Hello
firefly
Rocky
around other Ubuntu users and exchanging ideas on what we are each
doing.
The best way for a group to run, in my opinion, is for whom ever is
going to run this to put together an agenda for meetings. I don't get
much out driving for 25 minutes to get to an event and then the
organizer has nothing planned and then the meeting devolves into
random, idle chit chat. That will cause people to NOT show up.
With that being said, I would be willing to meet anyone up North at
the Primo 360 coffee shop This Tuesday evening from 5:45 until 6:45 (I
have a 7 PM commitment)
The topic of discussion would be: "What do you want from an Ubuntu
group" The second topic would be "How are you using Ubuntu and how
would you like to see it grow"
Personally, I am starting a small Linux support company and want to
find good Ubuntu people who would like to participate in growing the
use of Ubuntu in Austin. I'm working on a business and marketing plan
to accomplish this. So...if you know any Ubuntu evangelists who are
technically competent, then I'm interested in talking with them.
There is tremendous opportunity today for Linux if it is done right.
I already have my first serious client that is starting a business
whereby we will use Ubuntu server technology in a cloud environment
and open source software for a collaborative work space. I could use
some help in getting this thing implemented. :-)
Rocky Hardie
512-940-5408 cell
Rich Vázquez
I agree about agendas. My wife works in the evenings and my schedule is generally chaotic.
Any takers for Rocky's plan to meet up Tuesday?
"With that being said, I would be willing to meet anyone up North at the Primo 360 coffee shop This Tuesday evening from 5:45 until 6:45 (I have a 7 PM commitment)"
Rich Vázquez
DJ Brown
It's my understanding that the last person who was scheduling
meetings caught the train to Houston when he was offered
meaningful employment. It was fun meeting at Flipnotics but as has
been said, we didn't always have an agenda beyond "just hanging
out together."
My schedule kept me from attending as well but I'm glad to have
been part of it when I could. <furiously checking Evolution's
calendar...>
I'll be there if I can, Rocky!
My technical question for the meeting is where and how do I enable
Palm support for Kontact in KDE 4? I'm beginning to think they
chose not to implement it but I can't find anything to confirm
that. It's embarrassingly simple but it's just about the only item
holding me back from full conversion.
Regards,
DJ Brown
Running off at the keyboard again...
from somewhere in Austin, TX
________________________________
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man,
but coaxed down-stairs a step at a time.
~Mark Twain
________________________________
From: ubuntu...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:ubuntu...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Rich Vázquez
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 7:59 AM
To: ubuntu...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ubuntu-austin] Re: Hello
I'm moderator, but haven't been one the organizers for meetings.
I agree about agendas. My wife works in the evenings and my
schedule is generally chaotic.
Any takers for Rocky's plan to meet up Tuesday?
"With that being said, I would be willing to meet anyone up North
at the Primo 360 coffee shop This Tuesday evening from 5:45 until
6:45 (I have a 7 PM commitment)"
--
Rich Vázquez
________________________________
________________________________
On Feb 26, 9:00 am, firefly <magnapor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm new here and was wondering who is in charge of this
group?
________________________________
Daniel Roesler
>
> Hello All:
>
> It's my understanding that the last person who was scheduling
> meetings caught the train to Houston when he was offered
> meaningful employment. It was fun meeting at Flipnotics but as has
> been said, we didn't always have an agenda beyond "just hanging
> out together."
still subscribe to this list. I agree that the meetings were mostly
chit-chat. I kind of viewed it as a general help/bug-fixing session,
but mostly it was the joy of meeting other users of Ubuntu
face-to-face (oh look, they DO exist in real life!). An agenda would
have been a real plus, but I didn't have the time to find/create a
topic for each meeting. The one very successful meeting we did have
was the Hardy Release Party.
I'm also active in the Ubuntu Houston Team. We have monthy meetings,
and sometimes they have topics. We try to switch locations (since
Houston is so big), and we require that the place have beer and
wireless available. The last one we had was actually an event. We went
to a computer recycler and installed Ubuntu onto a bunch of old
desktops to be donated to South American kids. Lots of fun! I would
definitely recommend events if anyone is up for organizing them.
Avast!
Daniel Roesler
dia...@gmail.com
Dustin Kirkland
There's certainly value in bringing people together who are interested
in sharing experiences and expertise with Ubuntu, spreading Ubuntu to
local schools and businesses, and teaching one another what you know.
This is a mostly social support group that's a key ingredient in any
LoCo.
Beyond that, I'm interested in the more technical side, and I'm
willing to organize an occasional Bug Jam in and around Austin. Bug
jams are held around the world, and are geared at solving bugs in the
Ubuntu release currently under development.
* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GlobalBugJam
This would bring Ubuntu developers and active members of the Ubuntu
community together at a pub or coffee shop for a day, and work on
reproducing, triaging, and fixing bugs. (Note, this is not "please
fix my broken laptop"...it's more about diving into the code and
solving bugs yourself, with the help of others.) As we have passed
Feature Freeze in the Jaunty cycle, our focus is on bug fixing and
stabilization.
Also, it would be good to have a well-planned release party for
Jaunty, in late April. As cheesy as the bar is, I propose the
Jackalope on 6th Street. The name is just too good to pass up...
Cheers,
:-Dustin
Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)
On Feb 27, 10:56 am, Dustin Kirkland <dustin.kirkl...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> willing to organize an occasional Bug Jam in and around Austin. Bug
> jams are held around the world, and are geared at solving bugs in the
> Ubuntu release currently under development.
> *https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GlobalBugJam
> Also, it would be good to have a well-planned release party for
> Jaunty, in late April. As cheesy as the bar is, I propose the
> Jackalope on 6th Street. The name is just too good to pass up...
I personally stopped promoting the Flipnotics Ubuntu meetings in
October as the August and September meeting there were only 3 other
people, and each time they were different people! I was mostly going
to offer help and spread the word, but nobody there needed help. It
was just chit chat. Only one person has asked about it since I know
(I inquire around).
I encourage you guys to consider networking with other ongoing Linux /
Open Source activities in Austin. http://Twitter.com/AustinLinux has
good information about ongoing events - such as this Sunday there is
an open map project. door64.com is also a good local resource.
AustinLUG is trying to organize an Ubuntu 9.04 release party on
release night. We have free meeting place on the Thursday night of
the release, right downtown near all the great clubs and bars... great
to adjourn to after the meeting.
We had a great party 8.10 - October 30 with attendance from all the
various Linux groups (25 people or so). And even attended a nearby (2
block walk to Red River) Halloween party with free drinks and food! We
announced our October 30 event over a month in advance... (right on
this mailing list among other places). Alas, a Canonical employee
announced his own independent event only 2 days prior to release.
http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2008/10/intrepid-ibex-pseudo-release-party.html
These groups should try to make some kind of effort to be aware of
each other and spread the good word. there are at least 5 independent
Austin mailing lists I know of, Facebook groups, meetup groups, etc.
Maybe it's intention for everyone to fork and do their own thing
(Ubuntu only). But I personally think it does Austin Linux users as a
whole a disservice to not make some efforts to consider the other
groups and the possibility of promoting all of them instead of just
the one that interests you. Week after week I hear from people, "Oh,
i didn't know about _that group_" when I spread the word.
S far, a good track record promoting all the Linux groups on
http://Twitter.com/AustinLinux microblog. Anyone know of other places?
Dustin Kirkland
<stephen....@gmail.com> wrote:
> One was just last weekend, nobody showed interest.
I spent 12 hours at BB Rovers with 2 other developers, fixed dozens of
bugs, and sponsored a number of uploads.
> We had a great party 8.10 - October 30 with attendance from all the
> various Linux groups (25 people or so). And even attended a nearby (2
> block walk to Red River) Halloween party with free drinks and food! We
> announced our October 30 event over a month in advance... (right on
> this mailing list among other places). Alas, a Canonical employee
> announced his own independent event only 2 days prior to release.
> http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2008/10/intrepid-ibex-pseudo-release-party.html
My apologies, I just found this mailing list. The AustinLug party was
not announced on the page where I expected release parties to be
announced:
* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidReleaseParties
Hence, I planned a low-key shendig, and learned about the AustinLUG
party 2 days prior to the release. I already had friends of mine
meeting at the Draught House. I mentioned both parties in my blog, to
increase awareness of both. It was too late to converge.
> These groups should try to make some kind of effort to be aware of
> each other and spread the good word. there are at least 5 independent
> Austin mailing lists I know of, Facebook groups, meetup groups, etc.
Agreed.
> S far, a good track record promoting all the Linux groups on
> http://Twitter.com/AustinLinux microblog. Anyone know of other places?
I subscribe to changes to the Austin wiki-page:
* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AustinTeam
--
:-Dustin
Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)
On Feb 27, 2:08 pm, Dustin Kirkland <dustin.kirkl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)
>
> > One was just last weekend, nobody showed interest.
>
> I spent 12 hours at BB Rovers with 2 other developers, fixed dozens of
> bugs, and sponsored a number of uploads.
>
I personally emailed you and you responded to me Feb 14 2009 that
there was nothing going on for Bug event. Discouraging. I guess no
appreciation for sharing or looking with those outside the Ubuntu-only
circle. Sorry, but this is twice now, I call it as I see it.
Stephen
Dustin Kirkland
<stephen....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I personally emailed you and you responded to me Feb 14 2009 that
> there was nothing going on for Bug event. Discouraging. I guess no
> appreciation for sharing or looking with those outside the Ubuntu-only
> circle. Sorry, but this is twice now, I call it as I see it.
Hi Stephen,
I'm sorry if we've gotten off on the wrong foot. Please understand
that I haven't meant to offend you.
On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Dustin Kirkland wrote:
> if you're interested in helping organize a BugJam,
> I'm certainlyinterested in participating, and leading
> from a technical perspective.
I understood our thread to have been left dangling. I said I would be
happy to handle the technical side, if someone else would handle
coordinating the event. There was no further response. I did what I
often do on Fridays--worked from a cafe or pub, and some friends
dropped by. It being BugJam day, we fixed a number of bugs.
How do you propose improving this communication in the future? By
using the Twitter page? I can do that...
:-Dustin
Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)
On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 3:53 PM, Dustin Kirkland
<dustin....@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)
> <stephen....@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I personally emailed you and you responded to me Feb 14 2009 that
>> there was nothing going on for Bug event. Discouraging. I guess no
>> appreciation for sharing or looking with those outside the Ubuntu-only
>> circle. Sorry, but this is twice now, I call it as I see it.
>
> Hi Stephen,
>
> I'm sorry if we've gotten off on the wrong foot. Please understand
> that I haven't meant to offend you.
everyone to raise to the occasion. I have been involved in organizing
and promoting the Flipnotics meetings, so I'm not just bitching on the
sidelines, I'm trying to raise awareness of the organizational
problems.
> How do you propose improving this communication in the future? By
> using the Twitter page? I can do that...
outreach to the Austin community as a whole.
Please chime in if you know others, but door64.com seems like the best
local tech calendar I can find. Twitter has a huge popularity with
Austin people who actually go out and show up at events in Austin.
Watch it during SXSW. The AustinLinux Twitter account I established
now has 400+ subscribers, well beyond the mailing list. Please
suggest more ideas of how you _reach Austin Linux users_, as they are
scattered as far as I can tell. Server professionals who use Linux
seem entirely unaccounted for in the Austin Linux group community.
There must be thousands in this town?
The old-school Linux user group participants in town sometimes (not
all) treat Ubuntu as just another distro... a relative newcomer. They
have been using Linux for 5+ years, they have already solved their
needs. On the other end... Ubuntu seems inward focused with using
it's own wiki and ignoring the older distro-neutral groups.
I'm welcome to ideas... example: If rock bands in town are putting
signs up on street corners and coffee shops and at the university -
why aren't the Linux groups? We started this with the Ubuntu 8.10
release, but nobody is stepping up for Ubuntu 9.04.
I see a complete lack of engagement of newcomers. The Linux groups in
Austin seem to be reaching established Linux users who know to LOOK on
the Internet for users groups.... And we aren't drawing in the
newcomers who are converting from non-Linux.
Am I completely lost here? if Ohio can have a big Linux fest with
multiple groups coming together - what's the deal with Austin?
http://www.ohiolinux.org/ Similar in Southern California:
http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/
Ubuntu clearly is the most popular branding in Linux now. I think
there is a need to network that with other open source in Austin
community. I don't know what it means, but I do see that there is
little effort being made on community outreach.
Outsiders to the users groups are getting a lot more attention than
any of the groups. For example, this install fest being planned:
http://geekaustin.org/2009/02/23/help-helios-now/
Who wants to help with outreach and multiple group coordination? It
isn't happening naturally here in Austin.
P.S. AustinLUG which has been around since at least 1995 has
elections coming up... we have established weekly meeting facility and
time. I am not seeking re-election as President, I carried the torch
the last 52 meetings. I encourage new blood with ideas to get
involved. I intend to stay involved, but attend more of the other
groups and vents and not be so married to one.
P.S.S. It's been a long week for me personally, please excuse me if
I'm not at my best.
Rocky
First, I'm not as technically oriented toward Linux to the extent that
I can write code and fix bugs. What I "AM" focused upon is SALES AND
MARKETING so I'm somewhat keyed into how to "GET THE MESSAGE OUT". I
understand things like press releases and other forms of marketing
that I call "underground marketing" that I use in my own business to
attract attention. It's rather fun for me.
We have lots of technical people but now we need a marketing aspect to
this to get the message out as was so appropriately pointed out
earlier.
This economic environment provides a POWERFUL opportunity for Ubuntu
and it is my intention to take full advantage of it.
I have my own personal agenda with Ubuntu for which I'd like some sort
of alliance of like minded people.
As far as having install fests, there are ways of getting greater
public attention what we, as a group, could be using.
I'm going to be at Primo 360 coffee shop in the Arboretum area at 5:30
PM on Tuesday the March 3rd, 2009. If nobody shows up, then I'm going
to enjoy a $2.00 cup of medium roast coffee with FREE refills in a
quiet and pleasant environment (and pretty women - there are
occasionally handsom men there to for those so inclined).
Primo 360 is located at the intersection of Great Hills Trail and
Jollyville Rd in the shopping center just behind Pier 1 Imports.
Hope to see someone there, especially our friend from Canonical.
Best regards,
Rocky Hardie
P.S. This is the most chatter I've ever seen locally about Ubuntu
Linux. :-)
On Feb 27, 6:32 pm, "Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)"
Rocky
release party.
Let's do it!
Dustin, time and date, please.
Rocky Hardie
On Feb 27, 6:32 pm, "Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)"
Rocky
You are excused fas requested - not that you really needed it. :-)
Rocky Hardie
On Feb 27, 6:32 pm, "Stephen Gutknecht (RoundSparrow)"
Dustin Kirkland
> I'm going to be at Primo 360 coffee shop in the Arboretum area at 5:30
> PM on Tuesday the March 3rd, 2009. If nobody shows up, then I'm going
> to enjoy a $2.00 cup of medium roast coffee with FREE refills in a
> quiet and pleasant environment (and pretty women - there are
> occasionally handsom men there to for those so inclined).
> Hope to see someone there, especially our friend from Canonical.
Sure, I can make it there from 5:30-7:00pm.
In general, weekdays are better for me.
Sunday evenings are pretty much permanently bad.
:-Dustin
Mark Hicks
- I'll bring the box of Ubuntu Austin bookmarks that we printed last year.
- If you don't get Full Circle Magazine, here's the latest issue. I've always found this a great resource.
Rocky
yesterday.
In attendence were:
Dustin Kirkland
Mark Hicks
Ed Cranford
Rocky Hardie
We introduced ourselves and gave a bit of background information and
shared what each of us was looking for in a group. We discussed the
purpose of an Ubuntu LOCO group and how it relates to a LUG (Linux
Users Group).
Dustin shared with us that some of the characteristics of a "healthy"
LOCO are:
It is a great place to network - especially in today's economic times
Held regularly each month
Held at the right location and right time to meet for most people's
convenience
Organized and had brief informative presentations 15 - 20 minutes with
Q & A time of 15 - 20 Minutes
A successfull Bug Jam would consist of 4-5 technically strong
participants who would solve about 12 bugs.
The question arose, "Why would we have an Ubuntu LOCO instead of a
Linux User Group". A couple of answers were that a) many of our
topics would be specific to Ubuntu and b) our agenda could be so
biased toward Ubuntu that there is a concern that as part of a typical
LUG, our agenda could be viewed as attempting to take a dominant role/
position and we'd rather not create challenges such as that.
Each person would like to participate in an Ubuntu LOCO for various
reasons.
Dustin emphasized "Bug Jams" as did Ed
Rocky and Mark were more interested in networking for business
development using Ubuntu and Open Office
Dustin commented that it would be good to have a mix of technically
savvy people and entrepreneurs/sales people.
Release Party
8.09 is Jaunty Jackalope and we all agree that it would be difficult
to pass up a location by the same name, The Jackalope Bar. The
challenging part is that we acknowledge and respect that many LUG have
already planned for having their own release party for the Jaunty
Jackalope release. Maybe there is time to work on this with other
groups.
Next Meeting:
Tuesday, April 7th, 5:30 PM at Primo 360 coffee shop (FREE WIFI and
coffee refills)
Agenda: Discuss and plan for the upcoming release party for
Jackalope. Discuss agenda for May Ubuntu LOCO meeting.
Thank you to everyone who showed up yesterday and making contributions
to the meeting.
Looking forward to our next Ubuntu LOCO meeting.
Rocky Hardie
Ross Perkins
http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/ja
I particularly like the "Highway to Freedom" poster, of which the source materials are included if someone would like to alter the text to advertise local events.
---Ross Perkins
ross...@gmail.com
Ross Perkins
http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/en/node
..and the English "Highway to Freedom" poster link, too.
---Ross
Rocky
to employ them here in Austin.
Rocky
On Mar 4, 11:12 am, Ross Perkins <rossp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Whoops, let's try the English version of that:
>
> http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/en/node
>
> ..and the English "Highway to Freedom"
> too.
>
> ---Ross
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Ross Perkins <rossp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I found this page with some good resources on it for making the posters
> > that were mentioned a couple of emails ago:
>
> >http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/ja
>
> > the text to advertise local events.
>
> > ---Ross Perkins