Hey Group! I would like to offer a suggestion. If we are to start catagorizing the different group or meeting levels I would like to offer my services as host for a "beginner" group where absolute newbies who are just starting out and want to venture into Linux land can feel safe. This may be similar to Installfest , but I see it as more of a warm greeting and safe haven for people who want to cross over, need to cross over, but just need a way and a time to do it. I would like to host and help with outreach to the community and organization of basic meeting structure. I have alot of ideas as far as how to do this.
Any thoughts? Thx, Brooke (bmerkin) On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 2:11 PM, Howard White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > My comments on the subject are in-line. What is a little cute is that > my ten year old son is sitting near me speaking endlessly about his deck > of Pokemon trading cards and games about which I care less than Wall > Street wants to buy Fannie Mae stock. I don't have the choice of > skipping this meeting... > > Curt Lundgren wrote: > > IMHO, I like the idea of an "ESL rating" or some such, and we'll all > > understand and agree that ESL is a prediction, as opposed to a > > guarantee. Sure, the material presented was mostly over my head. I > > developed an instant respect for the guy doing the presentation. > > People like this don't scare me; rather, they inspire me. Regardless > > of the topic, I felt I could at least participate as a user in any of > > the projects that were presented. > > I truly disagree with trying to rate presentations or to pre-judge that > which someone _volunteers_ to offer our group at a meeting. The real > point of NLUG is the G - Group. None of us can make every meeting; life > is too busy and gets in the way. To have a Group to fall back on when I > have a situation in which I really need help requires that I support > that Group. > > > > > Where I want to disagree is where you write "it just wasn't worth my > > time" - sure, our presenter speaks in rapid-fire, as people often do > > when they are trying to share a great deal of high-level information. > > His presentation style will smooth out as he matures. This wasn't > > just an opportunity for us to learn about some new technologies - it > > was also a growth opportunity for him. If he gets feedback that tells > > him he "went too fast and too far too quickly" he's going to take a > > different approach in the future. We benefited, he benefited. > > Please notice that our presenter was not insulted by the several > questions I asked in the course of the presentation. He would have let > me know by subtle cues that I was annoying him. The lack of feedback > from the group that "hey man, this is going waaaaay too fast" is the > same as telling him that "we're cool, keep it going." > > The topic of managing large datacenter implementations may not be > germane to many of us (some of us wish it was just now...). There is > much to learn and gain from any presentation besides what I always feel > - jeez I don't know squat! > > One line of questions we could have asked the presenter - what were the > sequence of events and issues that led you to working on these projects. > How does an open source project evolve (to the extent that any two > projects follow a similar course). We also could have asked where > Cobbler or Func interact with a code repository like Subversion and > maybe ask for an example of that. If nothing else, we might have > learned more about code repositories which I need to do thank you very > much. > > > > > For my part, having rubbed elbows with some true Linux gurus, I'm > > grateful for several things: > > > > 1. That people at this level are on "our side". > > 2. That he's developing tools that will ultimately make my life > > easier, particularly as virtualization becomes more common. > > 3. To find out I wasn't the only one in the room who didn't come > > close to keeping up with him...! > > > > I thought the meeting and the presentation were both awesome. > > > > Curt > > That's the spirit, Curt. Hey, I sat in on a presentation, in French, of > which I got maybe 65%. My French was almost useful at that point. My > struggle to understand the base language took away from my appreciation > of the topic. Tuesday night I understood the nouns and verbs but the > context was "out there." > > Howard White > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
