 Good morning, everyone. This is a talk about experiences and lessons learned in a local project that uses Debian at schools in Germany, in Schleswig-Holstein, which is the most northern country of Germany. So before we start, I'd like just to go around how many teachers are in the room. Yay. How many developers, techies, system administrators? Well, developers first. Developers first. Okay, technicians, assistant administrators. Okay. Okay, so this story I'm telling you is maybe about all of you. How many, oh, that's a good point. How many parents are in here? Grandparents? Ah, good. Okay. Actually, I forgot to raise my hand with the developers and the techies. So, hmm, I raised my hand then. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so, okay. Okay, so that's the official title of the talk. And so I mentioned the sharing. I'm really interested in what you have to say, not say, maybe, but write. So please, if possible, use the gobby. So I'll be talking about a project in Germany. And the first question is actually, who am I talking about? Who are we? So that is our design. We are a little group of people, actually, including me, and a local computer company in Kiel, including my wife, actually. And including all the schools that we are working with. And the project setup is more like we're not selling a product to the schools, but we are actually offering our cooperation and our support. And so, and what we try to achieve is actually, not this normal customer care, first level, second level support, but we actually try to achieve, on the one hand, introduce free software to the schools. On the other hand, be a partner and also see them as a partner so that there is a mutual learning process going on. So there's the first story actually coming in. Like in 2011, I was doing support for one club of Rome School in Kiel and I didn't know anything about what's going on in the Linux world, really. I was a Linux system administrator by the time, but I did not really connect to communities at that time. So they asked me for help. I said, yes, I'm a freelancer. I come in. I did it on my own. I invented a really complex setup. And then Andreas, who is the guy from the computer company, he said, well, let's do something for other schools because we have all these school customers coming in and they are asking actually for how can we do IT better than we used to do it or than we are actually doing it now. And he said, and you've been doing this at the club of Rome School in Kiel, so what's your choice? What's your idea? And then I sat down and I didn't know what to do otherwise. I wrote a big concept, actually, a big document about how to do IT at schools without having a clue about what I was writing about, actually. So then it came to a point where all IT teachers, so the teachers at a school that sort of feel responsible for the IT at the school, were gathered together by one of the deputy headmasters of the school we were actually were in communication already with. So I was sitting, I and Andreas and Angela too. So Andreas is a techie guy and Angela is more into communication. We were sitting in front of this group of IT teachers and proposing our idea with a presentation with like 50 slides and everything. So it was really overwhelming. And then there was this one teacher saying, why do you reinvent the wheel? Why do you reinvent the wheel? So there are loads of solutions already available and he just enumerated them. So and then we dug down, we left the room sort of. We tried to rescue the situation, but we left the room and then Angela really took us aside. You did not look at what's going on on the planet. This is amazing. Why didn't you do that? So then we started looking at stuff. So we looked at stuff done by a company in Bremen that's called Univention. Is my voice still okay? Hello, better. Okay, thank you. So we looked at what the Univention people do. They have a UCS at school thingy. We looked at a different county in Germany which is Baden-Württemberg. They have a, they had a solution for schools at that time. And we looked at Debbie and Edu, Schole-Linux. And that felt different because the others were doing the county thing was just for the county. They didn't really plan to actually promote it somewhere else. The Univention product, UCS at school is really a product and I tried to install it three times. At that time that was 2011 at work. So it just, the installation failed on a local computer. So I said okay, this could not be it maybe. And then I tried Schole-Linux. And what I found actually was a CD installer that provided me with a school server that was sort of working out of the box. So actually only something that I was used from Windows small business servers at the time. So, and then Angela really came in and she said, okay, this looks, this feels like something you should do. We go there. So we went to a place in Germany called Gutersloh which is my birth town by the way. And there is one Schole-Linux group. And this Schole-Linux group handed me over to another group which was in Zwei-Brucken in Rheinland-Pfalz which is a different county. And then they had a project going on for the whole county actually. Working on Schole-Linux as a model solution for the whole county for all schools with a lot of money involved everything. And there actually I met Holger, Holger Liefsner was in the room, and Jonas as well and a couple of other DDs and people attached to Debian somehow. And it's really started to, well it started making sense. So and at that time in that project in Rheinland-Pfalz there was a big issue actually why the project at the end people would say it actually failed. And the point was that a lot of stuff got produced there but it didn't get upstream to Debian. So they ended up to three years with a different package server with different software on that that was an overlay for Debian. But the back streaming, back upstreaming did not happen. So I came back from this meeting I said to Andreas and Angela, if we do it, we do it right. So we need to do it sustainably. One of us has to become a DD, everyone was pointing at me at that time. And we work for the schools and what we do has to end up in Debian so that we finally can actually stop working on school projects, orphan stuff. And then it's still in Debian and hopefully someone else takes over. So have a large context for our little project in Kiel. So far to the theory of doing free software at schools, but then we started deploying it and then we started actually getting involved with people, with teachers, students, parents, not so much sometimes. Teachers, teachers, a lot of teachers actually. And without turning this into a rounding session, we were actually confronted with the