[clug] Anyone want to give a talk for this week's CLUG meeting?

[Paul Wayper]

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Hi all,

I had a really good chat with Tridge at LCA and he's suggested a couple of
really good ideas for CLUG meetings.

Tridge and I believe that the perception is that CLUG talks need to be
highly technical, well prepared and given by an expert on the particular
topic of the talk.  We'd like to fight that perception!  While it's nice to
have such talks, and I'm always on the lookout for them, there are also many
other things that we can do at CLUG meetings that are interesting to a wide
audience but easy to do.

The first idea is a new take on something that's previously been suggested
at CLUG.  We get a list of topics that people want to hear talks on, then
every month we choose a topic and just discuss it.  We plug someone's laptop
into the projector and start exploring!  Everyone at the meeting then gets
to learn a bit about the topic, contribute what they know, and maybe explore
something that they haven't had time to look into.

So I'd love to hear suggestions about what people want to hear about!  It
can be as complicated or simple as you like!  I'd prefer specific projects
(e.g. "I want to learn how Scribus works") rather than open questions (e.g.
"what's the best firewall management software out there?") or problems
specific to one person (e.g. "I can't get my phone to talk to my laptop")...
but at this stage I'm willing to try anything!  It's more important (to me)
to make this about topics people are interested in than to meet my criteria
for 'interesting' :-)

Suggest away!

The second idea is pretty radical but I'm willing to give it a shot.  Each
month someone plugs in their laptop and we SSH into their home server, or
look at their laptop.  We see what they've got installed and talk about what
they use, where they put things, and what alternatives they've tried.
Sometimes we may even be able to suggest other things they might try or
improvements to their work environment.  It might even encourage some of us
(e.g. me) to tidy up a bit and ask why we've got this old thing lying around
if we no longer even have that bit of hardware any more! :-)

Anyway, I'd love to hear everyone's suggestions for what they'd like to have
at CLUG meetings, and we'll try to make it all work.

Final bit of philosophy: I believe that everyone knows something they can
contribute.  Hoping for that one person to come and teach you exactly what
you need to know is en empty wish!  Instead, we learn by trying things out,
and by sharing our knowledge.  We can all contribute, even if we're not an
expert.  The great thing about the world, Anne Frank said, is that no-one
need wait to start improving it.

Have fun,

Paul
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