Hallo all---
I have a topic that I would like to address, one that affects us all.
It concerns commercial interests in the LUG.
The reason that this came up is that I met a guy at the Demo Day who runs an
e-commerce company here in Eugene, and they use Linux, even chose Linux as
their OS of choice. Tonight he's coming to the meeting to talk to me about
a sysad position or some other kind of business arrangement. It is my
understanding that he might be looking to making contacts in the LUG for
potential employees or contractors, most likely involving Perl, PHP, or HTML
skills.
The problem is, I want to know how everyone feels about this. As Linux is
coming more and more into businesses, we need to define how the LUG fits
into this scenario.
I offer the following thoughts:
1) We are a NON-profit organization dedicated to the spread of Linux.
2) There is a marked difference between posting a job from the R-G want-ads
and posting a job that you have a personal interest in. For example, you
would be the supervisor of the position, or would be the one making the
hiring decision.
3) I would hate to see us become a bunch of money-hungry savages or
mercenaries at the expense of Linux Advocacy or our usual activities.
4) We are the natural point-of-contact for someone who needs to network for
jobs. Almost all good jobs are from networking (of the people kind of
networking, not the usual kind of networking). I've even done it on
occasion.
5) If you are looking for local Linux IT professionals, where do you look?
At the LUG, naturally. We make a great place for an employer to look for
help.
6) How does our tech support model fit into the picture? We give out free
advice on the mail list, how does everyone feel about giving free advice to
someone who gets paid to do Linux stuff? Or another way, how do you feel
about giving free information to somebody who's getting paid to get that
information?
7) What if someone on a Thursday brings in a box from their workplace to
get "fixed" when they are a professional?
8) If we become too fixated on jobs and money, will that turn off potential
members or newbies?
9) Many LUG members are professionals. Some, like Seth for example, spend
alot of time doing pro-bono work at the LUG. I know he's very cool about it
all and actually learns something (so he claims) at every meeting, but it's
not too hard to envision someone refusing to do freebies when their normal
rate for contracting is $50/hour.
I see us gaining alot of visibility, and with that comes changes in how we
do things. I would like to encourage a discussion on this, and maybe even
see how other LUG's handle these issues. This is a very grey area, but I
think that intent has alot to do with it. I also believe that the best
policy might be to give everyone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to
questions of ethics. I think most of us are pretty rational people who can
handle whatever happens.
I wrote this at work, so won't be able to read replies until after the
meeting tonight. Maybe everyone will have a big suprise for me tonight. I
just hope my life insurance policy covers acts of crazed Linux users. If I
have already pissed somebody off by meeting this guy at the meeting, I would
like to apologize beforehand.
Questions, comments, or war stories????
Whew, that's alot of typing.
--Mike
Michael J. Smith
Flyfisher, Russian Translator, and Linux-Geek-At-Large
