[Klug-general] Future of KLUG was Re-branding the 'L' in LUG

Mon Oct 10 18:11:56 UTC 2011

Hi all
The rebranding thread prompts some very important questions about KLUG. What
of it's future?

For the last few years I had plenty of time to devote to KLUG, organising
meeting locations, prompting people to do talks and attend meetings.
 With life's changes I now dont have that spare time.  Back in March some of
us spoke about doing something special for KLUGs 10th Anniversay which is at
the end of this month, but I've had no time to organise anything and no one
else has spoken up about doing an event.

KLUG was setup as a roadshow and moved around Kent, meeting in the past in
Dover, Dartford, Maidstone, Rochester, Gillingham, Ashford and Chatham.  Now
we have the options of Dover, Gillingham or Chatham. The Innovation Centre
Medway in Chatham certainly has the best features and quite selfishly is the
easiest for me to get to. I will never have time to drive down to Dover for
a meeting.  This does not mean we can't have Dover meetings, just someone
else needs to run them.

As KLUG has evolved so has Linux. Back when I started with Ubuntu 6.06, KLUG
was great to get help getting it all working, but now that Linux is pretty
polished and works out of the box (or ISO) 97% of the time what part does
KLUG actually play?

Mostly its a shared interest in technology and anything from Andriod, Open
Source applications that run on Windows/Mac and doing stuff W?BIC! (Why?
Because I can!)  Now I would rather attend a Barcamp and listen to a varied
array of talks rather than drive down the A2 to Dover.

Therefore I think, as it's been suggested, we expand our focus and not limit
ourselves to just being a Linux group. Certainly Linux will be our main
focus, but with the Prototype 'Hack' group at ICM and with Barcamp
Canterbury I think we can include there interests within our group.

Gone are the days when we had 15-20 people attending KLUG. For the past 6
months it's been 6 at the most.

So in summary. Here are some questions/suggestions

   - Do we continue to have monthly meetings or larger meetings every two
   months.

   - Anyone want to be responsible for booking and running Dover meetings?

   - Would people travel to Chatham for a meeting every two months. Would
   having a regular 'base' be good.

   - How best can we attract members from other groups.

   - With the success of Oggcamp and Barcamps why dont we work and bring
   something like that to Kent?

Thanks
Your co-ordinator who hasn't done a very good job in the last 12 months

Colin

On 5 October 2011 23:36, James Morris <jwm.art.net at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 5 October 2011 07:26, Thomas Edward Groves <teg451013 at freeuk.com>
> wrote:
> > So KLUG stands for encouraging people to use non-proprietary software
> > on available hardware to solve their problems.
> >
> > Well?
>
>
> Don't hold your breath. We don't all agree so let's just give up.
> Something like that.
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Tom
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: James Morris <jwm.art.net at gmail.com>
> > To: Kent Linux User Group - General Topics <kent at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> > Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 3:32 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Klug-general] Re-branding the 'L' in LUG
> >
> >
> > On 4 October 2011 08:04, Dan Attwood <danattwood at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=OS%26U
> >>> >
> >>> > to lead to meaningful results?
> >>> >
> >>> Please tell me you're not making decisions about what can and can't be
> >>> mentioned in KLUG "marketing" based on those search results.
> >>>
> >> If the suggested wording is:
> >> To encourage the Use of OS&U software within Kent and Beyond.
> >
> > But no one suggested using that wording in that way. It was shorthand
> > used in a discussion thread amongst knowledgeable people, not leaflets
> > aimed at attracting new users to Linux.
> >
> > Just to remind about what I responded to:
> >
> >> if broadening participation is the idea that I'd suggest the gnu and
> unix
> >> aren't mentioned at all as both are elitist. no term should used
> >> that doesn't come in the first page of google.
> >
> > and to say I think Google has enough power already.
> >
> >
> > On 4 October 2011 08:45, Peter Childs <pchilds at bcs.org> wrote:
> >> Terms,
> >> I don't think any of these terms work.
> >> Open Source - People know what that might be.
> >> Floss - Thats what you use to shave right@
> >> OSS = Open Source Software except its not just software.....
> >> Free = Is that Free as in £0.00 or Free as in Freedom.
> >> Unix = As in not Dos? But thats a technical term
> >> Non-Windows - But we use X-Windows Its a terrible term. And we have
> > nothing
> >> against Windows really so long as people use the right tool for the
> right
> >> job.
> >> The list continues.
> >
> > Luckily, the human race developed the ability to learn. My problem is
> > that I don't like to see freedom and openness pushed aside as if it
> > weren't important. Encouraging cultural exchange is one of the
> > strengths behind what the above terms refer to, and I don't think
> > these things should be hidden away as if they're dirty or something.
> >
> > I also agree with Sharon to some extent. This is the Kent Linux User
> > Group after all. We can't really change that, ie what would happen to
> > this mailing list, the domain name, etc?
> >
> > James.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Kent mailing list
> > Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Kent mailing list
> > Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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