o-----------ooO--(- Important Message -)--Ooo------------o | | | SAVE BANDWITH, SPACE, TIME & MONEY, REPLY WITH PRUDENCE.| | | o----=[ Penguin @ My - Linux ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ]=----o Assalamualaikum, Haris dapat ni daripada http://www.linux.com. Selain daripada LUG Linux, untuk sahabat-sahabat yang mengendalikan perbincangan lain boleh jadikan ia panduan. Buat panduan semua. Untuk LUG Linux tempatan lawat laman. http://www.my-linux.org/ Wassalam. : ) The most recent version of this essay can be found at http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/essays/newlug.html. Recipe for a Successful Linux User Group by Rick Moen Last revised: 2000-02-17 Having seen (and run) quite a few Linux user groups (LUGs), and observed some thrive and others die, I can hazard some firm recommendations. If you're thinking of starting a LUG, or are running one now, please ponder these lessons, drawn from other LUGs' experience. In fact, please consider reviewing this list from time to time, as a kind of checklist. 1. You need a Web page. I can't stress this enough. The Internet is crucial to Linux: It made Linux possible, and is where everything happens. If your group isn't on the Net, it might as well not exist. By "the Net", I mean not just Web pages, which are its most-visible service, but also mailing lists, Usenet newsgroups, and ftp file archives, among other things. It's your source for software, the forge where open-source tools are designed and crafted, your method of publication, your social club, and your research library. Each major function of your group should have a Web page: If you start doing InstallFests, create an InstallFest page. 2. Your Web page needs a reasonable URL. The usual http://www.some-isp.com/~username/lugname/ URL isn't good enough: You want people who know no more than the group's name to find you easily. For that, http://www.lugname.org/ is ideal in the USA -- and you can use similar formulas elsewhere, such as http://www.lugname.org.au/ . Consider choosing a group name whose Internet domain isn't taken (check at http://whois.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois, for USA domains), and then paying to register that domain and have an ISP virtual-host it. It's not that expensive. Given that this is the Linux world, the odds are that one or more of your core volunteers owns a co-located Internet host, and will be willing to host your pages and domain for free. The odds are that your Web page will start out somewhere less desirable, such as a subdirectory of someone's home page, or a free hosting service such as Geocities -- but you should aim towards having your own domain, in the longer term. Remember that the Net is world-wide: If the best/cheapest hosting is at (say) a friendly LUG site on another continent, take it. 3. You need a regular meeting location. Changing meeting locations risks losing attendees like mad. Why? Because some will come to the prior meeting location, instead, get discouraged, and maybe even conclude that your group has folded -- and also because finding out how to get there, where to park, whether the neighbourhood's OK to walk in, etc., is a strain on people, each time you move. The location doesn't have to be impressive: I've seen a college cafeteria suffice for one group, and a small downstairs room in someone's house do well for another. It just has to be reliably usable. 4. You need a regular meeting time. "Regular" usually means following an easily-remembered-and-used formula, suitable for people's calendars, pocket planners, and PalmPilots -- such as 4th Thursday. Don't get fancy with things like "every other Thursday": Make it so anyone with a calendar can easily figure out when the next meeting will be. 5. You need to avoid meeting-time conflicts. Check out the schedules for nearby technical events: Linux user groups, Perl groups, and whatever else your target audience is likely to want to also attend. Don't pick recurring dates that those other groups are already using. Hint: 1st & 2nd Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are over-popular meeting days: Their attraction is that they're easy to remember -- and mid-week days are generally good for people. But, in my immediate vicinity (for example), there are four competing groups sharing first Tuesdays. 6. You need to make sure that meetings happen as advertised, without fail. One LUG in my area fell apart largely because the president set an aggressive meeting schedule, and then failed to show up to unlock the meeting room. Would-be attendees then looked up the next meeting date on the Web, showed up, found a locked door, and (soon) give up on the group entirely. So, if possible, have multiple people arrange to show up early. Also, post signs/flyers near the meeting site. If you need to cancel or reschedule an event that you've already been advertising as "upcoming", don't simply remove the original listing on your Web pages: Continue to list it, prominently marked as cancelled/rescheduled. 