On Mon, Feb 27, 2006 at 04:02:42PM +1100, Chris Deigan wrote:
> quote("Pia Waugh");
>
> >Lastly, I nominate Jamie Honan for ordinary committee member. For those who
> >don't know Jamie, he is a previous SLUG President, a fantastic guy, a great
> >person to bounce ideas off and I think if he can be convinced to go on the
> >committee again he'd be great! :)
Thanks for the very kind words Pia!
I haven't been actively involved, in an organisation sense, with SLUG
for a long time now. While ideas are great, they are also
easy to come by, and the committee really requires hard working,
dedicated members. So I must decline. Anyone wanting ideas will have
a hard time shutting me up :)
Fortunately the calibre of other nominees makes declining easy to do.
SLUG will certainly be in good hands this year. I'm not sure if
anyone has seconded Robert Collins, it gives me great pleasure
to do so now.
People may wish to think a bit about the future of SLUG. For many
years, out of neccessity, we have been a 'geek' group. Users of Linux
were also like that. Linux is now mainstream, and I believe is poised
to take prominence in the desktop.
This prominence presents its own challenges. While Linux becomes
ever more ubiquitious, it is ever more easy to ignore the ideas and
ideals that drove the formation of Linux. Now, millions of web surfers
have the benefit of Linux and know nothing of the fears, the dreams
that drove its inception.
How do we cross that divide? How do we reach out to the new users
of Linux and show them that they too can become connected. That
to give, a small gift only please; a bug report, show a friend how
it's done, is to join in and become part of something much
larger.
The challenge for us in SLUG is to reach out, beyond our comfort zone.
To try to connect with people who don't share our technology biases
and starting points, to make not so much the technology accessable,
but to make our humanity, our ideals and ideas accessable.
Can I make one small suggestion? We have to listen first.
Sometimes in the excitement in getting our ideas across we lose
touch with our audience. Sometimes they are trying to tell us what
they need, what their problems are, and we don't listen.
Think about it
Jamie
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