demand, this is working at home, why is it not working at school? So we really needed to actually change our way of being when getting in touch with the people and the most important part was not IT. It was communication and it was listening. So and considering ourselves as being partners, not as much as imposers, missionaries, free software advocates. And more like going in touch with them and actually really trying to get, trying to understand what they need, what are the needs and what can we provide and also be honest with that, what can we not provide? So yeah, I just go back because otherwise this happens. So the intersection becomes really, really small if there is any at all. Okay, so I would also like to mention that all this, what we did, all the experiences we made would not have been possible with such a great community in the background as Debian and also with the work of a few people in the Debian Edu project, namely Holger, Wolfgang Schwer, also Petter Rinalson and more the legacy stuff because he's not that active anymore at the moment but responsive on questions, really good. So we wouldn't be there. And what we also tried to be, how we tried to be actually was we did not want to sell a product. So there's actually a competitive product in Lesbich Holstein and in the counties, in the south of us, it's called ISERF and they really, they shoot it in every school, and it's like mushrooms popping up from the soil. And it's a very rigid way of providing the system. So if you have a question, if you're at the school and you have a demand that's not complying with the default setup, then there's virtually no chance as far as I heard to actually adapt the setup. And that was something as partners, we understand ourselves as being able to actually modify what we provide and that is actually very, very easily, can be done very easily with Debian Edu, Scholar Linux. So just as a reminder, what Scholar Linux is, it's a main server, it's clients attached running Debian, it's diskless clients attached running Debian, it's terminal servers that you can attach and then you can run thin client stations. We actually extend the setup by wireless in the school building, e-learning software, et cetera, et cetera, and every step that we, every piece that we sort of develop, I'll try to actually have Scholar Linux to Debian. So let's come to the lessons learned. It's not about IT, really, not at all. If the social setup is working well for you, then anything is possible, it might just take a bit of time, it might just take a bit of money, but the main thing is communication. So, and the main thing also is if communication goes wrong, if something goes wrong, the space becomes unclear, clouded between people, between you and your customer slash partner, then it's really important to clear up the space immediately as soon as possible. So get in touch and stay in the flow of communication. To be able to communicate actually, as a floss enthusiast, it's probably not that easy. Well, for me sometimes it's not that easy actually, but the best thing you can do is listen. So really train your ears, train your heart, and get the people in. Try to really understand what they run from you, and once you have that, you can come with the ideas, slowly maybe, and maybe not in the technical detail because that's always overwhelming. I have never seen a situation where it is not. And then do the technical solution and then see if actually what they wanted is what they got. And check that early, maybe during the deployment. What is also in the context of that is actually don't impose, don't demand, but know your boundaries. So if you go to school and then you start the whole thing with a free software project and you want free software because free software is what we need in education. It's not Chromebooks dumped into schools like for a couple of pens. It's, we want students to actually be able to choose the devices, the operating systems, the software that they need, the way of communication they want. So we want to maybe provide the means for declouding people, which is actually a nice word, to decloud people. So know your boundaries, but don't impose. And don't be a missionary. Don't be a missionary either, it doesn't make sense. It's, I've done that a lot. You have to use free software and then they try it and it's broken. And then it's actually the whole thing gets worse because they tried it and then it's broken. So that's why we don't actually do acquisition with all the schools around us and tell them about our project. They find us, we don't have many customers, but the customers we have are awesome and the cooperation is awesome and it really is fun. So another thing is that we have one guy on our team. His name is Marcel and he's an administrator. No way of saying it differently. But he feels like a non-techy person. So that is really, really nice actually. When actually we have had masters at the school that say, oh, can you bring Marcel? Can you bring Hezando, that's his name? Because he is such a convenient, nice way of being and he's a really quiet guy and when he says something he really brings it to the point and people understand him. So if you have, well, you shouldn't do that on your own anyway. So you need a team and if you have a team, a person like that is really, it's so valid, so good. So, and mostly those persons, those staff people don't go in depth when it comes to fixing bugs or problems or packaging software. That's not what they do, but they create the link between you and your partner slash customer. So also think long-term, not short-term. So sometimes we hear a demand and maybe people get angry at us, but it vanishes after two weeks. And it doesn't come back. So on the other hand, think about we have release cycles in Debian, so we need to actually enroll our customers in having and going with these release cycles. We don't want to deploy an image and then they are stuck with that image. So we want to actually create a flow regarding software upgrades, regarding corporations, regarding staff people, so really think long-term and also act short-term. Something we haven't achieved yet really, but we need to do is involve your team in Debian so that at the moment I am the main person that actually interacts with Debian so that is not ideal. So we need to improve on that. And one important thing that we have experienced now, I experienced a second time, watch out for staff changes in the schools. So if there's a headmaster change or deputy headmaster change or the IT affine people in the school, if they change, probably the whole situation changes and maybe also it changes that you are not a customer anymore. So be aware of that and sense what's going on and be prepared