Page 1 of 5 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 41

Thread: Introductory Posting

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Beans
    95

    Post Introductory Posting

    Greetings, all,

    I guess the honors fall to me to christen this fine new ship!

    Let us pretend that I can afford an incredibly rare and expensive bottle of champagne, then let us pretend that I have just smashed it against the bow of our ship.

    I christen thee "Indiana LoCo Team"!

    Alright. Cheers! If you choose, you can pretend that there is your drink of choice available with which to celebrate.

    Perhaps someday soon we may celebrate with less pretending and more face-to-face.

    It is my hope that this marks the beginning of a grand journey. It is my belief that Ubuntu is destined to lead the pack in fixing Bug #1. (For those who don't catch the reference, you can check out the official bug report at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1 which is the first bug reported in the Launchpad system by Mark Shuttleworth in August 2004.) Of course this won't happen on it's own, it's the sort of thing that will take lots of people lots of work to accomplish, but I believe a world dominated by Free and Open Source Software is worth the work.

    I was rather excited when the US Teams project (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams) announced that they'd made it their goal to have an approved LoCo team in every US State by 2008. I sat back and waited for someone to create an IndianaTeam, and I waited...and waited...I then came to the conclusion that if it was so important to me that an IndianaTeam exist, and noone else was doing it, that I might as well get off my lazy (and busy) backside and make it happen.

    My plan looks a little something like this:

    Step 1: Get people to join the new LoCo Team
    Step 2: ...
    Step 3: World Domination!

    Well, then, to be completely honest, I am not sure what Step 2 is; I was hoping you all might be able to help with that.

    I'd like to know what you would like to accomplish with the Local Community Team. Since we're brand new, we don't have a previously existing structure to restrict what we want to do...on the the other hand we also don't have a previously existing structure to guide what it is we should be doing. For these reasons, it's important that we get your input. What direction do we want to take?

    The usual LoCo Team activities are things like "Promote, Advocate for, and Support Ubuntu", which is fine and dandy...and vague.

    We've got Support pretty much covered. There's already plenty of great people here who can handle supporting newcomers. We're plugged into the web in such a way that people new to Ubuntu looking for help in the Indiana area have a pretty good chance of finding us either on the mailing list, the forum, or on IRC. We just have to wait for them. I suppose one thing we could think about, regarding Support, is: how do we make it easier for people in Indiana who need us to find us?

    We've already done a little bit in the way of Promoting/Advocacy simply by existing. I was contacted in order to find a speaker for IPFW (Indiana University Purdue University of Fort Wayne) because I'd announced my intention to start this Team, even before we got our mailing list up and running, and was able to pass that along to people who could handle it (Hi Vern!). So some promotion/advocacy opportunities will just sort of find their way to us by virtue of our existance. Some will come to us because we'll all have our eyes open for these opportunities. Some we may even create ourselves.

    The mere fact that we exist will bring opportunities to us, heck people on ubuntuforums came to our forum and were posting before I even had a chance to check it for the first time, much less advertise it. But what can we do to sort of facilitate these opportunities coming to us? What can do to create some of these opportunities?

    When we become an Official, Approved, Team--and I have no doubt that we will--we'll get the opportunity to receive and distribute those spiffy CDs of every release (After the release of Dapper Drake, it was decided that only the LTS releases would be available to the general public, that if people wanted free CDs of the latest not LTS version, distribution of those would be handled by Approved LoCo Teams), and we'll be able to get marketing materials shipped to us from Canonical (when I spoke on behalf of Canonical at CINLUG, they sent me CDs, stickers, brochures, and even some T-shirts to give away).

    Of course, we sort of have to act as a team for a while so that we can show that we can work well together in the spirit of Ubuntu (check out the Code of Conduct at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct , or "Experience ubuntu.ogg" in your ~/Examples directory in Ubuntu if you have questions about "the spirit of Ubuntu") before we get "Approved".

    It's been suggested that we meet regularly, which I'd like to get your ideas on. I realize it may not be feasible to meet face-to-face on a regular basis, but I think it'd be kind of cool to do so from time to time. It may be more feasible to meet online on IRC at specified times, what do you all think? I know a lot of people don't use IRC much.

    At the moment we've got people from Bloomington, Martinsville, Indianapolis, and Fort Wayne involved (at least on the Mailing List), maybe more, so for any real life meetings, it'd probably be best to figure out a location in Indianapolis or thereabouts to be as convenient to everyone as possible.

    Anyhow, this premier post is meant mostly to stir up conversation, and get this Team started up.

    It's a pleasure to have you all participating in whatever form you desire to do so, I greatly appreciate it.

    By no means a pre-requisite for participation, I encourage people to add themselves to the members list on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IndianaTeam and/or to the launchpad team (if you have or desire to get a launchpad account--useful, I've found, for requesting CDs, posting Bugs, doing translation work, etc. in Ubuntu) at https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-us-indiana because the longer those lists gets, the warmer and fuzzier the feeling I get from looking at it becomes.

    Anyhow, I'm going to stop here. Again, thank you for your participation. Now, DISCUSS!

    I hope this finds you all having a beautiful day!

    Simón

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Bloomington, Indiana, Uni
    Beans
    40

    Re: Introductory Posting

    I like the idea of an IRC meeting. I don't use IRC too often, but I'd log on if we had a meeting time set up. After a few months, if anyone's interested, a face-to-face meet would be cool. We'll have to look at that down the road.

