Wubi, which is a Windows application that installs Ubuntu as a file without partitioning the hard drive. It behaves like a normal dual-boot system, but it can be uninstalled from ‘Add/Remove Programs’ just like any Windows application. We’ll also have copies of Edubuntu. Remember that this is an add-on companion, not a stand-alone liveCD as in the past. Give a copy of Ubuntu with every Edubuntu disc you distribute.

Linux is more secure. While nothing can claim to be 100% secure and virus proof, Linux has an excellent track record. It doesn’t need ‘band-aid’ solutions like anti-virus and anti-spyware software because the software was built sanely to begin with. The Internet was built for UNIX, not for Windows.

Linux and FOSS is great for families. It’s affordable and reliable. It won’t get infected and show unsolicited porn adverts to your children. There are heaps of great educational software installable with just a few mouse clicks.

Some caveats:

• As a community stand, we are not selling anything.
• Avoid unnecessary Microsoft-bashing. We’re running the stand because we love FOSS, not because we hate Microsoft.

The second Open CeBIT in Sydney ended last week. Forming a section of the much larger CeBIT expo, Open CeBIT focused on open source technologies and solutions. I was involved in three stands: BizCubed (my employer), Linux Australia and Open Source Industry Australia.

In the market, FOSS is clearly maturing and becoming more mainstream. At a CeBIT a couple of years ago, I’d be answering basic questions like, “what is open source?”, “what is Linux?” and “how do you make money?” This year, I didn’t get any questions like that at all. Most people knew something about Linux and FOSS, and just needed some direction to get started.

We had much interest in community and general usage at the Linux Australia stand. Our Fedora, Ubuntu and Edubuntu discs were popular. Of immense popularity were our OLPC XOs, thanks to OLPC Australia. Visitors were genuinely interested in the units, and I didn’t hear any negative feedback at all. I do believe that a lot of people did understand that this is an education project for children in the developing world and not just a laptop project.

At the Open Source Industry Australia stand, I spoke to many people who were interested in deploying FOSS solutions to solve specific problems. Many of these people would not have considered FOSS in the past, so clearly our message is resonating.

Coming up in a couple of weeks (June 14-15) is the Education Expo. We’ve always been successful there, and all signs point to us repeating that.

LotD:   MacGyver is favourite disaster hero

Lately, I’ve been thinking more than ever about ways to promote free and open source software to a non-technical crowd. This has largely been prompted by the Education Expo in Sydney, for which I am co-ordinating the Linux Australia stand (Stand F9). Currently on my mind is Open CeBIT, which is right around the corner. I’ve been doing some (fortunately not all) planning for two stands, my employer’s and Linux Australia’s.

Here are some thoughts I have had regarding FOSS marketing. It’s a bit of a jumble, but hopefully it comes of some help.

