Failed class attempt this morning

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hello dear students,

Today's attempt at first interactive class session was a failure: of
the 4 people who joined the videoconference, not one was willing to
turn on their webcam or mic, and furthermore one of those 4 joined
under a "screen name" that had no obvious mapping to any registered
student's human name.

If anyone is still interested in learning how to operate your own GSM
network (and do it safely, without causing interference with any
licensed users of the spectrum), you have to approach this course the
same way you would attend any traditional class at any regular
community college.  If you were enrolled in a traditional class at a
community college, you would be expected to sit in a physical classroom
where other students and the instructor can see your face and hear
your voice, and you would be expected to be present in the class under
a human name, NOT an Internet screen name.  While it is true that many
schools will allow you to go by a name that is different from the legal
name appearing on your ID (this provision is most commonly used by
transgender students who already changed their gendered presentation,
but haven't changed their legal name yet), they still expect you to
use a name that looks and sounds like a HUMAN name (of whichever gender
you identify as) and not an Internet-style "screen name".

When T-Mobile USA declared an all-out war against 2G and I saw a need
for community-based GSM/2G networks to be set up in various parts of
this giant country to serve as local small-scale replacements, I decided
to share my technical expertise with others and teach a course covering
all necessary knowledge, so that other people can replicate in other
parts of USA what I did in the town of Ramona, San Diego county,
California.  My initial idea was to teach an in-person class in San
Diego: require interested parties to travel to San Diego for training,
and then take the learned knowledge back to their home lands.

Later, as I became more active in OsmoDevCall virtual meetings (video
conference calls) hosted by Osmocom community (Osmocom CNI is the
critically important software suite that powers community-based GSM
networks like mine, and I am an active contributor to Osmocom sw
development), I realized that a virtual meeting can be almost as good
as a physical in-person classroom - *if* people are willing to turn on
their webcam and actively participate with their mic.  (Turn it on
when speaking, then turn it off when not speaking to block noise.)
However, active participation by students, with webcam and mic, is
absolutely essential in order for the video call to effectively replace
a physical in-person classroom!

Going forward, I will be happy to schedule another videoconference
session and make another attempt at teaching the GSM class *IF* there
are at least three (3) students who would be willing to participate as
humans, which means going by a human name, turning on your webcam, and
using your mic to introduce yourself at the beginning of the class and
then provide verbal feedback when asked, or at other appropriate times.
If you would like to step forward as one those real-human students,
please say so.

Scheduling: I am fairly open to different times of day and days of the
week, within reason for USA Pacific time zone (UTC or GMT minus 8:00).
If you need a different time slot in order to be able to participate
with your webcam and mic, please say so.

How this mailing list works: any message sent to gsm-class at freecalypso.org
goes out to the entire list, i.e., me plus everyone who signed up by
email.  This broadcast-to-group method should be appropriate for most
in-class communication.  To send a message to me only, address it to
falcon at freecalypso.org instead.

Best regards,
Mother Mychaela N. Falconia,
GSM/2G Principal Engineer