I think I'm getting the hang of this blogging thing. There are some folks, down at the end of the long tail, that will be very happy to read about the meeting I had this morning at my kids' elementary school! So, here ya' go! I attended a great meeting at my kids' elementary school this morning. The computer teacher had convened a meeting of geek parents in the town to share her todo list, ask for help, and talk about the future. The topic of applications (Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe Photoshop) came up and another parent did a great job of advocating for free software solutions. While I put in a few supporting comments, I mostly held back my opinions on the overlap between free software and public education, mainly because Rob was doing a better job than I could. Here's are my take aways from the meeting: * Schools hear software and they think TechSoup. It's the defacto standard. * Not all schools can use TechSoup directly (you have to be a 501c3). However, most can find a way (via other orgs that are 501c3's). * That free software is gratis is not a compelling argument. * That all kids can take home a CD with the same software they use in school _is_ compelling. * That you can do this and not have worry about tracking licenses is also a big plus. So here's my idea: * if you use a free softare app and would like to help promote it, put it on TechSoup as a free download (send an email to downloads - at - techsoup - dot - org). For example, no Kubuntu up there. No Edubuntu. No Sql-Ledger or Scribus. * maintain the posting so it stays up to date. * work with tech soup to make sure the links to forums on the downloads page matches. For example, On the downloads page for databases (which does include MySql), it says the appropriate forum is "software." But then there is a seperate forum for free software. Also, Gimp is listed under web applications. * if you are really ambitious, provide support in the forums., For me to do this last bullet effectively, I need a tool where I could say "send me an email whenver someone posts about sql-ledger to a techsoup forum." Hmmmm, nosi.net project? The other issue I see is that TechSoup separates products from free downloads. Since we all know that "there's no such thing as a free lunch" and "you get what you pay for," my guess is that free downloads are 2nd class citizens. (I could tell if I saw the relative page view stats for free downloads versus donated products.) Perhaps it would be helpful promotion and advocacy to have a NOSI brand on the donated products page, and have reliable free software tools available there as well.

Anybody who deals with sending outgoing mail knows that there are a variety of approaches the big guys use to stop spam. Verizon does call back to sending mail server to verify from address, AOL throttles based on history for connecting IP, Yahoo! turns on GreyListing, etc. etc.

In some ways it's encouraging that even the big guys don't have a magic bullet to protect users from incessant nattering about Viagra and it's magical effects.

For a smaller email provider, however, it is time consuming to keep up with these changes and to make sure your customers emails get out in a timely manner.

At one of my far-too-infrequent coffees with Katrin at Rao's, we brainstormed a simple idea: convene a group of postmasters at the smaller ISPs that cater to non profits and ask if there was any collective action that might raise all boats.

We sent out some invites and seven of us chewed the fat for about an hour and decided that "yes, there is something we can do."

Our first step will be to try and create a best practices guide for postmasters.

We are open to new members so if you are a postmaster with something to contribute, go to "wiki.postmasterscoop.org":http://wiki.postmasterscoop.org and request an account.

Thanks to Katrin and "NTEN":http://www.nten.org for inspiration and hosting the mailing list!