“The CATF/CTTC is all about creating digital opportunities in
Austin for those who wouldn’t otherwise have them. According to the
literature that Ms. G handed out, “Even though Austin’s economy is
soaring with new high-tech developments, a significant number of
residents are only getting farther behind. People who cannot afford
access to computers and the Internet are not able to take advantage
of modern business tools such as word processing and email. People
who lack fundamental ‘technology literacy’ cannot even take
advantage of free computers in public places.” Technology literacy?
Ah, my dweebs, now she was speaking my language.”
“But Ms. G and crew are doing more than speaking. They are
teaching. Travis High School provides the rooms, the
computers, and the network. Volunteers do the teaching. Last year
they offered a range of classes from introductory (using a keyboard
and mouse), to Web authoring, networking, and programming. More
than 500 individuals took advantage of that training last year.
Just as you might suspect, however, all of that training was
Windows based. And as you have no doubt shrewdly puzzled out, that
part of the picture is about to change.”
“Dr. Phil belongs to the ALG. He owns a firm, Fortuitous
Technologies, that provides Linux training here in Austin. It is
primarily as a result of his efforts over the past few months that
Ms. G and the CATF/CTTC partnership are now adding Linux to their
core curriculum. Dr. Phil is making part of his training material
available for use for this purpose. Together, Dr. Phil and Ms. G
were trolling for volunteers to teach the Linux classes two nights
a week this fall. The Linux track will be offered initially as an
advanced topic, and will cover system administration and
networking.”