On Mon, Aug 16, 2004 at 06:43:09AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> One of the reasons I could advance is the inherent desire that we have
> always had to share information among the Ugandan techie community.
>
> I recall way back around 1997 when we used to meet in bars every evening
> as IT techies and exchange alot of knowledge on the problems we used to
> experience then. These ranged from dial-up connectivity issues (Uganda
> Telecom had such a rotten landline system by then) to server
> administration etc etc. So even without a formal email list, we already
> had an environment created of Information sharing and exchange.
>
> Fast forward to 2004, because of the growing community of techies, it
> became practically hard to keep meeting under the auspices of an evening
> beer and different people's personal lives were changed for the better
> when wives and babies came into the picture. Some of us have since
> denounced our beer guzzling activities and are actively pursuing heaven
> bound activites :-). This called for a more appropriate media which in my
> view is an email list.
>
> That I believe is One of the reasons for the success of this LUG.
>
> Wire
Some of the reasons why the Uganda LUG has been successful are
i) The baseline for being a member is zero.Anybody can be a member
It doesnt have to be a systems administrator,student,CTO or
a lurker. Everyone is welcome.
ii) No restrictions on posts by elitist list admins. Even if the post
may be considered lame by certain individuals, usually one or
two replies are sure to come.
iii) Awareness of the need to promote Linux in Uganda.
Nothing drives someone like the desire to succeed.From posts to the
list, many members are excited about Linux and its usage in the
mainstream workplace. We want other people to share this "new"
technology and are interested in finding ways of promoting it
at work, home and any place inbetween.
The trend is rising with more and more people becoming aware of the
benefits of using Linux and Unix in general and this trend has to
continue.
However, even as Linux is pushed as the better alternatives to certain
OSes out there, we remain truthful about its limitations and always work
to make it better instead of hiding behind excuses.
iv) Support for Linux users
The list has some very clued members whose support for new and
experienced users of Linux via email has proved helpful, probably
saving a few people nights in the office. By sharing problems and
systematically arriving at an answer,the list has benefited from the
"tough" and "newbie" questions.
v) We prefer Linux and arent ashamed to say we do.
Beer, wives and babies aside, the list is a nice place to socialise when you
are one of those people in love with the bash prompt.
http://www.iraqilinux.org/index.php
Ken
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