I think it's important to know how many people in the group are hobbyists, and how many are professionals. This is not to say that you can't be both, or that one group is more important than the other, but when it comes time to figure out a topic for the next meeting, it may be relevant to know who your target audience is.
For example, me and a friend were having a conversation about SELinux yesterday. Being a professional, I would be very interested in this as a topic at one of our meetings. I use Linux on a daily basis at work, and have internet-facing servers that need to be secured, properly. Being a hobbyist, I am not as interested in this, because I'd rather learn something more related to one of the projects I'm working on at home. If my project happens to be a home internet-facing server, this becomes more relevant. I am, of course, both hobbyist and professional, but I would not want to propose a topic that nobody is interested in. This is the same as knowing how many people at the meetings are experts, and how many are new to Linux. You can't know what good topics are without knowing your demographic. On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 8:59 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > "The more you look to what you do as having to provide a return on > investment, getting > paid for your efforts. Your creativity can go out the door a little bit." > > I think that sentence should have been in "bold"! > > A little greed is always good, but when it becomes all consuming ... > there's > diminishing returns as well:) All of us have been around long enough to see > this phenomena is action, whether it comes to writing code where "time" > becomes > the driving factor or the whole process is subverted to meet a deadline. > > I think it's important to be "passionate" about what you do. Money will > follow ... perhaps? > > Indika > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "William L. Thomson Jr." <[email protected]> > To: "Jax-LUG" <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 5:05:53 PM > Subject: Hobbyist or professional > > When it comes to computers, the lines between hobbyists and > professionals is really blurry. To a point I lean more toward hobbyists > than professionals, with the following three examples as my argument > there. Though likely can produce more than 3. > > Was Steve Wozniak a hobbyist or professional when he was building > computers in Steve Jobs's garage? Sure he was working for HP, but was > building computers a profession or hobby for him? What was the result of > that? Apple > > Lets take a more modern example, which is covered in a recent movie, > that I have yet to see. Was Mark Zuckerberg a hobbyist or professional? > What was the result of those efforts? Facebook > > How about another example more specific to this list and users group. > Was Linus Torvalds a professional or hobbyist? Keep in mind it was > supposed to be called Freak. What was the result of Linus efforts? Linux > > What ever happened with the professional interest behind IBM's OS/2? > That was never developed by nor targeted for sale to hobbyists, just > professionals. > > It has come up a few times before if the JaxLUG caters to hobbyist or > professionals. Which in that process hobbyists tend to get discounted > and discarded as unimportant. When if anything professionals should be > discounted more. Quite many things with computers, and surely with Linux > started out more as a hobby than profession, later turning into a > profession. Thus if this was a chicken/egg scenario, the hobbyist > clearly must come before the professionals. > > From my own experience, I feel I might have been more creative and > thinking out of the box. When I was less of a professional. The more you > look to what you do as having to provide a return on investment, getting > paid for your efforts. Your creativity can go out the door a little bit. > After all your not doing it out of passion, but out of the need or want > for money. > > Not to mention with regard to the JaxLUG, hobbyists likely have more to > contribute and benefit than professionals. After all professionals want > that to relate to their work, pocket book, etc more than a hobbyists. > Not to underestimate or discount the importance or value of > professionals. I am just tired of hobbyists being seen as a negative > thing. There are likely considerably more hobbyists than professionals > end of the day. Thus its a bigger market, with greater potential. > > Finally its not like this area is known for its technology or > creativity. I think we should look more at what made that happen in > others areas. It wasn't the contributions and things coming from the > professional world so much as others. Lets keep that in mind, and not be > on a professional high horse :) > > Anyway just some food for thought, and discussion. > > P.S. > Can't believe a movie was made on Facebook, where is the one on Apple or > Google or other companies that have effected many more lives on a daily > basis? Clearly pop culture wins again :( > > Really good movie to see, the "Pirates of Silicon Valley". Or the old > documentary by Walter Cronkite called "Silicon Valley: A 100 Year > Renaissance" Or "OS Revolution" which was played at a JaxLUG meeting > back in 2003 I believe. Likely many others, and if others have > suggestions welcome to mention them. I highly recommend the first two, > and might seem a bit dated. Bit the history remains and doesn't change. > > -- > William L. Thomson Jr. > Obsidian-Studios, Inc. > http://www.obsidian-studios.com > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 > RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml > Unsubscribe [email protected] > >
