Date: Tue, 20 Jun 1995 03:02:17 +0100 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@freebsd.org> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Calling all hackers - it's time to unite! Message-ID: <12486.803613737@whisker.internet-eireann.ie>
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I knew that subject line would get your attention.. :-)
Actually, all I'm calling for here is the formation of some FreeBSD
user groups. It occurs to me that we're lagging way behind in the
"grass roots" user organization department, and while I'd like to
think that this is due to our wonderful degree of organization and
bundled documentation, I rather suspect that the truth is less rosy
than that. I also think that it's about time we did something about
it.
Jonathan Bresler (whom I'd also like to take a brief moment to
publically acknowledge here - he does a thankless job behind the
scenes keeping our overloaded mail system running and deserves
significant kudos for a job well done - way to go Jon!) recently
posted a summary of our readership that was encouraging. I, in turn,
took a look at the sum total of all unique users on all active lists
(also counting each exploder as a single user, so the actual number
should in truth be HIGHER) and saw that the current number of
"readers" of our mailing lists currently stands at 2,201.
Yes, that's over two thousand readers that we know about, and it
doesn't even begin to try and estimate the number of USENET readers or
the readers on exploder mailing lists. This tells me that we're
starting to reach the level of critical mass necessary to justify a
reasonable number of user groups in various parts of the world, hence
this posting.
First, a few answers to some of the more basic questions:
Q. Why should I form a FreeBSD user group in my area?
A. There are many reasons, but allow me to enumerate a few of them:
1. They're fun. User group meetings, provided that they aren't
scheduled for some weird time like 6:00am every Sunday
morning, are a great social event. You have a chance to meet
some of the faces behind the email addresses and swap war stories
about the number of times it took you to install 2.0.5R.. :-)
A number of lasting friendships are also made at such meetings
and god-only-knows that a few of us could certainly stand to get
out of the house once in awhile.
2. They're very useful. In addition to swapping war stories, you
can also exchange special tips, tricks and details on innovative
uses of FreeBSD that may not have occurred to the other attendees.
There's also a great multiplicative effect whereby only ONE person
need know the answer to a complex question for everyone in
the group to benefit from the knowledge.
3. They encourage innovation. A number of interesting sub-projects
that would otherwise be too much for one person can often be
accomplished by a whole user group who decides to make that
project their collective goal. Numerous examples of this
exist, and I believe that the Linux networking code was, in fact
written by such a "club".
Q. So how do I start one? Isn't it really hard?
A. It's not hard at all. All it takes is for one individual in some
geographic region with some reasonable concentration of FreeBSD
users to post a message saying "Ok, everyone in the greater southwestern
Utah area listen up! I've got permission from Sister Agnes of
Our Lady of Perpetual Motion to use their wrestling arena and indoor
handball court for a FreeBSD user group meeting this Thursday night!
Please be there at 8pm. A postscript map giving directions can be found
as a MIME attachment to this message, and Terry Lambert has graciously
agreed to speak. He will be giving his 7 hour presentation on the
``Grand Unified Console Driver'' so be sure to bring a thermos of coffee!"
Etc etc. From such small acorns mighty oaks often grow, and such
meetings frequently turn into regular events (though Terry may or may
not necessarily be invited back to speak a second time in my purely
hypothetical scenario :-).
It's really just a simple matter of finding a place to meet, and if
a Sister Agnes isn't available to offer a room then why not simply
meet at a local restaurant? The 3-4 FreeBSD core team dinners I've
hosted in the San Francisco Bay Area have all gone very well, and you
hardly have to be part of the core team to do the same thing. They've
even been rather productive on a few occasions, with David Greenman
being known to occasionally shove a laptop in Kirk McKusick's face for
a spontaneous code review! :-)
There are known concentrations of FreeBSD hackers in the S.F. Bay
Area, Boston, Minnesota, New York, Dallas, London, Munich, Moscow and
possibly even Tibet, so what are you folks waiting for? Get together!
Pool your knowledge and possibly your beer money and have a good time
discussing your favorite operating system! All it takes is one
individual taking a little time out to organise the first one, after
which any subsequent ones will surely fall into place. Once a week,
once a month, even once a year - anything's better than nothing, and
nothing is what we currently have just a little too much of.
I will try to facilitate this whenever and however possible (if you
get enough people together, heck, I might even drop by for a personal
visit :-) but it's really going to come down to you folks in the final
analysis. You, the users, can do a LOT to help yourselves and have a
good time in the process, but you need to make the initial moves.
A simple one-liner to this list saying something to the effect of:
"Ok, anyone in the greater Minnesota area interested in holding a user
group meeting this month, please contact me!"
With your Reply-To set so that replies go to you and not the list
would be a fine start. If you keep it short and simple (and remember
to set that Reply-To field!) then I'm sure that the other readers of
the -hackers list won't mind. If it starts becoming a high traffic
affair then we'll work out some sort of user-group coordination list,
but for now getting some regular user groups started is really of
paramount importance. The Linux users already have numerous user
groups, newsletters, books, magazines, corporate aircraft, etc. We
have some T-shirts and an official CDROM. Both very nice to have,
I'll grant you, but we still have quite a ways to go to catch up! :-)
Thanks for listening, and PLEASE consider stepping forward to start
the ball rolling in your area!
Thank you,
Jordan
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