Spicing up our LUG

[Jason Hicks]

<p>Do you attend or run a Linux User Group (LUG)? Looking for some
fresh ideas to give it a new lease of life? Read on and discover how
your LUG meetings can be more than a general Linux-related chit-chat
down the local pub...</p>




<p>If there was one thing we learned from the Readers' Round Table
event we organised for <a href="http://www.linuxformat.com/modules.php?
op=modload&amp;name=NewArchives&amp;issue=113">Linux Format magazine
issue 113</a>, it was that us Linux folk like to get out and have a
good chat. Over the several hours we were all together, we covered
dozens of subjects, and the conversation was lively and opinionated.
And that was with only nine of us. Imagine what such a meeting could
be like if there were more attendees, more of a schedule and a little
better organisation?</p>

<p>This is the realm of the Linux User Group - a network of Linux
enthusiasts that weave a web of community across the UK, and across
almost every country in the world. Many Linux fans get a great deal of
camaraderie and satisfaction from attending their local meetings, as
well as support, website portals, forums, mailing lists and IRC
channels, all of which help to glue the local Linux community
together.</p>

<p>You might think that in the age of the internet and the wiki,
physical entities gathering together into some form of communion would
be considered out of date, but there's nothing quite like meeting
people with similar interests and seeing things for yourself. It's for
this reason that the local LUG is often the first port of call for
people just beginning to ignite their love of Linux, as well as people
who just want to meet people with similar interests. They provide a
vital role in helping the spread of Linux adoption, and a focal point
for local educational institutions and businesses.</p>


<h2>X factor</h2>

<p>Running a LUG isn't straightforward, and it requires a considerable
amount of effort and time. But there's a great deal you can do to make
the whole process easier to manage and more effective, while at the
same time revitalising your LUG and your membership. And anyone can do
it.</p>

<p>As every be-suited middle manager knows, delegation is the key to
both success and instilling a sense of duty in the team. And it's the
same for LUGs. Many are run using a form of disorganised democracy,
with no official leader or spokesperson at the helm. If you take a
look at the list of LUGs on lug.uk.org, for example, you'll see dozens
of LUGs that don't even have a contact name. This leaves many LUGs
rudderless, even if there are people in the locality who would like to
be more involved. It's absolutely essential that there are some people
clearly in control.</p>

<p>As Rick Moen, editor of the LUG Howto and leader of many LUGs over
his time, puts it: "LUGs have succeeded wonderfully on the strength of
ongoing efforts from as few as four energetic and inquisitive people."
From this we can deduce that you need to find four people who are
prepared to find time to fit the LUG into their lives.</p>


<div class="image">
<img src="/files/lugspice_1.jpg" alt="Beer and Linux seem to make a
natural partnership, but that doesn't mean you always have to meet
down the pub.">
<p>Beer and Linux seem to make a natural partnership, but that doesn't
mean you always have to meet down the pub.</p>
</div>


<p>This makes the task of creating roles for people particularly
difficult. But there is a solution. Rather than subject your members
to the LUG equivalent of a US-style presidential election campaign,
simply rotate the leadership between the people who want to take a
bigger role in the running of their user group. It's then a simple
matter of choosing between the other active members who were up for
greater involvement in any of the other roles you'd like filled.</p>

<p>The first job we'd recommend you fill is that of the communications
person. Whether it's to deal with Linux Format trying to pester you
for a photo, or prospective members looking for further information,
it's important that you have a first point of contact who's a real
human being. If that human being can keep on top of web site updates,
meeting notes and membership lists at the same time, even better. The
would solve the single biggest problem we've experienced when dealing
with user groups - finding the right person. And if we have difficulty
getting in touch with user groups, there must be dozens of potential
members give up before they get that far.</p>




<div class="boxout">

<h2>LUG checklist</h2>

<ul>
<li>Put someone in charge of the website and keep it up to date.</li>
<li>Have a few people to make decisions and make someone the single
point of contact.</li>
<li>Consider meeting at the weekend.</li>
<li>Forge a relationship with a close LUG.</li>
<li>Forge a relationship with a distant LUG.</li>
<li>Hold an event, such as an installfest.</li>
<li>Get in touch with local IT businesses.</li>

<li>Keep <a href="mailto:linux...@futurenet.com">Linux Format
magazine</a> informed of any developments.</li>
</ul>
</div>


<h2>Location location location</h2>

<p>Another common block to Linux User Group domination is the lack of
a suitable venue for meetings. The easiest option for many, especially
in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, is to opt for the local
hostelry. There are a few good reasons for this. First, it shouldn't
be too difficult to find a decent pub in a locality that's suitable
for all attendees, and second, there exists a universal harmony
between Linux and beer.</p>