that you actually lose a customer when such a change happens because those people in charge actually, they already have been at other schools, they have been doing IT, they had their solution there maybe in Germany, it's quite common that you change the school when you become promoted. So yeah, so and that's fine. They have their experience and they want that, of course, for their school and with the teachers I have met, only with some of them, they actually really react and say, no, no, no, we want to keep the setup or we want free software. It's more like, well, yeah, let's try something else if it makes sense and I'll bring my Android to my lessons anyway. So yeah, really be careful with that. So we have one more minute. So any comments, any remarks, any questions? Mike, please. Hi, I'd like to ask, after the initial setup, how many times per year, for example, a school needs you and calls you to handle some stuff that they cannot handle themselves? So that difference actually, we have one school that let us come in every week for two hours. We have another school that we only play the fire engine, fire, what is it, fire people for? So when something fails, really, and that is like, depending on the reason, sometimes it's the DSL provider, sometimes it's actually that we have a disk failure, so we try to monitor that, of course, but also you normally notice that immediately on the network, so they call us in. We have one school that is so in, well, it's actually creating progress in our project that schedules bigger project with us four times, five times a year. Like we work on a school manager plugin for Goza, which is the elder management front, and so they actually did the incentive for that. Then I package Elias for Debian, which is an e-learning software. So they drive the project forward, so it's really, really different. And my recommendation is actually, if the school can afford it and keel, there's a model change. So, you know, like five years ago, it was they had something going wrong with the sink or the toilet, and then they called a plumber, yes, sure, but with the IT, no way. And there's a paradigm shift at the moment that they say, okay, the toilet and the sink and the sockets and the wall, electricity, and the computer, it's all equipment. So we actually need to get some money for that. And if possible, send someone to the school on a regular basis and stay in touch. And also as the project lead and the school head, you have a chat at least once a year, maybe better twice a year. All right, welcome. Hey. It's Anna. Welcome to Montreal. Thanks so much for being here with us. I'm very excited about learning more about Skoll Linux. A quick question for you. Do you handle requests with a support tracker? Yes, we have OTRS. If so, do your customers handle that directly or they just call you, email? How do you handle this? Yeah, that's a good question actually, because we wanted our customers to have as transparent access to our processes as possible. So what we have is we have OTRS tracking system and two, one or two persons from each school have an account as an agent, which is a supporter on the tracking system so that they actually can see everything that we see. So that, I mean, that's sometimes a bit revealing and you cannot, you know, you cannot rant about your customers and that, which is not belonging there anyway. So, and we also need to train our staff members to actually not be afraid to put a comment in a ticket and say, that says, I didn't know how to do that because I pick it up and then I try to sort of help our staff people because then you have to reveal your failures, your incompetence and actually that is one of our big principles we have in this project, to not hide our stuff. And it's derived from Debian. In Debian, we don't hide our mistakes either. So, and we have the tracking system and the customer lets, we let them know, let them know anything. Okay. Other question? You stop me. Okay. Yeah. One more question and then. Well, just a quick experience sharing. As a parent of four here in Quebec province in Montreal, I have two in elementary school and two in secondary school, high school. And basically in Quebec province, there's the schools are managed by a system of school boards that manage territories. And it's a system that looks very much like the municipal system with elected officials and so on. And I participated in school elections for school board official two years ago. I also was a volunteer for half a day or week during our whole year in elementary school. And it made me witness to all the problems that we have. At least here in Quebec, we have a lot of people paid directly so that free software never happens or never gets close to the schools. And we have, it's a worse situation than only having non-free software. It's that now we have three companies, Microsoft, Google and Apple competing for space in the classrooms with iPads, Chromebooks and Microsoft 365. How do you address that? Is that even a problem for you or do you see it's a different situation in Europe than what we have here? And in German schools, the teachers have the right to choose their media equipment for learning. So the teachers and the parents in the school conference, if they say we wanna use free software, then that's the decision. So it cannot be superimposed by government or county government or- So the decision is at the school level? It's at the school level exactly. We, in September and this year, we have a meeting with an institute, part of the county government, which is basically taking responsibility for quality assurance regarding media and IT usage at school. And they got in touch with us by different story. And they, in this talk, they said, well, we have IT providers working for us. And then it's like, I don't wanna name names, but it's like they can sell you education-priced hardware and then they see there's a demand to actually set up the hardware in the school. So they say, yeah, we can do that too. So they send someone and then they hand over the setup back to this institute. And then they realize that they have to actually fix loads of things. So they are actually looking for someone that is really involved in schools and IT and then they get in touch with us and they were a bit like, feels like you have made up your mind about IT and schools. That's actually quite amazing. We need to talk. So, and I'm quite curious what will come out of that. One thing is that the paradigm goes, moves on from school server, one per school, user management per school, and it goes over to ID management on a municipality level or county level. Okay, so I'm here at Debcon, address me if you have questions or more feedback. Thanks for attending the talk.