Re: [Fsfe-uk] AFFS still active?

[Tom Chance]

Ahoy,

On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:06:53 +0000, Alex Hudson <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-01-26 at 12:54 +0000, Jason Clifford wrote:
>> Surely if you are considering the possibility of refocusing your efforts
>> the first step needs to be properly identifying the need you want to
> meet
>> - the rest should flow from that.
> 
> I think you're asking the same question as my b. above, roughly.
> 
> A lot of the reasons AFFS was started have more or less gone away;
> however, I think there are still problems specific to the UK which AFFS
> could address (I'm not, however, saying it should...).
> 
> Specifically, I think the free software developer community in this
> country is disparate and not well networked: while LUGs provide this to
> an extent, we still rely on things like Linux Expos for hackers to meet
> up. Google's recent Open Source Jams have had made it pretty clear to
> me, at least, that there is an appetite for more avenues in that area.

What are the benefits of more networking for the free software *contributor* 
communities in the UK? I'm sure there are some but, in the spirit of Jason's 
very sensible email, it would be good to clarify and discuss these. What 
happened at these jams, and why haven't people spontaneously done more 
networking without the AFFS?

I think it might be good to survey contributors in the UK to find out if there 
are any needs we could address, rather than second guessing based upon personal 
experiences and patchy conversations. Is that possible?

Regards,
Tom Chance
Green Party Speaker on IP and Free Software