yonkeltron

Very soon, I will have the opportunity to do two very unique things. Firstly, I will be teaching and running the radio station (WCRP 640AM in the area directly around Lake Como PA) at Camp Ramah in the Poconos this summer. Secondly, I will be gaining first hand experience using Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) in an educational environment.

After much consultation with Ramah Alumnus (and all around nice guy) Dan Braverman, president of Radio Systems, the camp wisely chose to go with the $333 dollar Linux machine from Sub300.com over the $1000 Windows platform that was previously reccomended. I really feel that this will allow the radio station some very useful functionality while keeping the benefits of F/OSS in addition to the cost factors.

I feel this will happen through what I have begun to term the “LAAK Stack”. A play off of the IT industry buzz-acronym“LAMP Stack”, the LAAK Stack is a combination of the four free (as in both beer and freedom) software programs that I plan to integrate into the radio station. These progams are:

• GNU/Linux: Debian Linux will provide a solid base for building a reliable and cost effective infrastructure. It’s stability and low maintainance requirements assure that downtime will be minimized. More time can be spent on education and content creation as opposed to firefighting system instabilities. If it’s strong enough to run just under 70% of the internet, then it should be strong enough to function as a jukebox.
• Audacity: With a rich featuer set and easy to use interface, the free audio software Audacity will enable campers to bend and create sounds for use in every aspect of the station. Anything is possible when one can mix, cut. splice, edit, remix and otherwise mashup recordings. Additionally, the cross-platform nature of audacity means that anyone can brush up on their skills in between summers.
• amaroK: After recieving rave reviews from all over the world, amaroK has become the king pin of audio players. amarok has the ability to allow campers to create custom playlists for broadcasting shows both live and later on. Integrated CD burning means that every camper will have the ability to create his or her own show and take home a copy on disc. amaroK is also the perfect tool for managing music databases of all types and sizes. The amaroK developers have expressed significant interest as this will be one of two confirmed uses of amaroK in a production environment and it is the only confirmed use of it in the context of education.
• KDE: One of the most innovative graphical desktops for Linux, the K Desktop Environment will tie it all together. Providing, seemless application integration and unparalled usability will be crucial as participants in the radio program learn to use the new tools. KDE will allow anyone to just “pick up and go” with the system because it is so easy to configure for any task or user base.

This is just a preliminary and I have a feeling I’ll be overhauling the concept as the curriculum and plans are created. The system was ordered and should arrive within a week thus ensuring time to get Debian up and running before staff week. This will be my second test using the Debian-Installer and I’m looking forward to trying it from a CD as opposed to booting from floppies.