[clug] Future of CLUG main meetings

[Steven Hanley]

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 10:27:45AM +1000, Bob Edwards via linux wrote:
> So we had a small CLUG main meeting last night, as to be expected when
> there is no topic/speaker announced. We had a bit of a Q&A session.
> 
> One question that came up, and has come up previously, is how do we
> best support "beginners".
> 
> Because CLUG was born more by university types (Tridge etc.) involved
> in doing daily open-source development, and not so much by pure
> "users", it has always struggled to identify strongly as either a
> technically-oriented group or a more traditional user group. It has,
> over the years, become somewhat bi-modal in this regard.
> 
> My observation is that when we have solid technical talks announced,
> a lot more people attend the meetings, so there is a definite appetite
> in the local community for that level of talks.
> 
> On the other hand, this leaves folk who are still finding their way
> somewhat out in the dark.
> 
> It has been proposed in the past that we alternate between technical
> talks and non-technical talks. My problem is that, whereas everyone
> else in CLUG gets to choose if they want to come along or not based
> on their interest in the talks, I kinda have to be there each month
> to open up etc. I don't mind doing it when people are actually going
> to come along, but I also have other priorities in my life.
> 
> Anyway, next month, George and I propose to have a bit of a showcase
> of Free and Open Source games, which we in the FOSS community should
> be celebrating. I'll demo and open up discussion on minetest
> (http://www.minetest.net/#about) and others can put up their hand to
> demo/discuss a FOSS game or three of their choice.
> 
> Now is the time to come forward and propose future talks for CLUG
> main meetings, such as a beginners workshop etc., or, I suggest, we
> may need to start discussing shutting it all down.

It is a problem the last few years there have been some incredible talks
(Michael Carden and the software radio stuff) however they have been rare.

I think some of the problem is there are a lot of other locaitons
interesting technical stuff happens, such as the Friday evening talk you have
been going to often, also programming has special talk groups in various
languages (the Python Group in Canberra seems fairly active), the Make Hack
Void hacker space. Originally all of this would have been happening with
people who were regular part of a group like CLUG.

Back in the day (in the 90s and early 2000's Linux took a bit more effort to
be able to use for the beginner (and for everyone I guess), so I guess many
people getting into Linux came along to CLUG and then were keen to learn so
they could use it.

Beginner users, if they are inclined to use Linux today can use it woithout
so much know how.

Technical users can find interesting talks in other locations and do not
feel the direct tie to Linux/Open Source this group has had for so long.

I agree with the fact I wil only really be keen to attend a technical talk
myself which is part of the problem, I in theory should have been tracking
them down for the group each month and have not had the contact sor interest
to do so recently (I do not do much stuff with interesting technical people
in the Linux and Open Source world now days)

Maybe as the list already exists and has continual use and an audience CLUG
could become more intermittant. If someone comes along and wants to present
something they approcah Bob a month or two out and ask if a CLUG meeting can
happen to present at, then an email can go out and everyone here be made
aware there will be something worth going to happening.

So it could mean there are only 3 CLUG sessions a year however tthe sesisons
that happen wil be interesting and worth rocking up to.

	See You
	    Steve

-- 
Steven Hanley sjh at svana.org http://svana.org/sjh/diary
they keep pounding their fists on reality
hoping it will break
   Lost Woman Song - Ani Difranco - Ani