<p>On a more practical level, landlords are normally only too happy to
oblige in helping a regular mid-week meeting get its feet off the
ground. You might find that they're happy to give you use of a private
room at no cost, or a discount on food. This is what we found when we
organised the far more modest round table meeting, and the average LUG
should have a much more powerful pull on what would otherwise be a
quiet week night.</p>

<p>But pubs and beer aren't for everybody, and they're far from ideal
for more serious discussions or presentations. Neither are they a good
choice if you regularly have more than 15-20 attendees, as the group
is likely to become fragmented. In these cases, it's a much better
idea to find a more formal venue for your meeting. Most LUGs don't
have the budget to pay much for a location, which means you've got to
be imaginative and use your local communities resources as best you
can. For example, many LUGs choose to meet in a spare room at the
local university. This is particularly common in the USA, where the
computing divisions are often the spawn point for LUG activity for
local enthusiasts and students.</p>

<p>But even without the direct connection to an institution, if your
LUG is based within a university town, it's likely that one of your
members will have links to the university and could help to negotiate
a a room or lecture theatre. And a good relationship with a university
can help in all kinds of ways. They're the perfect location for annual
events such as installfests or expos, because they'll often have
computing, network and wireless facilities, as well as some form of
catering and coffee.</p>

<p>York LUG, for example, meets at the local university and holds its
regular installfest in a couple of rooms at Langwith College. And the
relationship with the university doesn't have to be one-way - local
luggers help to promote the university and its facilities, as well as
presenting a human face to their computing division.</p>


<h2>Think outside the booze box</h2>

<p>Even without a local university, there's still lots of potential in
local facilities. Our favourite is the strategy taken by Tyneside LUG,
which meets in a classroom at the Discovery Museum, located in the
heart of Newcastle upon Tyne. Another great idea from Tyneside LUG is
the day and time of their meetings.</p>

<p>They get together at midday on a Saturday, which means that almost
anyone should be able to attend and stay as long as they like. The
result is that Tyneside LUG is well attended, a fact which hasn't gone
unnoticed by other LUGs in the locality. Durham's LUG, which meets at
the local Amateur Rowing Club, considered exactly the same move after
seeing the success at Tyneside. Midday Saturday is quite a contrast to
the times and days typically favoured by the pub-goers, which may
broaden your LUG's appeal.</p>

<p>Which brings us onto our next target - your LUG's online presence.
This is going to be the first port of call for most prospective
members, yet the average LUG's web page (if they have one), is usually
months or years out of date, full of unfulfilled promises and poor
design.</p>

<p>In the age of blogging and micro-blogging, it's difficult to
consider a LUG where there hasn't been an update since the last
"Welcome to 2006!" message. This situation is even more absurd when
you consider the amount of computing skill and knowledge that must
lurk in the attendees of the average Linux user group. An active web
page is absolutely essential to the well-being and growth of your LUG,
and can be used for almost anything, from news updates to hosting
archives of previous meetings, photographs and maybe even audio and
video files from presentations. The website is your launchpad, and you
need to have a member or two dedicated to maintaining it.</p>


<h2>lugs.org.uk</h2>

<p>In the UK, you don't have any excuse not to have an active website
and online paraphernalia like a mailing list and file server. That's
because it's all available for free through http://lugs.org.uk. This
is a portal to all things LUG in the United Kingdom, offering domain
registration, PHP and CGI-enabled web hosting (with MySQL), a mailing
lists and email. You even have the option of redirecting requests to
your own server so that your URL is aligned to other LUGs, but we'd
recommend the fully managed service if you don't already have an
established web presence. The vast majority of UK LUGs are already
hosted at <a href="http://lugs.org.uk">lugs.org.uk</a>, and this is a
great advantage over independent hosting because news and
announcements are aggregated on to the mail site. The general news
page on the main site is a rolling list of news bulletins posted on
the various LUGs throughout the country.</p>

<p>This is a brilliant way to build a sense of community and gain
valuable exposure, as other LUGs can see what their neighbours are up
to in an instant. Many LUGs like to create their own forums, or starts
an IRC instant chat channel. You could also use a service such as
Google Groups for LUG chat and information.</p>


<div class="image">
<img src="/files/lugspice_2.jpg" alt="Why not take your LUG to a local
computer fair? The Paris branch of Novell Users International, for
example, hosts a stand at many French conferences.">
<p>Why not take your LUG to a local computer fair? The Paris branch of
Novell Users International, for example, hosts a stand at many French
conferences.</p>
</div>


<h2>MyFriendfaceSpace</h2>

<p>Finally, there's no reason why your LUG can't embrace the social
networking revolution, and create a community on one of the many
social networking sites. This has the advantage of being more media
rich than traditional communication channels, and is usually more
pervasive and immediate, with people keeping in touch on their mobile
phones, for instance. This is worth looking at if the average age of
your membership is on the lower side, as older folks seem to have an
in-built cynicism towards the benefits of social networking. But
whichever strategies you do take, the most important part about being
online is that the website is kept up to date. Without that, it's
worthless.</p>

