[Gloucs] Meeting

[Guy Edwards]

The meeting
-----------

The meeting was in Gloucester, about 20 people or so showed up which is
our biggest showing yet. There were lots of new faces and the majority
of the regulars too.

John went over the talk he'd given in Hereford and I did a short piece
on using and getting involved with SourceForge.

Some people took away copies of the newer distributions (Mandrake 9.0
and Debian 3.0) which have just appeared back in the post, cheers.

We also spoke about trying to make the meetings more organized, as with
20 people or so, it does need a bit of organization. We'll try and make
it so that meetings are sorted for two(?) months in advance and drum up
some people to do talks so you know what the talks will be about in
advance. 

I said I'd be happy to do an email slightly before each meeting to
remind everyone and I'll do one like this after each meeting so those
who weren't able to attend know roughly what happened.

With these talks it's worth mentioning that they can be really short if
you're worried, so please feel free to come forward and talk about your
favorite subject. If you consider yourself a beginner, don't be worried
about some guru telling you you're wrong, that's not how it works. If
you've just started using a program, come and tell us how you've got on
from a beginners perspective, which bits you found difficult, the
programs strengths/weaknesses in your eyes etc. If on the other hand you
know your subject really well then by all means do a talk on whatever
you like.

On a delicate note, it was pointed out at the meeting that not all the
posts here are relevant. It's worth remembering that each email you send
here will end up in about 60 peoples (we do count) email inboxes so if
it's a hello or a thanks message to an individual you might want to do
it off list, otherwise people might unsubscribe. That's not a flame or
anything like that, just a suggestion.

Lastly, it was a bit cramped with 20 people at the Internet Cafe, we
really could do with suggestions for a better venue (try and include as
much detail about the place as possible).

Next meeting
------------

cd's to swap/buy/borrow - All the latest download versions of the
distributions are available on CD, just ask in advance. Also if you're
on a dial-up, you might want a CD with all the latest updates/security
patches for your distribution on to avoid spending days downloading.
Price people ask for is usually just to cover the cost of the CD, or
swap for a blank CD/beer etc.

Talks - So what would people be confident talking about? If anyone wants
to volunteer I'm happy to talk about it on/off list.

misc
----

* I'll update the website sometime today with 
	- what happened at the meeting, 
	- the notes from last moths talk (whoops) 
	- the notes from this months talks (John?)
 	- date of the meeting after next? 
	(shout now else it's third tue at same place in January)

* On a personal note, at work we've just got a big budget come through
for better learning facilities and new course modules at our department
in gloscat. I'm going through the hardware/software in the department
and the books available in the library for students on our courses and
buying new ones in.

The point is, if anyone's (some of you are employers/trainers?) got
recommendations on what they'd like to see with relation to Linux I'd
like to hear about it. What skills would you want a Linux beginner to
know (eg basic command prompt skills, using KDE/Gnome) after coming off
a basic level module?

I'm going to try to get the usual open source books in - RebelCode, The
Mythical Man Month, The Cathedral and the Bazaar.... There's already
some Apache and other related books.

I think I've covered everything :-)
Guy