[luau] What is HOSEF?

[R. Scott Belford]

It may be a good time for some clarification.  HOSEF is the Hawaii Open 
Source Education Foundation.  It is the charitable, non-profit backend for 
MPLUG and LUAU, and it is a supporter of any other Open Source movements in 
Hawaii. 

First, though, just a reminder that we will meet tomorrow, Saturday, from 
10-1 at the Stadium Marketplace Pricebusters.  We do this every Saturday, and 
we also meet on Tuesday evenings from 6-9.  You can find information about 
this and directions at 

www.hosef.org/when.html 

I am clearly not the best webmaster, but Enrico, the elected webmaster for 
HOSEF, is making changes.  By the end of the month we are aiming to give 
Michael at McKinley Community School 25 fat clients (donated machines with 
hard drives in them)  We have the machines and about 10 of the hard drives.  
There is reason to believe that more hard drives are coming.  You can help.

So, a few members have told me that they think more people do not come to 
these bi-weekly meetings because it is perceived as just work.  I may have 
not made the agenda clear enough.  It is true that most of what we do is get 
machines ready for testing the memory/power/mobo/processor.  When we have 
hard drives, we install linux on the faster donated PC's.  It is also true 
that we continue to offer the lab space and our training room for all things 
Linux/Open Source.  A review of my excessive posts will reveal a standing 
invitation to anyone to:

Help install Linux on your own computer
Help install Linux on one of our computers
Play with Linux on our computers
Break Linux (if you can) on our computers
Talk about anything Open Source
Teach a class about Open Source
Ask for a class to be taught about Open Source.

I really, really want to build on Hawaii's Open Source community by offering 
these 6 hours a week, Sat and Tues, for us to get together.  So far we have 
not gotten a lot of takers.  It may be the location.  Hopefully in time there 
will be offerings to host meetings and events at other places.  The more the 
merrier.  Perhaps someone could host events at UH or other local schools.  
Perhaps Dan could help offer something at CompUSA.  The point is to build the 
community with charitable and social events.

I have said before and will say again that HOSEF was created for YOU.  It is 
a charitable, non-profit corporation incorporated in the State of Hawaii and 
certified tax-free under the 501(c)(3) exemption.  It is driven solely by 
volunteer labor and resources.  No individual is in charge, and all activity 
is, like the software we promote, Openly Sourced.  While I incorporated it 
and am the Treasurer, I gave away all "power" through the formation of our 
Steering Committee.

Certain list members have Open Source projects.  It is our mission to help 
them in any way possible.  If Gary thought he could use something with his 
project (which is great for schools), then we exist to help him.

If there was ever ANYTHING that Linuxdan or other members needed to enable 
them to promote and advocate Open Source software, especially in our schools, 
then we exist to help them.  Period.  There is no competition in our 
objectives.  Period.  Our mission states that we are here to help schools and 
other non-profits, and to promote OSS to businesses and government.  Period.

HOSEF exists to promote the adoption of Open Source software and nothing 
else, regardless of individuals.  I assure all of you that this Foundation 
will withstand and outlast ALL of our personalities.  That is why it is here.

Example:  part of the charter is to support LUAU.  You all know that it is 
this group, born of the Mid-Pacif Linux Users Group, that provides the 
mailing list that is our community.  Soon we will need two 4U cases to 
consolidate our servers at the home of the generous folks at UH.  We also 
need to replace our mirror so graciously hosted by the generous folks at 
Oceanic.  The equipment and cash needed for this can now take a legal and 
publicy disclosable route.  Once given, it is gone, but you have the ability 
to affect its outcome through your involvement in the group.  We elect a 
steering committee annually, and we have regularly scheduled meetings for you 
to affect our agenda.  While people will come and go, this steering committee 
and those servers will stay.

In the past, it was not possible to make a donation to the needs of this list 
in a tax-deductible manner.  More importantly, it was not possible to make 
this donation to a democratically elected governing body over which you had 
control.  Most importantly, there was no way to be certain that if the group 
failed your donations would go to the public.  By law we are obligated to 
give ALL of our assets to the local, state, or federal government should we 
dissolve.  Period.

So, that is what HOSEF is, what HOSEF is doing, and what HOSEF is trying to 
do.  In the future it can be anything that you want to help make it become.  
You can affect its agenda and its assets.  It is yours.

Thanks for reading all of this and please join us when you can.  

aloha

scott