    I think we should also consider an event/events for promoting Ubuntu/Linux. I go to a university with 36,000 students (IU Bloomington), and only a handful of the CS students use Linux. So many people just know about Mac and Windows and that's all they ever consider. I don't know how it would be done, or if it's already been tried, but lately I've been thinking about trying to increase awareness of Free/Open Source in my community (my college campus). If anyone has any ideas how to do that (either at IU or at other towns and cities in Indiana), I'd love to hear your opinion.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Beans
    1

    Re: Introductory Posting

    Just wanted to say whats up! Never used any type of Linux until the other day. I saw a vid about Beryl and had to have it. So I reformated my lappy to dual boot win xp and Ubuntu (edgy eft). I also got Beryl installed and its sweet! Had some issues with Kiba-dock, but I think its due to the svc reps being down or what not. Other then that, I dont know amuch about linux. I have been reading a lot about it, and hope to learn more!

    Oh ya, about me. I am a web designer. Took a C programming class in school, and hated it......uggh.......looks like I need to like it now!

    Word to yo momma!
    Kyle

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Beans
    95

    Smile Re: Introductory Posting

    Quote Originally Posted by Elim View Post
    I like the idea of an IRC meeting. I don't use IRC too often, but I'd log on if we had a meeting time set up. After a few months, if anyone's interested, a face-to-face meet would be cool. We'll have to look at that down the road.

    I think we should also consider an event/events for promoting Ubuntu/Linux. I go to a university with 36,000 students (IU Bloomington), and only a handful of the CS students use Linux. So many people just know about Mac and Windows and that's all they ever consider. I don't know how it would be done, or if it's already been tried, but lately I've been thinking about trying to increase awareness of Free/Open Source in my community (my college campus). If anyone has any ideas how to do that (either at IU or at other towns and cities in Indiana), I'd love to hear your opinion.
    RE: IRC & IRL meetings. Right on. I could see waiting a while before doing a face-to-face. I'm often idling in the IRC channel myself, so an IRC meeting would just be a matter of making sure to be there at a certain time.

    RE: Awareness at IU. You should think about getting in touch with the Bloomington Linux Users' Group <http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org>, they're a great bunch of people. Our next meeting is tomorrow evening if that's not too short notice. There's quite a few people from the BLUG on the IndianaTeam, so you might want to chat us up with your ideas.

    Quote Originally Posted by gobygoby View Post
    Just wanted to say whats up! Never used any type of Linux until the other day. I saw a vid about Beryl and had to have it. So I reformated my lappy to dual boot win xp and Ubuntu (edgy eft). I also got Beryl installed and its sweet! Had some issues with Kiba-dock, but I think its due to the svc reps being down or what not. Other then that, I dont know amuch about linux. I have been reading a lot about it, and hope to learn more!

    Oh ya, about me. I am a web designer. Took a C programming class in school, and hated it......uggh.......looks like I need to like it now!

    Word to yo momma!
    Kyle
    Hello Kyle!

    If you can get Beryl installed and played with on your first day of Linux, you're leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I started! I'm certain we've got plenty to learn from one another. It's good to have you on board!

    BTW, You only NEED to like C programming if you plan to do any of it. I, for instance, have never touched the stuff--though I'd like to learn--and it hasn't really kept me from having a great experience with Linux, or from contributing back to the community.

    Take care, and I'll see you around!

    Simón

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Beans
    41

    Re: Introductory Posting

    Great to see a LoCo in Indiana!! Is there a Muncie LUG? Does any one know. I would like to get more involved in the community.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Beans
    95

    Re: Introductory Posting

    Hello visualdeception!

    Welcome to the party!

    I'm not sure about a LUG in Muncie, but if I were you I'd poke around Ball State, especially the Computer Science school.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Beans
    41

    Re: Introductory Posting

    Yea, I need to check that. I guess I could always go with CINLUG, and this....

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Beans
    152
    Distro
    Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

    Re: Introductory Posting

    Quote Originally Posted by visualdeception View Post
    Yea, I need to check that. I guess I could always go with CINLUG, and this....
    I'm not aware of a Muncie LUG, I do know exactly two linux users in Muncie though. That's including myself. Maybe we should start a LUG.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Beans
    41

    Re: Introductory Posting

    we should with all the college kids surely there are some linux enthusiasts

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Indianapolis, Indiana
    Beans
    141
    Distro
    Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

    Re: Introductory Posting

    I just wanted to post and say hello and I'd like to be an active member as well. My Name is Nate, I'm from the Indianapolis area.

    About me: I'm 22 years old I'm currently a Systems Engineer and Head Linux Administrator for St. Francis hospitals. I work at the data centre next to the Beech Grove hospital campus. We provide support for all St. Francis hospitals. I support an environment that consists of AIX/HP-UX and Red hat Enterprise environments along with two other *NIX admins.

    I started using Linux in 2000 with the introduction of Slackware Linux by a long-time internet gaming friend. I've always had a passion for computers and Linux had overwhelming possibilities. I had ADHD as a child so it was hard for me to focus in school; albeit it has always been very easy to focus on something I enjoy.

    I run Ubuntu on my gaming rig at home, I'm a 100% *NIX shop at home; I have ridden the use for Microsoft as a whole, it's limiting my gaming experience with newer releases but I have faith in the community, we will prevail.

    I started using Ubuntu with the Dapper-Drake release since, I've been an avid Fan. I'm also a big Fan of Slackware, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Fedora, Red Hat and obviously Ubuntu. One thing that Ubuntu has that the rest doesn't seem to be able to provide is the huge fan base and the uncanny passion to help others, I'm very satisfied with the distribution as I would love to be a part of this project.

    That's just a little about my technical background, I'm a very social person in my down-time; I like to enjoy things like a normal 22 yr old, party, hang with friends and meet new people!

Page 1 of 5 123 ... LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •