SFD Success, and Future Plans

[Dave Sullivan]

Hey All!

Congratulations Ubuntu Toronto on an amazingly successful Software
Freedom Day! I had no idea that in just a week, we could pull something
together so well. I'd personally like to thank everyone that contributed
not only today, but to the talks and discussions we've been having over
the last week that ultimately led to the event.

I was surprised enough when we had a turnout of 12 people at our first
meeting last week, but the amount of exposure and discussions we had
today by far surpassed my expectations. Excellent job, everyone.

Now, to look toward the future... I'd really like to have regular
meetings. We discussed the idea of having workshops on a variety of
subjects, but that's up for discussion. The whole idea of a meeting
would essentially be, as the wiki page says, to discuss initiatives
relating to Ubuntu and open source. We don't have to save spreading the
word for a particular day -- spreading Ubuntu and FOSS can be, and
should be, something we do on a day-to-day basis, and that's what we
should attempt to achieve as a team.

This leads me to what I see a regular meeting to be: the group of us
discussing ways we can get the word out, reporting on our progress, and
collectively planning events, workshops, and other ways we can promote
and share FOSS both individually *and* as a team.

I look forward to hearing your comments, and working with you guys on
future projects. Again, congratulations team, and thanks so much for
your support and dedication.

--
Dave Sullivan <demsu...@gmail.com>
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DaveSullivan
http://daves-pgp-key.doesntexist.com/

[Michael Lacey]

Sounds like you guys did well and had a great time. I hope to be there myself next time we do something like this.
Anyways it will be great to keep in touch through meetings and this group, if some good topics arise from conversations here they can always be taken to the meetings.

 I've converted quite a few people to Ubuntu/FOSS myself, and am working on converting an entire company. I love how people are shocked when they realize they could achieve all of their computing needs without having to drop hundreds of dollars into Microsoft or Apple's laps.

[Dave Sullivan]

Excellent work.. this is exactly the kind of thing I hoped to achieve
with this group, so that we could share our success stories, and discuss
different strategies of helping people move to Ubuntu and FOSS.

Regarding regular meetings... what works for everyone? I'm thinking we
could hold meetings bi-weekly, with 1 workshop every month. What days of
the week work for you guys? The linuxcaffe closes at "7ish" most days. I
was thinking either Saturdays at 2PM or Thursdays at 6PM. Any
suggestions about this?

Dave

[Michael Lacey]

Would have to be Saturdays @ 2PM for me.

[Kim from Durham]

Now lets talk about the future
Personally Thursday evenings would be impossible for me to get to, I
live too far away to get there for the start time , but that may be
okay because I would likely only be able to attend three or four times
a year if it were held on Saturdays.

What I would like to have is two times a year when we can get together
to talk on a Saturday to learn about the developments in the latest
distro and drink some of that excellent coffee at the Linuxcaffe, and
maybe buy a Linuxcaffe t-shirt.

What I would like is an agenda that includes some info for the new guy
on things to try and ways to manipulate Ubuntu. I know that some of
you might find it a little boring but for the new blood it is essential
to have the basics spelled out for us.

Start it early , break for lunch and come back in the afternoon. Make
it fun and warm and greet everyone with "Welcome to the Ubuntu meeting"
Name cards and a sign in sheet to collect data from the new folk like
me.. Tell them to grab themselves a coffee before they sit down. Some
places have Linux conventions, I would go if you guys ran one. An
Ubuntu lounge would be cool and exciting.

You might also consider a mentor program for the new user. A mentor
can lead them throught he pitfalls and give them the confidence to
delve deeper. Blaine has been my mentor and he has been great in
telling me what features I can explore and use to my advantage. It's
like a help line but on a less formal, more "if you like that, try
this" basis.

I am going forward with trying to get some interest in a Linux User
Group in the Port Perry Area. Ubuntu is something that I want to share.

I still want to be involved in the Ubuntu-Toronto Community and this is
my opportunity to do that. Lets get the conversation rolling

Kim King
Scugog Linux User Group
SLUG