Dirk Slater and Arif Mamdani of the National Welfare Law Center's LINC
project http://www.welfarelaw.org/linc.html will present "Desktop Linux
for Grassroots Organizers" at 6:30 p.m. in Room 113, Arts and Science
Building, University of Missouri-Columbia.  The presentation will
mark the beginning of a new project to introduce desktop Linux to GRO
Missouri, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization dedicated
to the issues concerning low-income Missourians.

Broadly speaking, the project is aimed at working with GRO board members
to get them set up with computers in their homes so that they can be
more active and accessible to GRO and each other.  Our goal is to enable
board members to be more connected to GRO, and through that increased
communication, make their participation in GRO easier.  For most board
members, who are drawn from the low-income population GRO serves, this
will be their first opportunity to use a personal computer.

In addition to Linux, we expect to use other open source free software
such as AbiWord, OpenOffice, Mozilla and Galeon to make it possible for
board members to browse the Internet, send and receive
email, and be able to write and edit documents.  We hope to deploy these
applications on one new PC sold without an operating system  
+http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product_listing.gsp?path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A86798&dep
t=3944&cat=86+798&sb=61&bti=0
for the central office in Mexico, MO, and on a dozen surplus computers
donated by University Extension.

Dirk and Arif are very much interested in obtaining participation from
MLUG and other Linux groups in Missouri.  Local Linux users could
provide vital support.  Please attend if you can.  If that's not
possible, but you are interested in the project, please email me at
mprocter@mlug.missouri.edu and I will keep you informed.

Campus maps are available at this site:

http://map.missouri.edu/bin/mumap.cgi?bldgcode=37012

Driving directions to campus can be found here:

http://www.missouri.edu/~visitus/directions/directions.html

Hope to see you there!
-- 
Michael Procter   
mprocter@mlug.missouri.edu