[dundee] Linux Society May Newsletter

[Arron M Finnon]

May News Letter

Hi Guys and Welcome to May's newsletter.

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks, and there is a little
bit to talk about, but as usual i will try and keep it short.  I would
like also to take this opportunity to wish a good summer to all of our
members, some of who will be travelling back to their non term time
homes, and some of who will have finished their studies at Abertay and
will be moving on to new things.  I hope you all enjoyed your academic
year, and to those moving on, good luck and you will be missed, please
feel free to keep up with what's happening both via the mailing list and
the web site.  

Well i suppose the biggest news we have to deliver is in partnership
with Hannah Maclure Centre we are holding an all-day event for Software
Freedom Day on the 20th September 2008.  This is a fantastic opportunity
to promote and celebrate free software.  We have a number of ideas
already however nothing has been set in stone, but the general feeling
is to have a number of talks planned, a number of workshops, and a
couple of discussion groups set up.  We're hoping to bring a lot of
groups and individuals together who are interested in how freedom in
software can have positive effect on both their life's and their
interests such as artists, writers, students, hobbyists, and
businesses.  

At the moment we are canvassing ideas and thoughts for the event at
http://thelinuxsociety.org.uk/content/software-freedom-day-ideas-thoughts-and-discussions.   I would ask everyone to have a look and add your ideas and thoughts as soon as possible.

We have had some very interesting ideas on the site, and at the last
meeting.  I must admit i was somewhat shocked when a member mentioned at
the last meeting that there where only five meetings until the event.  A
pencilled outline of the kind of topics we're hoping to have seems to
be;

    * Business
    * Science
    * Home
    * Multimedia / Audio/visual
    * Schools / Education (OpenEducation Disc)
    * Tecchies, Linuxistas, Converts, Sysadmins, BoFHs
    * Community 

There is also the usual call for speakers, volunteers, and participants.
This is an event that can truly showcase the best parts of our community
and the freedom we take for granted, and a event not to be missed.

We had a great run of security related talks, and a virtualization talk
and i would like to thank Gordon Dunlop, and Tim Spencer for their talks
in the past month or so.

It is important not to forget that we have a freshers fair to prepare
for and with it just being days before the Software Freedom Day it seems
a great way to both get new people interested in free and open source
software, as well as a dry run of some of the demo's we're hoping to
hold at the SFD event.

I would also like to takes the opportunity to mention the Scottish
Developers meetings that are taking place on the opposite week to our
meetings, i was unable to make the last meeting but the feedback i
received was fantastic, to find out when the next meeting is come visit
the events section of the Linux Society website.

As usual there has been a run of great howto guides, articles and
editorials at www.thelinuxsociety.org.uk and i would like to thank
everyone that has contributed and like to encourage people to post their
work on there too.  Don't forget to visit the site and keep up-to-date
with the events section on the site, and remember to send us your events
as well.

Well as promised i'll wrap up now, and hope to speak to everyone over
the forth coming couple of weeks.

Arron M Finnon

President

University of Abertay Dundee
Linux Society
www.thelinuxsociety.org.uk
Software Freedom Day 20/9/08