On Wednesday 11 October 2006 10:08 pm, Jim Grisanzio wrote:
> So ... where do we go from here?

Good question and I'm sure there will be a lot of response, but wanted to add 
this point. (I need to head into the office)

I have run a lot of user groups over the past 25 years. I was involved with 
the Tokyo PC User Group back in '82, which you may have noticed is still 
going today (although I suspect they're having a harder time holding it 
together with more interest and other groups such as OpenSolaris and/or Linux 
in Japan).

The most difficult piece of running any user group is by far getting great 
speakers to give presentations.

Now, I will go on record as saying that I have been very fortunate with 
SVOSUG, since there has been access to many great engineers to offer 
presentations from Solaris Engineering. And yes, I realize that many folks 
are not as fortunate as we are, and that places a larger burden on them of 
who will speak, what they will speak on, will it offer enough interest for 
all, etc...

I tell you this, because I am reaching a point where there are less people as 
of recent, and this month I had 2 projects that were not ready for folks to 
talk about just yet, even though they are in OpenSolaris already. The 
engineers need some more time before they really give a decent presentation.

I have been advocating we figure out a way that we can share and participate 
in our user group meetings, globally. BayLISA, for instance, used to 
broadcast on the MBONE, and folks could watch in real time as the meeting 
took place. We have not been able to create this global presence yet, and we 
do have the technology available to use today, so we should be able to do it.

This will not solve the problem of interacting with other members of the user 
groups, talking shop, and networking in general. Many folks have come to 
SVOSUG to meet some of the Sun engineers who show up on a monthly basis. 
However, if we had a way for folks to participate, maybe we could have a 
broadcast to a given location where a group of folks we also get together, 
watch the streaming video in real time, and be able to ask questions to the 
speaker/presenter, as well as being able to "network" with the local folks as 
well.

I will leave this thought with you, I need to get into the office.;-)

Oh, and I almost forgot. You guys really need to get that Alan DuBoff guy over 
to Japan. He would speak/present on most anything if Sun would send him over 
there. He does speak some Japanese and knows and understand the culture over 
there quite well, so could be a good person to have. Sun management should 
consider sending that guy!<wink>

-- 

Alan DuBoff - Sun Microsystems
Solaris x86 Engineering - IHV/OEM Group

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