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Surendra Singhi wrote:

> To keep the LUG meetings interesting and useful for the community, I
> think the meetings should coincide with some of the following
> activities:
> 
> 1. Linux Install Fests - Help newbies troubleshoot and install Linux on
> their laptops and desktops. Also, show them some Linux equivalent of
> things in windows.
> 
> 2. Promotional Events - Spread awareness about Linux in schools and
> colleges. Make presentations, remove myths and FUD. 
> 
> 3. Hacking - Get together and hack on your favorite open source project
> for some time (may require that participants have laptop).
> 
> 4. Technologies - We can have people giving presentations on different
> technologies, e.g. virtualization and xen, ruby on rails, Haskell and
> type checking, continuations, data mining, etc. (feel free to add your
> fav. topic).

I took a stroll round the block and a recent thread/crib on LIH struck
me - why are there so less posts on *issues* and where are the new users
getting help from ? The answers ranged from:

o nowadays in distros things *just work* (TM)

to

o Google is a great search tool :P replacing RTFM

I guess it is a bit of both. Hardware has become a bit more tame
nowadays with a lot of distributions supporting a range of hardware and
peripheral devices, internal modems are seeing a downward spiral in use
and of course there are more mailing lists than ever before providing
pointers. Conversely, if you look at it - the IRC presence has dwindled.
LUG-Cal has/had an IRC presence on freenode, but folks rarely drop by.
In fact that would be a great place to hold virtual meetings (wherein
folks like myself, cybersiddhu etc) can join.

Hacking on OpenSource project is a good way to begin but then you might
have to look at doing things ground up including teaching folks HowTo
Produce OpenSource Software (working with stuff like sf.net, CVS, IRC,
mailing lists, writing patches, debugging) which ideally should have
been taken care of by the education system.

Presentations is a low hanging fruit. In fact, this time I would have
been more than happy to talk about Desktops but that can wait for the
next time I am in town.

Promotional events have been a traditional bugbear since LUG is not a
registered body and arranging for funds is a major miracle. If you do
manage to crack it - you are welcome to have a go.

Keep up the good work

Regards
Sankarshan

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