• Marketing is just structured, methodical, non-rabid evangelism. It isn’t inherently dirty, and it is not synonymous with advertising (advertising can be a part of marketing, but the two aren’t conjoined). We in the FOSS community need to get over the stigma that is sometimes attached to ‘marketing’, so that we may harness it for good and not evil.
• Identify your target audience, then determine what kinds of questions they will be asking/thinking. This is Marketing 101, but it can be easy to lose sight of. While can be good to cast a wide net, being tactically focused can often yield better results. For the Education Expo we have a leaflet specifically for students, and for CeBIT we have one for businesses.
• As a follow-on from the previous point, know whom to keep on-side. While your school/university might be using Microsoft products, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are in bed with Bill Gates. Don’t assume malice when the more likely reason is simple ignorance or misunderstanding. Writing an accusative article in your student paper might give you a temporary sense of satisfaction, but such a hostile approach is more than likely to backfire on you and cement the Establishment’s negative (or lack of) opinion on FOSS. Try to gently educate, not censure.
• Relevant case studies are pure gold. If you’re dealing with the education sector, talk about successful school deployments, interesting projects like One Laptop Per Child and appropriate devices like the Asus Eee PC.
• Referencing honest, independent studies can be much more persuasive than referring to press releases or vendor-sponsored reports.
• There are some angles that might not directly apply to the target professions/market, but might peripherally be of interest to people. This includes things like the benefits to the local economy and industry, the environment, government and so on.
• Most people either have children, are children or have a soft spot for children. FOSS is great for kids and education, so be able to talk about that! Parents are always looking for ways to get their kids engaged in fun and constructive activities, if only so that they can have five minutes of peace and quiet in the house
• Focus on value, not cost. It might not cost anything to acquire and use FOSS, but people are naturally sceptical of things that are promoted as having no cost (and really, who can blame them?). Leading your argument with “it’s free” leaves people to wonder if there is a catch or if the product is of a lesser quality. To take OpenOffice.org as an example, it compares very favourably to Microsoft Office in terms of functionality and of course freedom. To stress the ‘freeware’ angle is to sell it short, and could leave your listener to believe that it’s just an ‘el cheapo’ knock-off. The fact that many companies (e.g. Sun, Novell, IBM) contribute to and benefit from OpenOffice.org’s development is evidence that it is of a high standard and is of economic value. Firefox is a great example to use, as almost everyone has some familiarity with it. Firefox has benefited greatly from Google and AOL, to name but two major contributors. In turn, these companies have built business models around it (not so much AOL these days, but they are still probably the largest contributor overall).
• FOSS is very pro-free-market, and is in fact similar to the ideal held by many economists known as perfect competition. As already mentioned, Linux has and continues to be beneficial to a very wide range of companies and industries.
• Freedom is vital, but I find that people normally don’t understand if you begin your explanation by talking about distributed development or Software Libre. Start by talking about more obvious benefits, like software quality, rapid development, long-term affordability, reliability and so on. This will inevitably lead people to wonder how this can be achieved, and of course the answer is that it is all Free Software. Then you have your opening to talk about software freedom and the FOSS community, and it will seem much more relevant to your audience. This isn’t a matter of de-emphasising Freedom, but rather a way to prepare your audience so that they can be more receptive to it.
• Of course, there are the age-old arguments versus Windows surrounding speed, viruses, and so on. But it is better to keep the Microsoft-bashing to a minimum. Going off on an anti-Microsoft rant only fuels those who like to falsely label FOSS supporters as communists/anarchists/anti-capitalists.
• Nevertheless, proprietary software is potentially capable of matching FOSS for quality, speed, security, etc.. The one thing they cannot match is Freedom. Freedom is our fundamental advantage.
• Analogies to parts of everyday life can help to make people connect with the ideas behind FOSS. Simple things like sharing and modifying recipes, lending a book, opening the bonnet of your car and remixing music are already accepted (indeed, expected) by the general populace, and have direct parallels to the principles of FOSS.