<p>Don't forget that you must also consider people without an internet
connection. There are still Linux users out in the wilderness who
don't have the opportunity to spend the day Googling random images,
and these same people are more likely to turn to the local LUG for
help. We take quite a few telephone calls from people like this, as
they often have no other recourse than to pick up the phone to ask for
further information, but they're usually itching to get more involved
in their local Linux community for help and support. What would really
help us, and those people trying to contact local enthusiasts, is a
clearly labelled contact for each LUG, as well as a telephone number
if that's possible.</p>

<p>Sometimes, speaking to someone is the easiest way to get the
information you need. An obvious next step for any LUGs that want to
spread their wings is to build affiliations with other LUGs in their
area. This tactic is particularly successful in Scotland, where a
single Scottish LUG encompasses many smaller user groups spread across
this geographically challenging country. Even though ScotLUG is based
in Glasgow, there are members from as far afield as Shetland and
Dundee, and many members have dual membership with a closer LUG. The
University of Abertay Dundee Linux society, for instance, is closely
affiliated with both ScotLUG and the Tayside LUG, which we think is a
great way to bring strength through numbers.</p>

<p>While we're in the realm of good ideas, ScotLUG has also mooted the
notion of a national Linux Festival that could bring all the Scottish
Linux community together. This is a particularly brilliant idea as log
as people can overcome the logistical problems, and if Scottish LUGs
can organise something like this in the future, we think it would be a
success. And there's no reason why the same thing couldn't be done in
other parts of the UK.</p>



<div class="boxout">
<h2>Create your own LUG</h2>

<p>There's nothing stopping you and a few friends having an informal
get-together ever couple of weeks. But there's nothing stopping you
making a more official job of it either, and if you do, you'll find a
lot of help and advice along the way. As the Linux User Group Howto
puts it, "any group is better than no group at all."</p>

<p>After you've ensured there's no active local LUG, and tried to
track down the maintainer of one that's fallen off the radar, your
first point of call should be the Linux User Group Howto. This is a
massive document with its roots firmly planted in the early stages of
the LUG movement, around 12 years ago. As a result, it reads more like
a manual page than a practical hands-on approach to dealing with
getting started, but it does contain some good ideas. We'd also
recommend announcing your intention to any other LUG in the area, as
it's more than likely that they'll want to do whatever they can to
help you get off the ground, and offer good advice on what local
facilities may be on offer.</p>

<p>You should also create a basic website on lugs.org.uk, and fill on
a schedule for at least the first official meeting. When you've all
this sorted out, get in touch with us and we'll help publicise the
creation of a LUG in your area.</p>
</div>


<h2>Insider benefits</h2>

<p>As a group of technically astute, motivated people, your user group
is a valuable resource. This means that there's a good chance you can
negotiate special rates from local book shops, or even online stores.
At Linux Format magazine, for instance, we're more than happy to send
spare copies to user groups that request them (just let us know if
you're interested). Group buys have also become particularly popular.
If everyone wants an Eee PC, for example, there's no harm in asking
the supplier for a discount on so many units.</p>

<p>Some companies are also clued into the potential that LUGs have to
offer, and the publisher O'Reilly is perhaps the best example. The
O'Reilly User Group &amp; Professional Association Program aims to
support groups such as your LUG by providing review copies of its
products, donations of books and other promotional items and a
discount on all O'Reilly books and conferences. Joining is as
straightforward as your nominated representative pointing their
browser at the registration page on ug.oreilly.com, and filling in the
details. The only requirements are that you have more than five
members and some sort of regular newsletter or website.</p>

<p>O'Reilly also offers its own news bulletin and portal for user
groups on this side of the globe. It's called O'Reilly GMT, and aims
to cover news and events within four time zones of the Greenwich
meridian, from Iceland to South Africa. It's organising and sponsoring
several user group events in the UK, including the Ignite UK North
conference that's held at the end of January. This is a new take on
technology meet ups using something called the ‘Ignite' concept. This
is very similar to a lightning talk, where each speaker has 20 slides
for a talk, and those slides are rotated automatically after only 15
seconds, resulting in a five-minute restriction on the presentation.</
p>

<p>This seems to be the way that user groups, social events and open
source conferences are going - the same way as the internet - with
short, sharp and content rich nuggets of information presented in an
informal and convivial atmosphere. If people find the information
interesting, there's usually ample opportunity to take the
conversation further with the presenter.</p>

<p>This kind of thinking will be increasingly common among the new
generation of Linux enthusiasts looking for a user group. They will
have grown up in the online world, where world where everything is
available at the touch of a button. And competing with the internet to
get people attending your user group is going to be the real challenge
over the next ten years. Don't waste time: get started now, and let us
know how your LUG gets on!</p>