[Nolug] the first Louisiana LUGs (LALUGS) meeting

Hey y'all,

Sorry I'm so late getting this out. Some of the details are lacking, and I
apologize for this. We had a full day, met a lot of new people, etc., and my
memory of the event is not as clear as I wish it were. I've noted these
areas, and hopefully someone can help clarify the details. I expecially want
to apologize for forgetting people's names, as the day was a pleasurable one,
made so by the attendance of so many of Louisiana's fine Linux enthusiasts.

We met (all 13 of us) two Saturdays ago in Lafayette. Lafayette Data Systems
hosted the meeting, and allowed us to use their teaching facility, which was
very comfortable. Thomas Wimprine and I showed up a little after 11AM, and
slowly other folks began to arrive. I took the initiative as soon as we had
a quorum, and immediately made a motion to adjourn for lunch ;-) We went to a
nice buffet about 4 blocks away and good food and conversation.

Back at the facility, we spent the first hour or so just hacking. It was neat
to hang out with other geeks and share stories, URLs, hacks, etc., and I even
coded a php script to put fortune on my web page. Someone even demonstrated a
distro for us. Finally Wendell got up the nerve to stand up and try to get
everyone's attention so we could move forward with discussion about LALUGS.

We then took turns introducing ourselves, and a rep from each LUG took a few
minutes to brag on his local LUG (New Orleans, Lafayette and Lake Charles had
reps at the meeting; Baton Rouge had a stand-in... and Opelousas also has a
small LUG, of sorts, with 100% of their membership in attendance... all two
of them!). We then discussed the purpose of LALUGS (inter-lug communication,
cooperation, etc.), and tossed out ideas about how we could somehow promote
Linux in our state.

One of the guys from Lake Charles introduced a project of his, which he was
working on in conjunction with McNeese University and the Lake Charles
Chamber of Commerce (someone correct me if I have this wrong, and does anyone
know his name?). He is trying to promote Linux in Lake Charles and throughout
the state, and (the details are hazy here) he thinks he might be able to
sponsor an open-source convention of some sort, directed at businesses,
regarding the promotion and adoption of Linux. While he will probably be
required to hold the convention in Lake Charles, this is certainly something
that would benefit all businesses throughout Louisiana. I think we ought to
help him in any way we can.

Part of his project, if I remember correctly, was to do something twice a
year. I think he was wanting to do was use the LALUGS group to satisfy this
condition of his project. In other words, LALUGS would meet twice per year,
and his participation in it would be taken as a sponsorship of LALUGS ...or
something to that effect. I will ask him (once I remember his name :-/) to
post better details of his project here on the list, and in other forums (see
below). At any rate, Wendell introduced the guy as being an important part of
LALUGS. Wendell is the fellow that organized the meta-LUG in the first place,
and the idea certainly is something that I would like to see come to pass.

Next, we explored the possibility of a project for LALUGS, in the hopes that
we would not be "all hat and no cattle", so to speak. One of the ideas we hit
upon was to put up a website for LALUGS. I offered to host it, and also to
register a domain name. Another fellow offered to put up a blog-type site,
similar to the nolug.org site. This would be good for me, in that I would not
have the burden of maintaining the content for the site. Someone mentioned a
FAQ, perhaps in wikiwiki-format, for visitors ("what is Linux?", "what can it
do for me?", etc.). Everyone seemed to think that a website was an excellent
idea. I think we talked about other projects, but nothing sticks in my
memory. Certainly everyone was in favor of the convention idea, and I believe
participation in that event was a "project" worthy of LALUGS.

The only friction of the day centered on the subject of proper Linux
marketing strategies. I feel strongly that Linux and open source software is
better overall than what is available in the windows world (security, code
quality, support, etc.), and am inclined to state such, as loudly as
possible. One of the guys from Lafayette (if I'm not mistaken) didn't like
that approach, instead choosing a softer approach, one not as controversial
in nature. He thinks as I do about the superiority of Linux, but thought my
approach was too negative, and might turn people off. I understood his point
of view, but countered his argument by pointing out the fact that most
windows users are tired of viruses, crashes, forced upgrades, etc., but would
probably not consider Linux if they weren't aware of the fact that such
afflictions are far less common when using Linux. Basically, they won't
switch if we don't tell them Linux is way better than their current
environment. I also made the comment that the day before the LALUGS meeting I
had attended an IBM Linux presentation, and IBM's apparent official line is
(to paraphrase) "windows has all these problems, people are tired of it, so
let's introduce them to Linux".

After the discussion about LALUGS projects, we retired to yet another fine
eating establishment for supper. We went to an oriental place that served
Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Laotian food. The wonton soup was excellent,
but I put too much of the pepper flakes in my main dish, and ended up
breaking out into a sweat (ask Thomas, he'll tell you about it) and had to
beat it to the restroom to get over the fire in my mouth and sinus cavities.
I can't wait to go back there, though (I'll stick with the soup next time).

^C

Those are my recollections of the LALUGS meeting. I'm hoping that we can get
my account and the accounts of everyone else that had a write-up posted to
the LALUGS website, as soon as it is set up. Please forward this to your LUG,
if I haven't already posted to it directly.

I encourage all of you to be thinking of ways to promote Linux in Louisiana,
and New Orleans especially. Also I hope that some of you would see fit to
participate in LALUGS and its efforts. Also, thanks for taking the time to
read my account of the event.

-- 
Joey Kelly
< Minister of the Gospel | Computer Networking Consultant >
http://joeykelly.net
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
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