[Cialug] Volunteer Opportunity for CIALUG: West Des Moines Te en Center

[Nathan C. Smith]

This sounds like a good opportunity for Linux Terminal Server Project.
Especially if some of those workstations can netboot.  Edubuntu anyone?

-Nate

> -----Original Message-----
> From: kristau [mailto:kristau at gmail.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:18 PM
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
> Subject: [Cialug] Volunteer Opportunity for CIALUG: West Des 
> Moines Teen Center
> 
> 
> I have a contact at the City of West Des Moines who brought 
> this opportunity to my attention.  I asked him to draw up the 
> following summary for me.  Do we have enough interested 
> parties within the group to pull something like this off?  I 
> know I would be interested in participating in such a project.
> 
> 
> The Scenario:
> 
> The West Des Moines Teen Center is located in a former 
> elementary school.  The Teen Center's equipment, tv's, games 
> and furnishings have all been provided through donations. In 
> fact, the entire operation is basically dependent on donations.
> 
> They recently received a donation of computers without 
> operating systems installed.  The cost of obtaining Microsoft 
> licensed software is prohibitive to the group so an Open 
> Source alternative is being suggested.
> 
> General Idea:
> 
> Would the local Linux community be interested in either 
> designing  and deploying or assisting with the designing and 
> deploying of Linux and Open Source based computer equipment 
> for use in a local Teen Center. Admittedly, the total scope 
> and involvement of this project will need to be talked out 
> amongst the parties involved. Parties managing this facility 
> are in discussion at the moment and none of this information 
> should be considered to be the final decision or official 
> direction of their project.
> 
> The Hardware:
> 
> 10 IBM 300PL workstations.
> PIII 500 Mhz processor.
> 256MB RAM.
> 6GB hard drive.
> Generic CD-ROM and Floppy drive.
> Network card. Some computers have apparently had the onboard 
> NIC fail and have aftermarket cards installed. (Intel Pro 100 
> in one case) Onboard sound card. No Operating system.
> 
> The hardware is believed to be working, but will need to be 
> tested before use to confirm this.
> 
> The total number of workstations to be deployed has not been 
> determined at this time. (for example: some PCs may be held 
> in reserve for spare parts or as "hot-swap" workstations in 
> the event of hardware
> failures)
> 
> The Network:
> 
> There is an existing connection to the Internet.  Connection 
> for PCs would be made with the use of a 3COM hub (model not 
> known, possibly a 12 port hub) connected to the School 
> District network.
> 
> Network connection is maintained by the School District and 
> would be under their direct control.  Network will be subject 
> to infrastructure and policies of the school district. (For 
> example: Internet filtering for inappropriate websites, 
> firewalls, web proxy, network topology etc).
> 
> Miscellaneous:
> 
> The Teen Center would like to provide Internet browsing 
> workstations for the students. There may be a possibility 
> that homework use may be requested in the future. (ie, 
> Something compatible with Microsoft Office, ie Open Office).  
> Ability to utilize most of the technologies in use at typical 
> websites sites such as Java, Flash and streaming media content.
> 
> The desktops will need to be sufficiently locked down to 
> prevent teens from circumnavigating any computer or network 
> policies/settings, installing additional software or 
> services, etc, etc.  The usual concerns of a secure network 
> environment.
> 
> Software support for these workstations will be at a minimum 
> so their ability to resist tampering is very important. Teen 
> Center staff will not be expected to be able to troubleshoot 
> computer related issues beyond rebooting a system or 
> replacing a system with a "hot-swap" workstation if that is an option.
> 
> There may be some privacy issues that need to be addressed 
> such as viewing previous user Internet browsing history.  A 
> kiosk style of installation may be appropriate in this setting.
> 
> thanks,
> kristau
> -- 
> Tired programmer
> Coding late into the night
> The core dump follows
> 
> My GNUPG public key is available at 
> http://www.kristau.net/public_key.asc
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