[wlug_org] My reasons (of perhaps my lack of reason?)

[Tony Wills]

At 19:52 22/05/04 +1200, Jamie Dobbs wrote:
>The reason I wish to step aside from the group at the moment is that I am 
>not at all interested in advocacy as I (and many others throughout the 
>world) do not see advocacy as a LUGs role. Advocacy is something that 
>should be left to the OSS and similar, to me a LUG is for Linux 
>hand-holding, help, support and learning.
>The promotion of Linux within our own ranks is fine but I do not think 
>that promoting to the general public (outside of events such as 
>InstallFests) is really an appropriate role for a LUG.
>I know that many of you will not agree with my feelings, but this is the 
>main part of my reason from stepping aside from the LUG.

Hi Jamie,

Glad to see you're still with us :-)

I think that most of the group fundamentally agrees with you when it comes 
to advocacy to the general public, we simply don't have the resources even 
if we're so inclined.  But advocacy doesn't just mean shouting it from the 
roof tops (or TV screens), or taking every opportunity to knock that other 
(inferior ;-) operating system.  Advocacy also includes talking to other 
people about Linux, letting people know what you're doing with Linux, that 
there is an alternative that may suit them - and this is to people outside 
the group (else you think this should be a secret society :-).  If the 
group has any publicity and we're talking to the media (eg about an install 
fest) then again we're advocating the use of Linux to the general public - 
we'd talk about what Linux is and probably the fact that it is free which 
leads directly to the open source philosophy and licensing which ensures it 
will stay free

I think what you said agrees with all of that (correct me if I'm wrong).

So the dispute (if any) is about the degree of advocacy.