Most of the things mentioned here relate to FOSS at College/University level. Critics are welcome to thrash me..(or at least try to)
- You need not be a computer scientist to be able to contribute to anything related to Open Source. You may never succeed until you try.
- The barrier between the ‘pros’ in the FOSS field and the ‘rookies’ is too huge. Its better if the the rookies are well received/trained. But at the same time ;
- Its true that many guys in colleges join FOSS to add some more ink to their resumes. Most of the capable guys (serious coders) survive on their own ego and don’t care about the movement but just about the hike in grades appeals to them more. ‘Most’ is the keyword here…
- Things related to FOSS are cooler and more informal/understandable in nature.
- Crowds don’t add to anything in FOSS events other than just rush but surely, a promise of an opportunity to provide at least one guy who came to genuinely learn a word about Free Software.
- ‘Relatively’ tough jargon in the FOSS world is yet another intimidating factor for the ‘rookies’. (Lot of you guys may not agree..)
- Lots of guys had come to just learn about the whole Linux thing. Its better if we had a session on that too.
And lastly,
- Government should not do ANYTHING (I repeat, ANYTHING) related to GNU/Linux or Open Source until they are pretty sure what they are doing.
Tuxology 
What is the “whole Linux thing” ?
The above string pertains to a notion in most of my fellow college mates who have just heard the word Linux a few days back and are willing to explore it. They relate the words ‘Free Software’ almost completely in a single world Linux. I believed it would have been beneficial for them to understand what all this scene was about. I say some guys dropping after 15 minutes into the session after asking other attendees questions like, “Will they teach Linux here?” I felt we should have begun by generating an interest in those guys too..
Interesting insight. I have never had the moment to think about it in those terms. I guess what you point out depends on how the agenda and perhaps the messaging of the agenda is brought forth to the intended audience.
Thanks for sharing.