Computer Club

We (Me and my friends) are starting a computer club at school, inspired by other schools. I recently went to a lot of computer competitions, and observed that mostly all schools have a computer group or club, that organizes events and competitions, etc. So after lots of difficulties, I have convinced my teacher and got her to agree for a club. But first she wants me to compile a computer magazine.What I need is articles, comic strips, jokes, cartoons, pictures or any kind of interesting material related to computers or latest developments in the IT world. It could be anything, but it should be interesting. On the basis of the response received from the magazine, the teacher would decide whether the club is to be continued or not. So guys, I really need help. I expect a response better than last time.P.S. - I would really be grateful if somebody could suggest a cool name for the club. Some of the names I remember are- WhizKids, WarPSquad (I'll add more later if i can remember any).For Sushubh - Google doesn't help you everytime.

What age grp of ppl are we talking here ?

For the name of the group you can use something like Computer Freaks! For articles you can look at magazines like Chip, Linux4U, Digit etc... There are plenty of good articles in them. Umm...dont look at PCQuest as its more or less focused on the enterprize market. You can also check out websites like slashdot. Don't just copy paste but. Understand, simplify and write your own version. Maybe you'll come up with something better 🙂

Well thanks, max. But I think even you know that school children are so computer illiterate, and so ignorant that if I start putting articles from slashdot or chip, digit etc. which are for experienced users, they won't get a word of it. And by any means, I need an overwhelming response to the magazine.
I found this site for a couple of jokes, but I think they're quite old and common. Does anybody else know similar sites?

http://www.ahajokes.com/computer_jokes.html

C'mon man, what has happened to all the geeks on this forum? Nobody has even a little bit of creativity? I could really use some help. The last date of submitting the magazine is coming closer.

Heard about BOFH ? And copy-paste of getting started guides for MS Excel/ Word Aricles with screenshots of Vista (with cool desktop wallpapers) HowTOs on how to create chharts/trendlines in Excel should be intereting for comp illiterates.

QUOTE(Apoorv Khatreja @ Dec 3 2006, 06:13 PM) [snapback]70163[/snapback]
What I need is articles, comic strips, jokes, cartoons, pictures or any kind of interesting material related to computers or latest developments in the IT world. It could be anything, but it should be interesting.
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That there is a bit too fuzzy to get much meaningful response. Maybe you should try to approach it from the other end.

Who/What defines what is interesting to your readers ? What do your readers *really* want ? How can you help them learn to use computers better ?

Did you try to make a questionannaire, conduct polls, have an informal meeting etc. aka known as market research. Have you looked at magazines from other clubs, what do you find interesting in them, what could be improved on ?

How well do you know your peers ?..what's your gut feeling ?

That's how its done in the real world.

Unless you just want to lamely copy+paste stuff you find off the net.

What is your vision for this magazine as an editor ? What theme/feel will it have ?

Unless you can specify clearly along those lines, i doubt you will get much response let alone success with your magazine.

I think your teacher is right in asking you do this first step to find out what interest there is at all before they spend more on equipment. So how to get the money, talk to local shops in your area about free advt. in exchange for discounts etc. What companies would like to sell things to your readers ?

Thanks for the advice blr_p. I'll surely take that into consideration.I was thinking of dedicating the first issue to Open Source. Most people can't believe that they can actually have a computer with nothing from Microsoft on it. But would it be a good idea to do this for the first issue? Because I think people won't even bother to take a look at a concept that is completely new. So should I take another theme for the magazine? I feel that for the first issue, I should go for a safer option like gaming or internet revolution or new hardware, etc. What do you think?

QUOTE(Apoorv Khatreja @ Dec 6 2006, 04:49 PM) [snapback]70393[/snapback]
Thanks for the advice blr_p. I'll surely take that into consideration.
I was thinking of dedicating the first issue to Open Source. Most people can't believe that they can actually have a computer with nothing from Microsoft on it. But would it be a good idea to do this for the first issue? Because I think people won't even bother to take a look at a concept that is completely new.
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That sounds fair, what can you get them for free ?

And the answer that springs to mind is knoppix or any other of its stripped down variants. Pop cd into tray, reboot, voila!! os. Maybe some one can suggest better distros that do the same but might be more practical for you. Emphasis on user-friendly !!! try to get interesting games (that work) and maybe even make your own distro. Simple instructions to hook up to the net, also nothing to fancy that requires high end computers to run on. I'm sure this simple demo might blow a lot of ppl away. But you got some research to do before you pick a wining distro.

Thing is how will you provide the cds to your readers. It must work when they use it or they will be left with a bad impression. It might be pricey as well to burn lots of cd-rs. What you could try here is create a buzz..only the first x number of copies will have a free-cdr. Everyone loves freebies, ones that are useful are appreciated even more. Can you provide a cd-r of interesting stuff with each issue , or whatever period your magazine appears.

Open source is something that needs to get better coverage and the best time to start with it is early on.

Another thing you might consider is trying to appeal to non-computer ppl by provding interesting music on the cd-r, look up myspace entries for any interesting bands, keep it legal. Or any bands that offer free samples on the web. I think this might make ur cd-rs more valuable since a lot of ppl dont have resources to download from the web. How do they play it just pop the cd-r in, find the musc player and they are good to go.

I think you've got it all wrong, this is a school base magazine, and I don't think the school will ever provide us funds for issuing a CD. And ya, I'm not to sell the magazine, every student at school will get it for free. All I need is good feedback from the students. The club will take care of all the cyber fests and competitions organised at school, and will also cater to training interested and talented students to become professionals in a particular field. That is all the club is about. There is no market strategy or anything of that kind. The magazine would be the kind that is normally issued in school (which has articles on school trips, achievements, sports trips, self written poems by students....blah blah)

My point was, if you got freebies to give out, ppl always come up, so that takes care of your "will ppl be interested bit" ?I never said anything was for sale. If you got the budget to print out 100s of cd-r's then you are fine assuming you even go down that route. Anyway, i think i have posted enough in this thread, lets see what others can think of.. Good Luck with your project.

dedicate the first magazine to ubuntu and what it can do for us. 🙂