Question: Why do you participate in MHVLUG? Answer: to communicate with other like minded people in my local community
I think that should sum it up for most people. This post is about the “communicate” part. Currently most people use the “list” which as you read this most likely describes you. Email is great don't get me wrong, I use to read LUG email before other mail. But let's face it most if not all of us get a TON of mail ( of all forms ). Thus since some of are connected all day to the Internet, we created #mhvlug on IRC ( irc.freenode.net ). That was and still is fun, when some of us had a few minutes we could chat, or post interesting titbit's of tech. But the problem of IRC is that if your not connected your miss out on the conversation. Also lately there is no conversion, just short posts, and if you wanted most of the LUG to see or comment well that is unlikely. Now with a new year, a new century I am trying to motivate most if not all of you to try a new form of communications... Micro-blogging, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-blogging) short 140 charter posts, but like a blog you can follow it via RSS or web page. When accessing Identi.ca with Pidgin via the Twitgin plug-in ( which supports the main Micro-bloging networks ), to post and read becomes as easy a IM or IRC but with the added advantage of getting all the posts while you were off-line. So the advantage is clear, less missing out of good information that people in the group share, in a short format that's easy to digest taking up less time ( let's face it posts like this to the list take time to read and digest ). So what I propose is that we use Twitter, Facebook etc for personal topics and that we continue to use IRC for discussions, hanging out etc. But that we add Identi.ca as the place to post LUG/Technical/Professional information to rapidly communicate information that is short and to the point. To make this simple I have created the account mhvlug ( and a group also ) on ident.ca. If you follow just mhvlug you get meeting notices and important quick information. http://identi.ca/api/statuses/user_timeline/mhvlug.atom http://identi.ca/api/statuses/user_timeline/mhvlug.rss If you want to see a roll up of everyones posts ( that is Identi.ca posts ) then: http://identi.ca/api/statuses/friends_timeline/mhvlug.atom http://identi.ca/api/statuses/friends_timeline/mhvlug.rss (Let me know and I will follow you so that the MHVLUG and Friends list then contains your posts) So if everyone can once in a while post a Linux or Tech related thing or even a call for help then we all benefit from the shared knowledge. I invision this to be like the scraps of paper that most of us scribble on during the meeting or during the Dinners/Lunches. This is a convention was to share and consume technical information. Last request, please let me know your ID if you create one so I can subscribe, and also let me know if you want MHVLUG to subscribe to you. Thank you for letting me be on my soap box
_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Feb 3 - Arduino Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration Apr 7 - Nagios