• Speaking of analogies and examples, appropriate ones are closer than you may think. Just about everyone uses FOSS in some form or other. Firefox, OpenOffice.org, the GIMP, Google, Youtube, Facebook, Wikipedia and Apache are all great examples. There is nothing to be afraid of.
• Mac OS X users are already prolific users of FOSS, as their operating system contains some BSD, Samba, CUPS and more. They are familiar with FOSS without even knowing it.
• EULAs and DRM mean that the software or media file that you just bought isn’t really owned by you. Your rights are restricted and can be revoked at any time. This should be cause for concern for any consumer.
• It might help to capitalise Free Software in documentation, as a means of emphasis and to differentiate from freeware.
• Be honest! Free software is inherently honest and accountable by virtue of being open. We should be using his honesty and openness as our advantage. Remember that there’s a difference between explaining something in an attractive way and outright lying. Don’t make FOSS sound better than it really is. Nothing is perfect, and if you make FOSS sound perfect you’ll likely be met with suspicion. Linux isn’t Windows — it does look an feel different. But it’s not necessarily any better or worse (depending on the particular software in question), it’s just a bit different. If you lead people to think that OpenOffice.org is the same as Microsoft Office, they might rail against it at the slightest difference they find. It’s different, but certainly no more different than Office 2003 is from Office 2007. At the end of the day, it’s about managing expectations — portraying FOSS in a positive light but not creating unrealistic hopes. The last thing we want are a battalion of users disgruntled because they expected FOSS to be able to vacuum their house. Those people will be far less likely to try FOSS again, even years later.
• As a corollary of the previous point, advocacy is about managing expectations. Set realistic expectations and people will be less likely to be disappointed in the longer term.
• Avoid sounding like you’re selling snake oil. Copious use of all-caps, bold text and exclamation marks runs the risk of making your well-intentioned writing look like just another scam.
• Be positive! People don’t want to read bad news, and there’s plenty of good stuff to say about FOSS. Honesty takes priority, but phrase it well.
• Be prepared to fight FUD, but remain positive.
• Free software is more trustworthy. Would you trust your privacy and sensitive data (Web browsing history, e-mail, financial records, etc.) to non-auditable software? Identity theft and other forms of cybercrime are a major and underappreciated problem. The old assertion that nobody would bother to “hack” into your home computer is misleading, as most intrusions are made by bots and worms.
• A picture can tell a thousand words. A video can tell a million. A good screencast works wonders. If you’re running a stand at an expo, have a monitor playing a pile of screencasts in a continuous loop, with subtitles (because people are unlikely to be able to hear anything on a crowded show floor).
• Internationalisation and Accessibility can be powerful drawcards for some, especially those of non-English speaking backgrounds.
• Not everybody loves FOSS (yet), but few can argue against the merits of open standards. Most FOSS is built around open standards.
• Open standards are at least as important as Free Software. Don’t conflate the two — proprietary software can employ open standards. Even if someone rejects OpenOffice.org, I’d feel some solace knowing that they’re converting their MS Office documents to PDF (an open standard) for sharing with others.
• Make it as easy as possible for people to get involved. Hand out CDs or DVDs with software useful to your audience, like Ubuntu/Edubuntu and the OpenDisc/OpenEducationDisc. Don’t expect people to jump ship straight to Linux. Let them get their feet wet first with FOSS apps on Windows, LiveCDs, dual boots and so on. Baby steps are much easier to make than massive strides.
• Welcome people to get involved in your community. Ask them to join your mailing lists. Invite them to your next LUG meeting. Make sure they are fully aware that there’s a vibrant community out there to help them. They can even make friends and employment/business contacts.
• There’s only so much that you can include in a short article/spiel, so be sure to refer to other resources that have more information. Quote or link to sources if you feel they do a good job — there’s no sense in trying to reinvent the wheel. Nobody wants a link farm, though. Be selective in your references so that people don’t feel overwhelmed.
• And finally, keep it short and sweet. I’ve listed a lot of points here, but if you tried to cover them all in one go you will end up with a speech/document that is unacceptably long or lacking in depth (like this one! ). Split them up, or structure them so that the basic message is passed early on, with the rest being elaboration/explanation.

