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| From: | Les Pounder |
| Subject: | Re: [Fsuk-manchester] [MAN-LUG] [MFS-Team] [U-Cubed] thoughts |
| Date: | Wed, 11 May 2011 15:08:24 +0100 |
Hi Anna, everyone.
Anna, I agree with the points made in your previous email.
There are numerous groups, and to an outsider they are not well publicised.
Our goal should be to provide a central point of contact for users, new and experienced. This point of contact would contain the links and information necessary for visitors to
Learn about groupsLearn about events in their areaFind contact details for various groups in the area.The committee's other role would be as I see it, an overarching support role, the committee would have no control over the events / groups, but would provide support where needed, and co-ordinate resources where needed.
Blackpool LUG have, in the last year have helped at local events, for example UCubed, Barcamp Blackpool, How Why DIY and Okay Computer. Our involvement was always by invitation, and we have ensured that we worked with the organiser to relaise their intentions / design.
An IRC meeting would be my first preference, simply because it removes 3hrs of train journeys from the equation. But if all avenues were exhausted I would be able to attend in person, but only on a Saturday.
Our goal is quite clear, to create a single team, that helps promote the use of FLOSS in our geographical area.
We all want the same thing, so lets sit down together, work out how we can achieve this, and make a big difference to our local communities.
All the best
Les
ok, so we are still only sending half these emails to the man lug list, and they need to go to everyone in the original conversation, which was from an okay computer discussion.... so U3, Blug, MFS and a few people who I keep forgetting. Really they need to go to all, but I can't email half the lists because I am not in them/dont know them.
Jon feels a meeting on the computer is best, and seems to have a solid idea based on replies to a survey, that describes how it would happen. *cue Jon brain*. I would still prefer a face to face (with real poo/mud for slinging) if people can manage, purely because its the most accessible form of meeting: BUT thats not great for the people from Blackpool!!!! Its REALLY good to hear some discussion here! Thanks very much for joining in.
I still see a problem with this list based communication for "outsiders" (like me) of which there are now many more thanks to ubuntu's lush easiness, and with all the events going on for newbies - there WILL be many more, and are lots drifting around with no place to go RIGHT NOW. (really, no kidding!) Its not that I think we should not have lists, but that the current system alone is not working really, I don't think.
You can see that I am talking about TWO things here, poor coms between us, and poor coms with "the out side world."
The solution to the current problem of poor coms between groups should be one that is ready for new people (who many well have less computer know how). That means that there should be a standard, web-normal hub-site covering ALL groups. I feel it would be really great to tie this accessibility drive to "the committee" (for joint organization events and greater organization of "the big picture") for two reasons.
1) it would make the lines between the different groups much much clearer. This would be empowering for people, and extremely helpful. They can make greater choices about their own philosophies and place in the community, or not chose and be central, but at least understand the system. From bringing 30 or whatever newbies in for okay computer, I would say the main point of difficulty (after printer drivers of course) has been their inability (and mine) to understand that you are all in different groups, but know each other. For example, if they speak to madlab, the message will get to me, but that I am not from madlab. Sometimes resolving this a little bit could just be as simple as wearing a badge or saying "I am from Blug/MFS?Man-lug" when you meet someone new! (not like, on the bus, at an event!! Unless you want to do such things on the bus...)
2) Its labor saving for all of us, and should increase the popularity of all of us. Okay, so maybe the practicalities of a joint list for stuff such as co-ordinating event times and themes and cross-group organization is a difficult thing to agree upon, but when you look at it from the other way round (new person up) the benefits are clear.
For me, the journey to this point was something like...
Ubuntu...... Problem....Manlug (via google, didn't understand list/website)... used my old uni sign in to find a guy from manlug... Normal email... man signed me up to list... Mike Donington replied... Mike fixed problem (thanks mike!).... I leaned about MFS.... I went to the Christmas party.... I set up and ran okay computer... and THEN, only after that... I leaned that there were more groups.... I learned that there were more lists...
as you can see this is not a comfortable learning curve, and I wonder daily how many people are lost at that first stage, when you are confronted with a list and dont know how it works, or confronted with a website that you dont understand, for example a wiki page thats not wikipedia...
I would like the new way to provide something like this
Ubuntu.... problem/interest.... find "hub website" via search engine... find links ALL the groups.... find an explanation of the list system... advise for getting help... a calendar of local events... links to other websites and geographical areas.... emails to contact each group... email to contact the committee....and this gets you into the (current) list system at a level of your choice (central or group based).
I know that this is a long email, and that its really hard for people to understand my perspective and why I feel the need to push for change. All in all, aside from the occasional extra meeting, it wouldn't be that diffent after the initial set up... but it would make such a huge difference to new people and most importantnly....
it would create the perfect foundation for running a BIG event in Manchester... like BIG BIG!!
Love much
Anna
ps: I know its really annoying for you that my ideas are fluffy and mad and don't involve specific actions. Not sure how else to be. Just me! Sorry!
On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 11:26 PM, Ted Harding <address@hidden> wrote:On 10-May-11 21:38:37, Michael Sparks wrote:And nor was I -- having enjoyed the delightful RFC 2549, which
> On 10 May 2011 21:22, EVISON ROY <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> _ _ _ _ _ _oh, a mud slinging event, can I join in? Perhaps we could
>> call an actual meeting and fling some real turds about? What I think
>> Anna is getting at (I could be wrong,of course) is trying to access
>> people who may not even know that these (MFS, etc) 'lists' _exist.If
>> someone volunteers to host a practical thing that has to be good, what
>> is done with it after that is up to the 'committee', 'wheel tappers
>> and shunter's' aside.
>>
>> Roy.
>
> I wasn't mudslinging. I always find references to April Fool's RFC's
> fun, and whatever the motivation of "Troll", I thought it fun to
> reference something more up to date :-)
>
> Michael.
led to IP transmission really taking flight, I thought I'd bring
things down to Earth again with "cat dogs" -- putting the cat
amongst the pigeons.
On a more serious note, the idea of some kind of "mingling" of
the various relevant interest groups has attractions. One
straightforward approach would be for anyone interested in
taking part to simply subscribe to each of the mailing lists
or forums for the several groups. For this to work (in principle)
all that is needed is for everyone to be aware of what is available,
which would require someone to draw up a list. The rest is then
up to interested parties to take further, each for himself.
At the opposite extreme would be a single forum/list to which
the activities of the constitutent forums/lists would be fed,
so that anyhone interested in the "mingled" version could subscribe
to that. Again, for mailing-lists, a simple solution would be for
the "mingled" forum to be subscribed to each of the constituents,
which would then send their contributions also to the "mingled"
one.
For chat-rooms, blogs, and the like, it is not so obvious how to
set up such a thing.
Best wishes to all,
Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------Date: 10-May-11 Time: 23:25:57
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <address@hidden>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
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