Alan DuBoff wrote On 10/17/06 09:05,:
On Friday 13 October 2006 12:03 am, Jim Grisanzio wrote:
I'll have to check 'em out. I've been talking a lot with the NSUG lately
-- they are Solaris, Java, SPARC, everything.
The TPCUG is the oldest user group in Japan, but not sure how active it is
these days. It is still going.
I agree. But what else could we do that doesn't necessarily involve
presentations?
teleconferencing?
Not sure. Just brainstorming. Maybe some panels (but I know you've done
that, too). Tutorials. Hacking sessions. Something. Guest speakers.
Field trips. :) Etc ...
Yes, you are very much at ground zero there, my friend. :)
Not my fault. I came here on purpose.;-)
But things
will diversify over time. The user groups are growing pretty well now.
The Czech group has met a great deal this year, and they are having
their second all day event. And in China, the Shanghai group, which is
new, had a good turnout for their first meeting. We're up to 40 user
groups now, but I'm not sure how many are active on a consistent basis.
The came names keep cropping up on ug-discuss. However, at least the
seeds are there, and several groups are very active.
Sure, but what you will find is that it is difficult for the seeds to continue
to grow. I'm not trying to be a pessimist, just offering your my thoughts
after running many user groups over the years, with Heathkit, IBM, now Sun,
and even <gasp> microsoft. It's usually not too hard to get the ball rolling,
it's hard to keep it rolling.
No, you're right. I think the leadership of each user group should be
distributed widely should it doesn't always fall to one person. That, of
course, if difficult, too.
With all your experience in ug's ... are we doing all what we need to do
(given our lack of resources)? Was Microsoft any different? IBM?
What would it take to do this? I assume we'd need a little cash, right?
I like the idea, though.
I'm not sure it would take as much cash as cooperation from various
departments within Sun. So, yes it might take cash only because the
departments are not willing to help us out, but if you could get folks to
help you I don't think it would take that much cash/budget.
It would require some type of multiplexing streaming server, such as the Real
Server or similar. Sun has done live conference broadcasts, Java One keynote
as a case in point. I don't know what is involved or how much budget they
require, but you would need to check into that.
Is live streaming even necessary? Why not do what Scoble did with
Microsoft with Channel 9 and just do quick/dirty video tapings and post
the files. I know Ben did a few and some others have, as well.
Oh, question: you are still doing phone access to your meetings, right?
Yes, and my manager takes quite a hit each month for me to do that. I think it
costs about $200/mo aprox. and that is only for the use at this time.
How many lines? Do you fill them? And we access via skype?
hey, you are welcome to come, man! The guys here are doing an install
fest next month, and I'm going to go to that. I'll send back some pics.
But maybe in the spring? I hear it's nice here in the spring time. :)
Maybe you can do an Alan tour: Japan, Korea, and China. An Asian install
fest. No, seriously, we need help in getting an Korean group started.
I'll be there for the OpenSolaris Day at Tech Days next month, so I hope
to find some people who are interested.
Spring is good for me. Most all the tech days look pretty filled, and the ones
I've submitted for all have multiple folks. I looked at Malaysia, pretty full
also and the only thing in Asia this year. Not that interested in going to
Korea, been there done that too many times. Definitely don't want to go to
Korea in the winter, was in a blizzard once there and it was the coldest
weather I'm been in for my life, even skiing as a kid.
Spring sounds good. Ping when the cherry blossoms start to bloom around March!
That is about the only couple weeks of good weather over there...hehehe
Naaa ... we're having a perfectly lovely fall, though we're all quite
"well done" from summer, though. :) It was an especially hot summer,
even by Japanese standards I hear.
Everyone would like to get me over to talk to people but it's the same 'ol
story..."see if your manager can fund it". I put in for 2 international trips
this year, but not sure if I'll even get one. I have heard that people close
to the Tech Days will have priority.
Ok. I'll see what I can do for spring. The largest group here is the
NSUG (Nihon Sun User Group), and their symposium can put a lot of people
in a room. I'll talk to some of the guys at the next install fest in a
few weeks, too. There are some developer groups that meet as well, but
as of yet, no separate OpenSolaris user group.
Jim
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