Hi,
Red Lodge is quite a distance from Cambridge, especially with the strong culture of walking/cycling in this city, which is the main reason that we currently meet in such a central location. I enjoy a trip out though. I will be happy to drive over, so if anyone else wants to come you are welcome to a lift - I can take up to four other people.
The proposed time and day is the same time we usually meet, so perhaps those going could meet at CB2 and go on from there? Sorry, I just saw Convoy on TV the other week ;-)
The first message that made it to our list suggested that ALUG were thinking of having a meeting in Cambridge at some point. I was just wondering, if ALUG has members in Cambridge that want to meet, why don't they come along to Cambridge LUG meetings? Just curious.
Oh, and is it really going to be in the truck stop? Linux chat and an all day breakfast, cool. Don't know what the truckers will think mind you :-)
Best regards, Mark.
On Tuesday 09 Oct 2001 11:03 pm, Adam Bower wrote:
hi people,
You should have all got a cross-posted message a few days back from the Alug list that probably didn't make itself 100% clear as to what was going on. Now we havn't got a firm date for our next meet but you guys may want to check out the alug website at http://www.alug.org.uk/ as there is loads of crossover between our groups and we are always looking for new members and input.
Anyhow we are looking to get a meeting at Red Lodge near Thetford very soon and you will all be very welcome and we would perhaps try to sort out some other linkups between the groups soon.
Anyhow any thoughts you have would be very welcome.
Life, Love, Linux...
Adam
On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Mark Roberts wrote:
The first message that made it to our list suggested that ALUG were thinking of having a meeting in Cambridge at some point. I was just wondering, if ALUG has members in Cambridge that want to meet, why don't they come along to Cambridge LUG meetings? Just curious.
Well, when I was living in Cam an install fest was organised and promoted as being at CB2, I replied to the post on cam.misc asking exactly where CB2 was as I didn't know what or where CB2 was and never got a reply :-( I also think I subscribed to the mailing list at the same and never got any mail so I figured that maybe the camlug didn't exist or something.
I think the other difference that I can tell is that the camlug meet on a regular basis but don't bring computers etc. whereas the alug meet (physically) less often but usually hire a hall and bring computers etc. so you have to make more of an effort but less often but when you do make the effort it is usually going to be worth it as you know there are going to be other people there to give advice and support etc. and fix your broken computer which happens quite alot.
One other thing which I don't know why is that not many people on the alug list knew that the camlug even existed but I think quite a few have now signed up to the camlug mailing list.
Adam
Hi,
On Wednesday 10 Oct 2001 10:42 pm, Adam Bower wrote:
Well, when I was living in Cam an install fest was organised and promoted as being at CB2, I replied to the post on cam.misc asking exactly where CB2 was as I didn't know what or where CB2 was and never got a reply :-( I
I have only been around Cambridge LUG since the beginning of this year, but I have heard about the Installfest that took place at CB2 some time ago. CB2 is a cafe-bar just off East Road (near the Grafton Centre), BTW. I think marketting and communications are one of the hardest parts of Linux advocacy, as they are not often in the core skillset of the sort of people that are good at using and configuring Linux system. I would guess your message got missed in the chaos of organising the event.
also think I subscribed to the mailing list at the same and never got any mail so I figured that maybe the camlug didn't exist or something.
Our mailing list is sometimes very quiet. Traffic depends on the input of everyone on the list. Some topics generate quite a bit of debate, whilst others go unanswered. We do have a lot of subscribers (well over a hundred), so perhaps Cambridge people are just a quiet bunch?
I think the other difference that I can tell is that the camlug meet on a regular basis but don't bring computers etc. whereas the alug meet (physically) less often but usually hire a hall and bring computers etc. so you have to make more of an effort but less often but when you do make the effort it is usually going to be worth it as you know there are going to be other people there to give advice and support etc. and fix your broken computer which happens quite alot.
This is something we often discuss doing, but there doesn't seem to be that much enthusiasm for it. Perhaps because of the overwhelmingly technical and scientific nature of Cambridge industry, most of the people who currently come along to our meetings work with computers all day, and are very cabable of self-support, so they don't really have a great interest for overly technical sessions. Take a look at our members gallery page to see a small cross section of our membership and what they do - http://www.cam-lug.org.uk/members/gallery.shtml . Still, I wonder if a (silent) section of the membership would jump at the chance?
