May Meetup

[Benson Muite]

For the May meetup, would there be interest in one of:
a) Affordable housing with FreeCAD [1]
b) Learn how to play music with Linthesia [2] and Pianobooster [3]
then serve it using MPD [4]
c) Experiment with FOSS software to record traffic by hand and compare
results with image analysis software. At present bicycle and foot
traffic does not seem to be used in road planning. There is also the
issue of privacy in recording everything passing by. [5][6][7]
d) Other suggestions?

1) https://wiki.freecad.org/BIM_Workbench
2) https://github.com/linthesia/linthesia
3) https://www.pianobooster.org/
4) https://www.musicpd.org/
5) https://github.com/OpenTrafficCam
6) https://github.com/glossyio/traffic-monitor
7) https://www.sytadin.fr/
8) https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/


Will fill in further details at:
https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Librelocal/2026

[paul mayero]

FreeCAD, Linthesia and PianoBooster look very interesting. 

I think they are good candidates.

[Benson Muite]

paul mayero <pmma...@gmail.com> writes:

> FreeCAD, Linthesia and PianoBooster look very interesting.
>
> I think they are good candidates.

Thanks for the reply. For FreeCAD, can look for a place that does
pre-fabricated housing or makes housing building materials. Suggestions
welcome, but can also ask if this is of interest and there are no
suggestions.

For Linthesia and PianoBooster, would there be interest in visiting a
school or children's home? We could offer to donate a computer with
Linux. Refurbrished computers start at about 6,000/=

Other possible venues include:
- https://www.kagongo.com/
- https://5starmusic.co.ke/
- An ICT Hub with internet access and electricity

Other suggestions welcome.

Benson

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[Benson Muite]

Benson Muite <benson...@emailplus.org> writes:

Hi,

Just bringing this up again. Maybe other people have presentation
suggestions?

A discussion about costs is also needed, unless Paul and Cornelius will
sponsor indefinitely.

[Daniel Muringe]

Hi,

I would love to present in the May meetup.
Topic: Building TCP to HTTP from scratch

Would really appreciate to know the procedure

[Cornelius]

Hi Benson, Daniel

> Just bringing this up again. Maybe other people have presentation

> suggestions?I created a form to collect feedback and get talk proposals for the next meetup. Will you be presenting on the topics you suggested? I'll share any feedback I receive from the form, but I'd also encourage everyone to reply here directly.

https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/vIG9kaXUPDpBYbCk4VQcYbdPRCjMxiDD2DVLkqkr9J0/

> A discussion about costs is also needed, unless Paul and Cornelius will
> sponsor indefinitely.

On that note, Paul is working on a blog post addressing the topic of sustainability - hopefully he'll drop by this weekend.

Daniel,

> I would love to present in the May meetup.
> Topic: Building TCP to HTTP from scratch
> Would really appreciate to know the procedure

Thanks for the interest! You already know the way - you're in.
I'd love to follow along on my own laptop during your presentation, and I'm sure others would appreciate that too. When preparing, could you make it a bit interactive and engaging? Looking forward to it!

[Grivine Bala]

Hello all,

I would like to give a talk on an open source log-structured storage engine called TidesDB. I'm  a contributor and would like to share the architecture and how it can power write-optimized DBMS in the moderm era.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nairobi-gnu/9cafd692-7b03-41b1-92ab-2d0079b47a7dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Cornelius]

Hi Gravine, 

Great to have you. I wasn't aware of TidesDB and I'm genuinely looking forward to learning more about it! I'm also planning a portfolio project built around open source tools, and I'd love to explore how something like a write-optimized storage engine could fit into it  - I already have a separate thread about that, let's definitely dig into that after your talk.

Cornelius

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nairobi-gnu/CA%2Bbw2kW979LxtrqpFwWHR%3Dap72hYHMg29hzCCTCnAYoBReKang%40mail.gmail.com.

[Benson Muite]

Cornelius <corneliu...@gmail.com> writes:

Happy to present, though did not get any feedback about venue choice and
venue costs. Am happy to find other possible venues - schools,
polytechnics and universities are possibilities as well. If other venues
would be considered, please let me know today so can ask some of them
tomorrow and on Saturday.

