Relative noobie here, but will do what I can to help. --- Alexander Henry wrote: > The last time we had an installfest was in October. > Myself, I'd never > seen a PLUG installfest before that last one. > Despite our marketing > efforts being limited to these mailing lists and (I > think) an AzTech > listing, and despite such a sparse recurrence, we > had an excellent showing > of new faces. This tells me that the community is > downright hungry for > installfests. What concert ever emits such a faint > peep and fills their > house? Curiosity about Linux grows every day, and > more business and > government agencies are turning to Linux for > solutions. Other major > cities in America hold installfests at least > monthly. We need to hold > monthly installfests. I'd like to pick up the torch > for organizing and > marketing these monthly installfests. > > I picked the last Saturday of the month, as it's a > convenient day for most > to attend an all-day event, it distributes well > among the county's other > Linux, AzTech, and the cities' Chamber of Commerce > meetings, and the > Stammtisch will always be before the installfest, > which would be a > springboard for the organizers and volunteers. I've > already called > Charles Braffett about reserving the University of > Advancing Technology > area. He said we are very welcome to come! > > Volunteers: I think we all know what is needed for > installfests on the > technical side, and last time we had overwhelming > support, so I'm not > going to worry about this one bit. Just tell us > what you're bringing, > physically, mentally, and spiritually. I'll watch > plug-discuss and > collect a list, and relay the list back here. That > way any vacuums will > be seen and filled. We will need several people to > sign up specifically > to be at the installfest at 9am, an hour before the > official start; I'll > be one of those. Last time food magically showed > up, and a lot more than > what Hans's family baked: what happened? I think we > should probably put a > coffee can somewhere, and at 13:00 take whatever is > in there and have a > food run. Other than that, whatever happens > happens! > > We also had great support for demos and tons of > ideas about what to 'do' > at the installfest. Bring them on. However, be > careful what you ask for, > you might get it! :-) I'm going to deliberately > reply to this list to > those ideas with a feature-itis mentality. I'm as > guilty as the next > hacker of wanting to conquer the world in one > installfest, but here, this > time, I'm not only going to bite my tounge, I'm > going to be a > fuddy-duddy. First, you need support, space, time, > and interest before a > Cool Thing[TM] is worth doing. But most > importantly, the primary goal, I > think, needs to be gaining momentum for monthly > recurrence, and to roll > out new desktops to people who have never seen Linux > before. For the > users the benefit is obvious, they always know they > can show up the last > Saturday of any month for any kind of help. For us, > recurrence reduces > the pressure and makes us more effective. Forget > something? Do it next > time. Didn't finish that Dec Alpha install after > six hours? There's > always next time. Once you set up that Cool > Thing[TM], and see people > like it and need it, it's already ready for next > time. Of course, hackers > wouldn't come if they didn't get a treat as well, so > yes, extra-nerdy > demos need to happen as well! Bring on those ideas. > I'm not saying I > won't accept them, just be forwarned I'm going to > act like I'm hard to > please :-) > > I want to stress, again, to listen to the needs of > the n00bs, and find > opportunities to provide. Those opportunities will > not be in short > supply, and it's a lot easier to satisfy those needs > next month rather > than anticipate them all beforehand. For now, we > will just be available > as volunteers to do one-on-one work. But while > you're working, look for > common threads, and the next installfest we'll > refine it. > > Okay, let's have ourselves an installfest! > > -- > > --Alexander > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - > PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail > settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss ===== Cyclists should expect and demand safe accommodation on our public roads, just as does every other user. Nothing more is expected. Nothing less is acceptable! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss