Hi ,
Yeah we need more tech meetings , I am really interested in C/C++ , QT & PHP
, apache , MYSQL , Postgresql .
Anirban Biswas.
On Thursday 26 Dec 2002 02:19, Sumeet Madhukar Moghe wrote:
> 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
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