This post runs the risk of sounding extremely critical, but I would imagine, should do its bit for the Linux movement in the city. With due respect to the more active members of this group and the activities planned for the months ahead, I must say, that we are somehow not doing adequate justice to the goals of a group of this nature by having impromptu meets with no agenda whatsoever.
I would like to present an interesting statistic here.In the last fortnight, there have been posts on the mailing list from just 26 people. Two of them are not regular members of this group.This makes the number 24.It just goes to show that despite the fact that we may have a much larger multiple of this number as members of the group, the active participation isnt as much as we would like.Take away Sayamindu, Soumyadip, Tathagata da, PK, Mr Raja Guha, Russell McOrmond from that list of mails, and u would possibly realise what I mean. The problem which we face here is something that could be easily ignored, but is something that will become more apparent once we start analyzing as to how many of our members are actually participating in a proactive manner. We are conveniently ignoring what I regard as possibly the most important goal of a LUG---socializing. I'll shamelessly quote from a LUG-Howto in the lines that follow. <quote> It seems, however, that whenever two or three Linux users get together fun is sure to follow. Linus Torvalds has always had one enduring goal for Linux: to have more fun. For hackers, kernel developers, and Linux users, there's nothing quite like downloading a new kernel, recompiling an old one, twittering with a window manager, or hacking some code. It is the sheer fun of Linux that keeps many LUGs together, and it is this kind of fun that leads many LUGs naturally to socializing. <quote> <quote> In any movement, institution, or human community, there is the need for some process or pattern of events in and by which, to put it in Linux terms, newbies are turned into hackers. In other words, socialization turns you from ``one of them'' to ``one of us''. <quote> It is very obvious that the rest of the members that dont post on the list feel that they are "one of them". <quote> For armed forces in the U.S. and in most countries, this process is called boot camp or basic training. This is the process whereby civilians are transformed into soldiers. The Linux movement has analogous requirements. It is important that new Linux users come to learn what it means to be a Linux user, what is expected of them as a member of an international community, the special vocabulary of the Linux movement, its unique requirements and opportunities. This may be as simple as how Linux users in a particular locale pronounce ``Linux''. It may be as profound as the ways in which Linux users should advocate, and the ways in which they should, more importantly, refrain from advocating Linux. <quote> All we need do is have a fixed day for the meet every month/fortnight. We could fix it permanently as the evening of last Saturday of every month and adhere to to that day, come rain, hail or shine. Each meet should have a fixed agenda. For example, we could FIRST do a demo topic like "Clustering" or perhaps "Mail server config" or "Debian Installation" or "DRI, Linux and Gaming" or "Desktop performance on Linux". NEXT we could have a brief look at a "programming language of the month" ..we could start with Perl and Python for starters and we could go on, in future meets to discuss stuff like the GTK+ libraries and/or QT, ORBit etc. ONCE WE ARE DONE with this we could spend some time discussing other activities of the group like advocacy drives, seminars and stuff like that. At THE END OF THE DAY, we could have a "Tip of the meet" which could be any small hint to enhance the experience of usin' Linux. We could have a small CD Burning/Bug Squashing session too. What this kind of an approach does, is that it gets every member that attends the meet, to appreciate the virtues of using Linux and Free Software and we generate the interest amongst the "not so active/not so interested" members. He/she tries his hand at it, gets stuck, posts on the list, starts a thread, gets a solution, is happy and learns the virtues of being a LUG member. Most Linux users, even today, initially install Linux bcos a dual boot system is supposedly "kool" B-). What we need to do is make them realise that using Linux as their primary OS is much kooler !!;) /Sumeet -- ___________________________________________________________ This message was brought to you by Linux, the free unix. Windows without the X is like making love without a partner. Sex, Drugs & Linux Rules win-nt from the people who invented edlin apples have meant trouble since eden Linux, the way to get rid of boot viruses (By [EMAIL PROTECTED], MaDsen Wikholm) ___________________________________________________________ -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3