Our mailing list sees more questions about the more obscure switches for gcc when cross-compiling to the StrongARM architecture, or what Linux-based groupware is considered ready for production use than 'help, my computer is fscked!'. If there are people on the list who have the latter kind of questions, please do ask! The list is only what people make of it, as is the group in general. We have no formal group organisation, and any action or event that happens is entirely down to the enthusiasm and effort of anyone that wants to do whatever. If you have an idea or need help, don't be shy :-)
All the same, we find its very good to chat Linux over a good cup of coffee or whatever, and find out what other people are doing with Linux. The meetings we do have work well and are usually enjoyable for all that come along. Other types of meeting would indeed be interesting too though.
One other thing which I don't know why is that not many people on the alug list knew that the camlug even existed but I think quite a few have now signed up to the camlug mailing list.
We don't do enough promotion, really. For a time our entries in the various LUG registers were wrong (if anyone knows of one where it still is wrong, please let me know). How do you promote the ALUG? How do people find you?
Best regards, Mark.
On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, Mark Roberts wrote:
<lots of things snipped for readability>
This is something we often discuss doing, but there doesn't seem to be that much enthusiasm for it. Perhaps because of the overwhelmingly technical and scientific nature of Cambridge industry, most of the people who currently come along to our meetings work with computers all day, and are very cabable of self-support, so they don't really have a great interest for overly technical sessions. Take a look at our members gallery page to see a small cross section of our membership and what they do - http://www.cam-lug.org.uk/members/gallery.shtml . Still, I wonder if a (silent) section of the membership would jump at the chance?
I think the alug has around 140 subscribed but I am not a list manager so cannot be sure. We generally get around 20 - 30 people at a meeting, and on the weekly irc meetings we get up to 30 on a good night although the other night I don't think we got above ten. We don't really have any technical sessions though at our meetings, just more of a play around and a look at what other people are up to.
group in general. We have no formal group organisation, and any action or event that happens is entirely down to the enthusiasm and effort of anyone that wants to do whatever. If you have an idea or need help, don't be shy :-)
Yup sounds like the Alug :-) I have tried to do a bit of enthusiasm generation over the past week as our next meeting was looking like a bit of a non-event though.
All the same, we find its very good to chat Linux over a good cup of coffee or whatever, and find out what other people are doing with Linux. The meetings we do have work well and are usually enjoyable for all that come along. Other types of meeting would indeed be interesting too though.
Well that is why I am trying to get some camlug people onto the alug list and vice versa. The other reason for trying to get some Cam people to Red Lodge is that maybe we could arrange a future Alug/Camlug joint meeting in Cambridge. We do an informal weekly irc meeting at Alug as we cover such a large geographic area which also work quite well.
We don't do enough promotion, really. For a time our entries in the various LUG registers were wrong (if anyone knows of one where it still is wrong, please let me know). How do you promote the ALUG? How do people find you?
We show up on lug.org.uk and in the various mags, we announce our meetings on uk.local.east-anglia and uk.comp.os.linux and I have announced at least one on cam.misc in the past. I think we have benefitted from word of mouth and we try to make sure the mailing list is active and the irc meetings are active if the physical meets are not to show we still exist.
Adam
On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, Mark Roberts wrote:
We don't do enough promotion, really. For a time our entries in the various LUG registers were wrong (if anyone knows of one where it still is wrong, please let me know). How do you promote the ALUG? How do people find you?
as i've said occasionally before, i think one of cam-lug's biggest problems is venue. we can't have speaker meetings or presentations at CB2. we can only have install-fests by retreating to the basement. mark's right, it's lovely to have a venue where we're in a social setting, we can chat about activism, changes in the linux field, the ethics of free software and the like. but the (off-list) response to my offer to talk about my linux experiences in india has been positive, there are a number of other fields i could put together an acceptable talk on, and there are certainly other cam-lug members who could give talks that i would beat down the door to attend. we don't have anywhere to do anything like that, or diagnostic days, or even showcasing new technology. it's good to do all that stuff, as well as to have social events.
so i think the true synergy from a joint cam-lug/alug meeting would come, not from more friendly and interesting faces (though those would be lovely!) but from finding a venue that suits some of our other needs.
Tom Yates
Carnivore chow: DMCA anthrax arsenic MI5 bomb nuclear CIA COINTELPRO coke crack crypto Cypherpunks DEA plutonium Dmitry Sklyarov MI6 FBI grass GCHQ
ps though i do bring a PDA and a laptop to CB2, and the sky hasn't fallen yet.
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Adam Bower -
Mark Roberts -
Tom Yates