[clug] Re: [SLUG] 2. Re: photo/graphics processing SIG anyone?

[Paul Wayper]

Simon Pascal Klein wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-06-02 at 20:54 +1000, Mike Carden wrote:
>   
>> I'm very interested in a FOSS imaging SIG. I admit that I have trouble
>> getting to SIGs other than CLUG, but that's just my personal
>> circumstances.
>>
>> To a degree, I wish that PSIG, PySIG and ImageSIG could all just use
>> CLUG for their stuff, but I appreciate that some people don't enjoy
>> the wider picture.
>>     
>> At heart, I think I'd love to see the imaging SIG coming along to CLUG
>> and enlivening the monthly meetings with imaging stuff. Anyone who has
>> seen Andy Fitzsimon talk graphics at LCA will know that beauty and
>> free software go hand in hand.
>>     
>
> Yea, definitely. :)
>   
> I think CLUG should remain what it is now, to be honest. From the
> perspective of a newcomer to FOSS and Linux who has read on the internet
> that attending a local LUG is the way to go, CLUG might not be the first
> alternative and some other group will be better suited to cater for
> those interests (PCUG?, another different group?). Otherwise however
> altering CLUG now would upset many people and it wouldn't be worth it.
> Also, the plus side to having SIGs is that the topics covered will
> remain the same (which rocks for people with specific interests and
> limited time).
>   

To me, this is a sign that, in fact, CLUG meetings should change. 
There's obviously a lot of interest in the technical talks that have
typified CLUG meetings in the past, but there also seems to be a lot of
interest in more general topics such as the ones Michael and Pascal
name.  However, SLUG for instance has a format that allows both to
occur: have a 'general' talk for half an hour or so to begin with, and
then we split up into a 'technical' talk that retains the format of the
traditional CLUG talks, and a 'less technical' talk of broader
interest.  We then meet up again for pizza and sushi.  I'm talking to
Bob at the moment to see if we can use another nearby room, and my aim
is to get podcasts together for both streams so that people can at least
hear what went on in the other talk later if they wanted to be at both.

This way we don't have yet another meeting somewhere - many people have
said that they find getting away from their other commitments difficult
for two meetings per month already - and we broaden the base of people
coming to CLUG meetings.  The more the merrier, as they say!  This also
basically encapsulates Steve Jenkin's 'pre-meeting meeting' idea.

I'd like to give the new meeting format a go, anyway, and if people
don't like it or we don't get enough interest we can go back to the old
format.

Have fun,

Paul