For those members that could attend, and the members that could not, this is a recap of the meeting we held at Perks on Perkins Lane. (Which by the way is a very nice little place with awful parking.)
John Hebert lead the meeting and focused on a rather bold plan he seems to have been nurturing for quite some time. As we understand the problem, gaining acceptance for Open Source software in the government, and by extension the schools and homes in America, is largely a question of education. As John pointed out, there is a large, and largely untapped, community of people long focused on the freedom of information and public education, the users and Librarians at our Public Libraries. Anyone who has read the news or listened to NPR lately has heard of at least one case where the librarian's associations have come out in defense of the freedom of information. John's idea was to tap that fount of knowledge as our starting point. We all have our pet points of focus, from schools and farms to the universities, but as John pointed out, the libraries can be the beachhead we need to reach all of these areas. His overall concept is to foster a nationwide adopt-a-library program. To this end, we discussed a "branding" scheme, whereby we could offer some certainty that if a librarian is presented with a CD from our organization, it would be simple for them to ascertain that it did indeed contain the software that it purported to contain, the software was actually GPL, and was supported (technically, not judgmentally) by our group. We think the ability to verify the safety and validity of the CDs is core to gaining entry into this niche. We also discussed many of the particulars from delivery methods, to support options. As you might imagine, a project of this size and scope has so many aspects that an enthusiastic meeting among friends can quickly magnify the the need to obtain focus. With Dustin's help, John led the group in coming up with a starting timetable and initial goals. Our initial goals are to: Develop a Mission Statement. Develop a task list and timetable for the initial steps. Open a project with Sourceforge for the purpose of cooperation among the members. Think up a name for our effort. Schedule the next meeting. We want to have the above list completed within two weeks and schedule our next meeting within a month. I took the first steps toward opening the project at Sourceforge last night, but these requests are screened and we will not hear from them for two business days. We are not "married" to the name I used to open the project. I did a good bit of research prior to landing on the obvious, but as you might expect, all the good names are taken. However, Public Library Linux User Group (PLLUG) is available for registration as an not for profit or site, so I used it. However, if it is not acceptable, we can always change it. The key thing was to have a project site from which we can work. If I left anything out, I hope someone will bring it up. I am really looking forward to working on this project with all of you, and I hope for really great things. ===== Warmest Regards, Doug Riddle http://www.dougriddle.com ## Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the Peoples' Liberty Teeth." - George Washington ## __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