We’ve got lots of good stuff to say about FOSS, but what matters is not so much what we say but how we say it.

There appears to be much confusion amongst the press and the general populace regarding the One Laptop Per Child Project, which I blogged about earlier. This article in the Murdoch press, for example, has stimulated some of these misconceptions. They stem from the false assumption that the OLPC is a computing project. "Don’t these kids deserve food, water, clothing and shelter first?", some people ask.

The fact is that the OLPC is far more than a simple computing project. It is an education project, or more broadly, a development project. The computer is merely the tool to enable education and creativity. How can one learn when a textbook costs more than an average weekly wage? Imagine if you could interact with your textbook, in the form of games and exercises. Imagine if you could learn to write your own software for this device, and distribute it to help others in your community. You can create your own artworks, write your own novel or make your own music. Wireless mesh networking allows the distribution of data between computers, and even the sharing of one Internet connection across a villiage. For many households, the keyboard lights will be the only form of artificial lighting. The possibilities are effectively limitless.

The point that I am trying to make is that it is not the computer that is important, it is what you can do with it that truly matters. The computer is an enabler, a tool that allows people to ultimately create their own livelihoods and futures. There’s no point in keeping people dependent on handouts. Let’s encourage them to stand on their own feet.

Back in the developed world, I was able to attend a panel discussion for NSW ICT for the forthcoming state election. Pia made some good analysis of the event. In summary, the representative for the Liberal Party was completely and utterly useless when the question turned to open standards and FLOSS. Moreover, both sides (Labour and Liberal) would seemingly deliberately confuse open standards and open source when questioned about them. The key when questioning such people is to not mention open standards and open source together. Force them to address the issues separately, or they will conflate the two. The City of Munich was disparagingly referred to several times as an extreme case. What disturbs me is that there was specifically strong emphasis on NSW as a procurer and consumer of ICT, rather than as a producer. So while projects like the OLPC can promote local education and industry, the NSW government wants to keep us dependent upon foreign providers.

The penguins are on the march in India. It’s wonderful to see the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu taking their future development seriously by adopting free software on a wide scale. My parents are from Tamil Nadu, and most of their families still live there. Some of them have been involved quite considerably in educational and computing projects, which have unfortunately been based around Windows. This doesn’t help anyone in the long term (apart from the vendors controlling the lock-in), so it is terrific to see them working towards some autonomy and freedom.

P.S. As of today, I am a quarter of a century old. Howzat?!

Update: On the converse, we have absolutely appalling conduct in the so-called ‘developed’ world. How can a democracy function when the mechanisms of government are hidden behind proprietary data constructs? Is it truly wise to hand the keys to public information over to corporations that have zero accountability to the populace? Even their so-called ‘open’ formats aren’t really open at all.

This is quite disturbing:

A 2006 Gallup survey of American public opinion found that "many Americans harbour strong bias against U.S. Muslims".

• 22% say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbour.
• 34% believe U.S. Muslims support al-Qaeda.
• Only 49% believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States.
• 39% advocate that U.S. Muslims should carry special ID

The fact that such a large percentage of the population harbours resentment against Muslims may explain much of America’s aggressive Middle East policy from Israel to Iraq. It’s a lot easier to play with the lives of millions of people if you don’t think of them as civilised human beings, but terrorist supporters.

This appears to be consistent with other studies:

The Media and Society Research Group of Cornell University conducted a survey in November of Americans with respect to their attitudes towards Muslims. Nearly half (44%) of respondents favoured restricting the civil rights of Muslims in some way.

Such attitudes often stem from ignorance. It is exceedingly easy to dehumanise a race/religion/culture if you know nothing about them:

A survey commissioned and published by National Geographic shows that a large majority of young Americans between the age of 18-24 are geographically illiterate.

Less than 15% of the subjects could locate Iraq or Israel on a map. Only 17% could locate Afghanistan, even though the survey was carried out after the war. 11% could not locate the U.S. on a map.

Now, I am not posting this to pick on Americans. In fact, I feel that at least to some extent these results also apply to Australia and other Western countries (e.g. the UK). We like to think of ourselves as ‘enlightened’ societies, yet the ignorance many people appear to exhibit is astounding. There is much in the way of misinformation and FUD being spread around, intentional and otherwise. The solution, I feel, is education. For instance, I bet that the average Australian knows very little about Islam: its beliefs, its history and the cultures surrounding it. It is all to easy to judge people and events by our own values, the principles by which we were raised. People need to understand that what may look like ‘common sense’ to them is in fact a cultural construct, and that other cultures may see things differently. This diversity is what makes the world interesting, and this abundance of different views is what has propelled human development since the very beginning.

Those who like to argue that Islam is a backwards religion or that its people celebrate an anachronistic culture ought to investigate the 1001 Inventions Web site:

A unique UK based educational project that reveals the rich heritage that the Muslim community share with other communities in the UK and Europe.

1001 Inventions is a non-religious and non-political project seeking to allow the positive aspects of progress in science and technology to act as a bridge in understanding the interdependence of communities throughout human history.

Pia has very eloquently indicated the divide between religion and culture, and in doing so I feel she has demonstrated how truly close many world religions are in their core beliefs and values.

I have never placed much faith in the quality of CompTIA certifications. Now that I have both an A+ and Network+, I must reiterate that opinion. The exams aren’t designed to test your knowledge, they are designed to trip you up.

The best way to study for a CompTIA exam is to complete as many practice questions as you can. There’s not much need for any real study or understanding of the issues at hand (although it can help). That is the view I took when studying for the Network+ exam. I began by reading the textbook which had been supplied to me, but I quickly gave up on it and turned to practice questions. After 400 questions, I felt ready to take the exam. Mind you, I did have a lot of prior knowledge and understanding, but I’m certain that most people who take this approach do not. In fact, at least 10% of the questions in my exam were identical to practice questions I had done earlier.

