[NTLUG:Discuss] NTLUG veterans helping Linux newbies?

[Christopher Browne]

> >>>>> "Jonathan" == Jonathan Miller <betaray at kludge.org> writes:
> 
>     Jonathan> Actually if I were forced to say anything negative about
>     Jonathan> the NTLUG, it would be that there is much here for the
>     Jonathan> "veteran". Like my current intrests are rolling my own
>     Jonathan> distro for a few sparcs and doing pilot programming
>     Jonathan> under Linux. These are things I wouldn'teven dream of
>     Jonathan> talking about on this list normally.
> 
> Did you mean to say 'not much here for the veteran?' And, btw, we do
> regularly force people to say bad stuff about NTLUG but, <checking the 
> list>, you weren't scheduled for some time. :>
> 
> This is the damnable tension however: veterans want more veteran stuff 
> (but don't *need* it); newbies *need* more newbie stuff and can't
> really function too well w/out it.
> 
> It's just a very hard thing to get right. Very hard as in 'practically 
> impossible'.

This is exactly why I tend to bounce questions over to discuss at ntlug.org any 
time I can; it fulfills several purposes:

a) It helps there to be some diverse questions, so that everyone learns 
something.

b) It takes some of the responsibility away from me.  There could be a 
"consulting service" some place; I'm not prepared to run that business, and it 
is *not* nice to tell people:

I'd be glad to answer your question, and accept Visa and American Express.  
Please warm up your "cheque-signing hand;" it'll be burning by the time we're 
done...

c) More participants means a greater probability of having an unambiguously 
correct answer.

>     Jonathan> OK, actually there are 2 thing that I would
>     Jonathan> say. Secondly, us all being fans of open source
>     Jonathan> software, I'd like to know what kind of projects the
>     Jonathan> members are involved in, and possibly have NTLUG
>     Jonathan> sponsored projects.
> 
> Sure. We've done that before. NTLUG hosted The Casbah Project
> (http://www.casbah.org) for a long time before it got its own
> home. Chris uses NTLUG to distribute his Impress tool.

... And Chris uses NTLUG to host some web pages ...  [There be ambiguity when 
you say "Chris"!]

Perhaps the *biggest* thing that NTLUG does to help sponsor possible projects 
is to simply have a common place and time where a sizable group of Linux 
enthusiasts can get together.  THAT is the critical resource for putting 
projects together.

Linux didn't happen because some organization decided to sponsor it; it 
happened because a number of people that wanted to hack on 80386 code got 
together (largely on the Internet) and decided to "hack together."

NTLUG offers the opportunity for people to actually meet in person, which is 
the opportunity that would-be "project participants" should be availing 
themselves of.

Last Saturday, on at least three occasions one person or another mentioned 
some idea for starting a business of one sort or another relating to Linux.  
(Mostly options relating to training, consulting, systems integration...)  The 
assumption was that NTLUG would have some inherent interest in running such 
businesses.  My comment (more than once!) was: "If you want to start that 
business, feel free."

Projects happen because someone wants it to happen badly enough to volunteer 
to organize the project.

>     Jonathan> Are there any other individuals out there that although
>     Jonathan> they help teaching the newbies, also want to learn more
>     Jonathan> for themselves?
> 
> This is supposed to be the point of the 'main' monthly technical
> presentation.

One of the ideas being "batted around" is that of having some more specialized 
"SIGs" that might meet concurrently with the Beginners' Group.  If certain 
ideas for topics for such seem to resonate, and if people step up to volunteer 
to organize and moderate them, this may provide something else in addition to 
the "main technical presentation."

Did I say the word "volunteer" enough times? :-)
--
Where do you want to Tell Microsoft To Go Today?
cbbrowne at ntlug.org - <http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/lsf.html>