[Lincs] Unrealistic expectations?

[Peter Cooper]

I'm wrapping the two threads into one here to keep the traffic down ;-)

On 18 Aug 2004, at 13:07, Dave Pearson wrote:

> * Boston is a lot closer to me than Lincoln but the main source of
>   disinterest for me still remained. It would still have been a weekday
>   evening drive, after work and personal commitments, to sit in a 
> public
>   house for an hour or two with a handful of strangers for no 
> immediately
>   obvious reason.

Interesting point. I'd suggest that, perhaps, location is everything in 
this case. I'm a Londoner living in Lincs although I spend a lot of 
time down south for work and pleasure. If someone announces a drink in 
a London related group, there's usually a good attendance. However, 
Lincs is very different, you pretty much HAVE to drive (no hopping on 
the tube) and everyone's really spread out (not all working within 20 
minutes of the West End or something). Worse, the demographics here 
(fewer younger people, not many tech companies) make an organisation 
like the LLUG a fragile (though still valuable) thing indeed.

> In summary: the question at the moment seems to be "how should we
> communicate"; I'm suggesting that a better question might be "why 
> should we
> communicate". The answer to the latter will probably provide an answer 
> to
> the former.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. I'd like to see how the 
founders of the group feel about this, because, at least in my case, I 
don't really know if this has all been discussed before. What's the 
mission statement of LLUG? Is it to spread the word of Linux, to allow 
Linux-heads to socialise, both, or neither?

> [1]  Do you pitch the talks at your meetings for beginners or at a more
> technical level? How do you find the balance? Beginners' talks can aid 
> a
> boost in the numbers attending a society but they often turn away the 
> more
> involved and competent member. More advanced talks can help retain more
> involved and competent members but at the expense of the size of the
> society. It's a very old problem.

I don't see anything in the meeting schedule that is particularly 
technical. The topics appear more suited to someone who knows how to 
use a computer, probably of the Windows persuasion, but would like to 
see how Linux can do things. This wouldn't discourage me from 
attending, however, as it's always good to meet people with similar 
interests, and to support the free software cause. In my experience 
with the Perl Mongers, advanced talks can actually attract a lot of 
beginners. Perl Monger groups also tend to be quite active for their 
size, although this may be due to Perl coders being even more cultish 
than Linux users ;-)

I might close by coming back to the demographics again. If we're aiming 
at beginners, then how do we 'sell' ourselves? The people in 
Lincolnshire who could benefit from Linux the most have probably never 
heard of it.

Pete