How skilful can you expect a CompTIA certification holder to be if the testing method is so pointless? Will they be able to apply the ‘knowledge’ gained from memorising multiple choice answers to real-life situations? Overall, I don’t believe they can.

Case in point: for several months I have had trouble connecting to a couple of Web sites. I knew they were up, but my Web browser would time out whenever I tried to connect. I have known of the existence of the traceroute tool for many years (and I even used it several times), and its use was covered in Network+. However, I only put one and one together relatively recently. Prior to this, I never considered using the tool to troubleshoot my connection to those sites.

Of course, upon realising this I whacked myself on the forehead for my ineptitude. I’m not normally that slow. It got me thinking, though. If I - who knew about the tool even before studying it for the exam - did not think of using it, what were the chances for the average Network+ certification holder? You know, the people who do the cert just to get a job and not because they have any real aptitude or interest?

I’m glad to be doing something else now. Structured programming is a challenge, which is far more than I can say for the CompTIA certs.

Network+ is now mine! Mwahahahahaha!

 *ahem*

The day after I completed the A+ Hardware exam (Friday 1 April), I dove into the Network+ material. I’m now glad that I did the A+ modules out of order. Network+ builds upon the networking portions of both modules, but derives more from the Hardware section. Making the transition from A+ Hardware to Network+ was easy.

By now I was quite accustomed to the CompTIA certification style, so I planned to finish relatively quickly. Computer Power allocated four weeks to complete the certification; I thought I should bump it off in two. I spent the first day diligently reading the first of two books they had given us (containing over 600 pages in all). On the second day (the following Monday; I don’t study much on weekends), a couple of friends gave me some extra material, including exam questions and what amounted to be an entire printout of a book. There must have been close to a thousand pages in all (think of the trees!). I’m not sure how much of it they got through, but I certainly wasn’t going to read it all. It’d drive me bonkers. I extracted a small sliver (by comparison) from the stack, which amounted to about 360 exam questions and some examination cram notes. I decided to cast aside my book (which I had barely dented) and focus on those.

I spent that week going over that material: doing practice questions and taking notes on the stuff that I didn’t know. Then disaster struck - I got sick over the weekend (I think it was influenza). My plans of doing the exam by the middle of the following week had to be thrown out the window. One of the great things about Computer Power is that there are no classes and all learning is self-paced. I was able to take some days off to recooperate, while still accessing all my files (notes, etc.) over the Internet. I ended up doing next-to-nil study, though. I can never concentrate at home.

After taking Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off, I spent all of Thursday at a Personal Effectiveness workshop which had been scheduled for me prior. Although still somewhat ill, I learnt a lot. I’m glad I went. Friday was the only day that week in which I did any real study.

By that point I had grown bored with the subject matter. I was going over the same ground over and over, and I felt no challenge. Wanting to get the subject over and done with, I booked the exam for the next morning. I’d gladly give up a Saturday if I could start the following week afresh. I was still ill, but by then I was over the worst of it and I didn’t care much anymore. Marks don’t matter in CompTIA exams. They give a printout at the end listing your score, but the actual certificate doesn’t say anything. All I was concerned about was the required 72% mark to pass, and the $400 fee I would incur if I failed.

I sat down in the examination chair the following morning. I felt a little fatigued, bleary-eyed and stuffy (sinuses and nose). The drugs didn’t seem to be working effectively. At times I lost concentration and I may have even dozed off a little. The CompTIA exams I’ve done allocate far too much time for the volume and type of questions posed, and Network+ is no exception. Despite my ailments, I had enough time to carefully complete every question and go over them afterwards. I exited the exam with twenty minutes left.

Less than a minute later I had my mark: 833 out of 900. Phwoar! That’s about 93%! I made some dumb errors which I probably wouldn’t have made had I been fully alert, but I’m very happy with the result nonetheless. Especially considering that I only put in seven days of proper study (recommended time is thirty) and that I was ill for almost the entire time (including during the exam itself).