Maybe worth doing a survey on how much people would want to contribute
to ensuring meetups and the group are successful. At the moment, we
mostly have cost of a domain and time to update the website. If we need
to rent the venue used at the last meetup, what would be the cost per
person? If people bought their own refreshments, would this be
sufficient for some venues? What expected group size should meetups be?
Do people have suggestions for other venues?

Regards,
Benson

> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nairobi-gnu/9cafd692-7b03-41b1-92ab-2d0079b47a7dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Cornelius]

Hi Benson, 

The estimate cost for the last meetup expenses are shared here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1POUmwDtLx5u4hZaKIE2qXHE7Z2lgpKQpVFjS0V--L8g/edit?usp=sharing_eil_se_dm&ts=69e9df1f

I haven't yet had the time to talk with Paul about other venue options, but my guess is, we'll still meet at our last venue. Although if you have any leads, you could ask and let us know. 

[Benson Muite]

Hi Cornelius.

Thanks for your reply.

On Thu, Apr 23, 2026, at 10:14 PM, Cornelius wrote:
> Hi Benson,
>
> The estimate cost for the last meetup expenses are shared here:
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1POUmwDtLx5u4hZaKIE2qXHE7Z2lgpKQpVFjS0V--L8g/edit?usp=sharing_eil_se_dm&ts=69e9df1f

This is not openly available.

>
> I haven't yet had the time to talk with Paul about other venue options, but
> my guess is, we'll still meet at our last venue. Although if you have any
> leads, you could ask and let us know.

Had made suggestions one month ago:

https://groups.google.com/g/nairobi-gnu/c/f1_OOuMW0KA/m/qUlzDH69AQAJ

Other places include:
BuruBuru public library
Memorial Park https://memorialparkkenya.org/
Jericho Social Hall ( https://nairobi.go.ke/jericho-ihub-icdl-graduation-turning-skills-into-digital-opportunity )
Vision Social Hall Ruiru ( https://visionhousing-coop.com/index.php/products/hall-for-hire.html )

[Cornelius]

Hi Benson,

Thanks for the venue suggestions, I actually saw that but wasn't sure what next, I thought you'd have enquired about them first. I reached out to both Kagongo and 5 Star Music Academy:
- 5 Star said their space can't accommodate larger groups(which we;re expecting to have almost same number as previous meetup).
- Kagongo is supportive but their road is under construction, so it's not ideal right now. So we'll go with Marble Arc again for this one. We will follow up with Kagongo later to check on whether we have to pay for the venue or if they'll still accomodate us for free for future meetups.

Could you share your presentation topic so we can put together the poster?

---------

Hi Douglas,

Could you go ahead and draft a poster for the May meetup? We'll get Benson's topic shortly, but feel free to start with what we have - Daniel (TCP to HTTP from scratch) and Gravine (TidesDB). We'll add Benson's once confirmed.

Thanks!

[Cornelius]

Also got a follow-up from Kagongo that they're launching May 15th and are still finalizing pricing. They mentioned around 35k KSh for a rental like ours. Free access is reserved for children's music/community groups like Ghetto Classics, not quite our use case. The pricing is too high considering we're trying to cut costs. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nairobi-gnu/9711d221-6f6b-4148-ac26-4399e33121a4n%40googlegroups.com.

[Annie]

yes  FreeCAD, Linthesia and PianoBooster is a really interesting topic for me

[Benson Muite]

Hi Cornelius,

On Mon, Apr 27, 2026, at 11:27 AM, Cornelius wrote:
> Also got a follow-up from Kagongo that they're launching May 15th and are
> still finalizing pricing. They mentioned around 35k KSh for a rental like
> ours. Free access is reserved for children's music/community groups like
> Ghetto Classics, not quite our use case. The pricing is too high
> considering we're trying to cut costs.
>

Thanks for checking. Wanted to know if there was interest before following up.
Hopefully, people will also make suggestions for other venues. Vision social
hall in Ruiru gives a price of about 7000/= for one day hall rental. If there are 70
people, that is 100/= per person. If it is half day, probably cost would be less and
then for 100/= a soda could also be included. Having smaller meetings where
there are more hands on activities is also fine.

> On Mon, 27 Apr 2026 at 11:06, Cornelius <corneliu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Benson,
>>
>> Thanks for the venue suggestions, I actually saw that but wasn't sure what
>> next, I thought you'd have enquired about them first. I reached out to both
>> Kagongo and 5 Star Music Academy:
>> - 5 Star said their space can't accommodate larger groups(which we;re
>> expecting to have almost same number as previous meetup).
>> - Kagongo is supportive but their road is under construction, so it's not
>> ideal right now. So we'll go with Marble Arc again for this one. We will
>> follow up with Kagongo later to check on whether we have to pay for the
>> venue or if they'll still accomodate us for free for future meetups.

As Kagongo is not in the CBD, my expectation would be a slightly different group
of attendees. Reaching out to other community groups would be a good thing to
do, it is nice to introduce GNU/Linux applications directly to end users who are
not developers. Kagongo would also benefit from us helping setup computers
for them with FOSS music software.

>>
>> Could you share your presentation topic so we can put together the poster?
>>

Part 1: Uhuru Mara Nne
Part 2: Introduction to Music Player Daemon - Setting up your own music streaming service

>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nairobi-gnu/9711d221-6f6b-4148-ac26-4399e33121a4n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>

>> .
>>
>
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[Benson Muite]

Jambo Annie,

On Mon, Apr 27, 2026, at 7:10 PM, Annie wrote:
> yes FreeCAD, Linthesia and PianoBooster is a really interesting topic for
> me

these are better for a hands on workshop. There may be time to try things
out on Saturday, but can do a more detailed presentation at a later date. If
you have suggestions for venues that could host a workshop for 2-3 hours,
that would also be welcome.

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[Cornelius]

Hi Benson,

I didn’t fully understand the idea behind the venues you suggested, along with the activities you mentioned above. We’ll definitely give that a try.

We should also gather input from the community for the next event. If you could send a message in the chat rooms and collect more input(or continue the discussion there as well), that would be great, since I assume most people aren’t subscribed to the mailing list.

Best,

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nairobi-gnu/12477772-fbfa-4c27-ac3a-f07d7b932287%40app.fastmail.com.

[Cornelius]

We'll update the event once we have the poster.

Here is the luma link: https://lu.ma/q2ikig08

[Benson Muite]

Hi Cornelius,

On Tue, Apr 28, 2026, at 11:36 PM, Cornelius wrote:
> Hi Benson,
>
> I didn’t fully understand the idea behind the venues you suggested, along
> with the activities you mentioned above. We’ll definitely give that a try.
>
> We should also gather input from the community for the next event. If you
> could send a message in the chat rooms and collect more input(or continue
> the discussion there as well), that would be great, since I assume most
> people aren’t subscribed to the mailing list.

It may be helpful to have people who want to attend a meetup first subscribe
to the email list and send an introductory message. Things tend to get
lost in chat - I do not use a bouncer on IRC, so mostly use it for synchronous
discussion.

As this is a FOSS group, it would be great to use FOSS as much as possible.
Other than domain name and venue costs, it maybe helpful to consider running
a server. This would self hosting of software such as:

https://mobilizon.org/
https://eventyay.com
https://agorakit.org


If people who have attended meetings recently are looking for a general technology
group not restricted to FOSS, that is also fine but GNU/Linux user groups are very
much focused on FOSS.

>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nairobi-gnu/12477772-fbfa-4c27-ac3a-f07d7b932287%40app.fastmail.com
>> .

>>
>
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[Munyoki Kilyungi]

Benson Muite <benson...@emailplus.org>
aliandika:

> For the May meetup, would there be interest in one of:

Is this tomorrow? Or coming week on 9th.
Regardless, I'll be around; we can iron out the
2FA thing then.

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--
(Life is like a pencil that will surely run out,
but will leave the beautiful writing of life)
(Unless a solution defies the laws of physics,
it is solvable)
(D4F09EB110177E03C28E2FE1F5BBAE1E0392253F
(hkp://keys.openpgp.org))

[Benson Muite]

On Fri, May 1, 2026, at 12:54 PM, Munyoki Kilyungi wrote:
> Benson Muite <benson...@emailplus.org>
> aliandika:
>
>> For the May meetup, would there be interest in one of:
>
> Is this tomorrow? Or coming week on 9th.
> Regardless, I'll be around; we can iron out the
> 2FA thing then.

Will be there today, but happy to do one of those next week.
Kiptoo Kibowen had also mentioned interest in a LAN party.

> Attachments:
> * signature.asc