I noticed a message a week or so ago. The message was what to do at the next meeting. I think one issue is that there is no real drive at finding topics that people are interested in. Something that I think would change this is to get together a list of ideas of things to do as a group and keep it updated.
For instance we all like to build applications, software, systems, or services. Why not take this and build a platform with a purpose behind it. See a need, fill a need. I think the problem is that most of us go to the meetings, do the talks, but never go out and do anything with it. They never get outside of the confines of the meeting. There needs to be contribution. I used to be a member of a very large train club. One of the things that we used to go is get together for meetings, commit to projects and go out and do them. Theres a large group working the restoration of an old steam locomotive and tender at the old rail yard in ogden. The project gets funding from everywhere and everyone gets to learn, participate, get dirty and in the end have something that they have contributed to. So for instance it would be fun to figure out if anyone would like to build a flying drone. Then take it to the next step. Build a drone that is flown by computer with optional fly by wire/wireless. Then add in gsm, geo locate, mapping, and waypoints. Then come of with something useful to do with them. For instance figure out if we can do it with something like a plane, or derigible. Then get it setup so that it could fly/navigate between waypoints over great distances. Then we could dispatch messages, and after a brief recharge; send them on to the next way point. We could call them carrier pigeon drones. It seems silly but flying, obstacle avoidance, height restrictions, etc, could be a very useful and interesting project. Not only that it would be a community that had something fun to do with them. The step to real leverage could be building a system of heavy load bearing drones capable of flying firefighting missions. Or dropping water baloons over our parties in the summer. There was a thread several months earlier on why the group was lagging, and I think its a similar thing. It's not the venue or the communication methods. It's the envolvement. Thats my two bits. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
