I guess my concern is that if we say we're a tech enthusiast group, there probably are a lot more Windows geeks out there than Linux geeks, even today. We could easily find our FOSS focus (which is more the issue than *nix anyway) diluted to the point where we're doing presentations on the benefits of using ASP.Net to design your website, and why Microsoft SQL Server is a great database engine and how to best take advantage of it.
Not really sure we want to go that route, but again, I'm only an occasional participant. --On Wednesday, September 15, 2010 9:03 PM -0400 Anthony Carrico <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for standing up to host a meeting, otherwise we aren't much > more than a drinking club with a mailing list. Ultimately, if you > present, you drive the agenda. > > On 09/15/2010 05:52 PM, Rubin Bennett wrote: >> I share the opinion that we should not lose focus - there are plenty of >> other groups out there. > > Are there? The other groups I'm aware of are focused on specific > languages (.net, PHP). Where does open tech culture gather outside of > VAGUE? Is Vermont big enough to support several vibrant groups? > Personally, I've really enjoyed the presentations like Open Street Map > and Arduino which were more 'tech enthusiast' than 'Unix enthusiast'. > > Anyway, I hear a lot of support for focusing on Unix. Does that mean a > meeting on compiling the Linux kernel? Bash scripting? Can we string 6 > or 8 monthly meetings together like that? The challenge I see here is > how do we go about assigning the topics to presenters. This kind of > stuff can be so subconscious to us that it never occurs to someone to > actually do a presentation on the subject, even though it is just the > kind of thing you might expect to find at a group of Unix users meeting. > > I'm not being sarcastic. The Upstate New York Unix Users Group worked > kind of like that. I think it was able to work that way because Bill > Davidsen pushed the agenda and brought the topics. I must have caught > the very end of that group because I just searched for UNYUUG, and I > can't seem to find it on the web anymore. The old Unix guys faded away. > This is one problem with the explicit Unix focus; notices for "Unix > meetings" are meaningless to new blood that would otherwise be > interested in the topics under our umbrella. > > -- > Anthony Carrico >