7. You need a core of several Linux enthusiasts. LUGs have succeeded wonderfully on the strength of ongoing efforts from as few as four energetic and inquisitive people. That's really all you need, but one or two are not enough. E-mail is terrific for coordination. Your core enthusiasts don't need any Linux knowledge initially, but must be "self-starters", and must have Internet access and know how to use it well. 8. You need to get on the main lists of LUGs, and keep your entries accurate. http://www.ssc.com/glue/ http://lugww.counter.li.org/ http://nlug.org/webring/ http://www.LinuxMall.com/LinuxUserGroups.html http://www.redhat.com/community/ http://www.linux.org/users/ http://www.linux.com/links/Community/User_Groups/LUGs/ http://www.linux.com/lug/ http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Linux/User_Groups/ Assign someone in your group to re-check your LUG list entries periodically, say, every quarter. You'll be amazed at how inaccurate they become over time. Keep a list of all the places where you have such entries, and also a "publicity" list (of places you send notices of upcoming events). Sometimes, it helps to print these out and use them literally as checklists. An inaccurate LUG-list entry is often much worse than none at all: When it directs prospective members to an obsolete URL, or tells them the wrong meeting date, that actively hurts your membership effort. So, before submitting an entry to any LUG list, do some spot checks on the existing entries' general level of accuracy. Widespread inaccuracy (e.g., dead links, wrong information on meeting dates and places) may indicate a hidden gotcha: Some lists are so badly maintained that their staffers ignore corrections you send in. For example: http://www.currents.net/resources/usergroups/usanc.html http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/ Operating_Systems/Unix/Linux/User_Groups/ Both of these lists are traps for the unwary LUG leader, in that they accept additions but appear to ignore correction/update notices: Once your entry becomes out of date, it stays that way. 9. You must have login access to maintain your Web pages, as needed. An unchanging page that someone else created for you isn't good enough: You need to be able to fix/edit/enlarge your site on short notice. Typically, this requires login access via ssh [1] (or telnet, if necessary) to the hosting Web server's command shell. A number of Linux groups attempt to get by with a static page on some site to which they themselves lack maintenance access -- for example, on a parent group's existing Web site. The convenience isn't worth the disadvantages: Don't go that route. 10. Design your Web page to be forgiving of deferred maintenance. Much as we'd like our LUGs' "upcoming events" and other time-sensitive information to be always current, it isn't going to happen: Sometimes, you don't re-check and update them for a week or two. Therefore, always list several months' upcoming events. (You know when they'll be because you have a meeting-date formula, right?) That way, when you're unavailable for Web-page maintenance for two months running, the Web page will still include current meeting information. Somehow, my local LUGs' webmasters seem resistant to that simple idea, with the result that most list only one upcoming meeting at a time, which, for three quarters of the month, because of the inevitable deferred maintenance, ends up being last month's date. The whole point of listing specific upcoming meeting dates is to make it unnecessary for casual visitors to work out when the next (say) 2nd Tuesday will be, by doing it for them. But that effort is wasted when the only meetings shown are already past: It makes new LUG members that much less likely, and additionally may lead some to think your LUG is now defunct. 11. Always include the day of the week, when you cite event dates. Always check that day of the week, first, using gcal [2] (or cal). gcal is your friend. Why always include the day of the week, on event listings? Because that gives viewers their best shot at remembering your event, how many days away it is, and how it fits into their schedules. Additionally, the fact that you've furnished the correct day of the week for each date reassures visitors that you haven't messed up and listed the wrong date (which happens depressingly often) -- in effect, a cross-check. Conversely, take care not to list a meeting's date correctly, but with the day wrong. That conveys the (probably accurate) impression that your event calendar can't be trusted. It doesn't hurt to print out the current year's "gcal" listings, for reference whenever you're doing calendar work. Mark significant holidays for your country on it: You can get them from http://www.holidayfestival.com/. 12. Place time-sensitive and key information prominently near the top of your main Web page. Don't banish all meeting information to your events page, or tuck it into an unobtrusive text box for aesthetic reasons: Ensure that the most prominent items on your site are the ones viewers need most. Consider using "STRONG" or "EM" HTML tags on particularly important items, such as your date formula (e.g., "second Tuesdays at 7 PM"). Displaying time-sensitive information prominently is useful not only because that tends to be what viewers seek most often, but also because such text calls your attention to itself, when it needs updating. Think of this as comparable to putting perishables near the front of your refrigerator, date-stamp outwards. 13. Include maps and directions to your events. Some prospective members will be comfortable with maps, others with directions; you'll want to help both. Maps can be generated (for the USA, at least) on MapQuest or MapBlast. Have them as links for each listed event location. If there's a trick to parking nearby, describe it. 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