[wellylug] Re. How others do it: CC-NZ (Douglas Bagnall)

[Jeff Hunt]

There is a risk for a small group to try to be everything to everyone.
It may result in being nothing to noone. I have received a lot of
benefit from this mail group. Long may it continue. I would like to
try an irc get-together if there was an active one.

Regarding meetings, I feel that technical gatherings appeal to a very
few specialists in that area and are not going to achieve critical
mass to keep going.
I have a attended a few meetings over the years, and as a
comparatively non-technical and not very social being I felt rather
excluded and slunk away feeling that I had let the group down, and
that they had let me down. If there is to be public meetings they need
to have someone who jumps up to welcome people in and offers tea and
biccies and finds out why the person is there and what they expect
from the group.

It botheres me a lot that there must be hundreds, if not thousands of
people in the
Greater Wellington Area who would use Linux (probably Ubuntu) if they
were introduced to it, given encouragement and had the feeling that
someone would give them kind non-judgemental encouragement if things
falter. I might be wrong but I think it is possible that there is a
huge untapped 'market'.

None of this takes things forward. It's just my thoughts.

On 16/03/2013, Adam Bogacki <adam.bogacki at clear.net.nz> wrote:
> We are living in constantly changing labour markets and
> in this day and age there are many ways to communicate
> and support each other, when necessary, through different media.
>
>  An irc channel
>
> [# wellylug at irc.sitharus.com
> or
> ##wellylug on irc.freenode.net]
>
> is cost efficient for many and independent of the tyrannies of time or
> distance,
>
> while others might wish to meet socially over some brewed or fermented
> refreshment.
>
> I was at a Wellylug meeting at 'silverstripe' when a polite  gentleman
> came in and
> sat down introducing himself as Linus Torvalds. I think he was visiting
> them and
> had heard of the WellyLug meeting.
>
> I probably made a dick of myself refusing to believe it was him, but such
> accidental encounters which make social life interesting are seldom
> found online.
>
> In short, I'd argue for flexibility ..
>
> Cheers.
>
>
>