ILUG Annual General Meeting Last updated on .

What's happening ?
The Irish Linux User Group is now over two years old, and has 800 members on it's mailing list, as well as many, many more that don't have time to read the list.

Recent public opinion about Linux in Ireland is changing. There is more and more business interest, and many more people are potentially Linux Users. A formal structure for talking to outside bodies (everything from SuSE to the press), is required.

We will be voting in a formal constitution, electing a body to uphold it, and having some fun, and learning too. There will be a number of very interesting speakers, speaking not just about technology, but about the social & business ramifactions of Linux too. We also will be holding informal "Bird of a Feather" sessions, where groups of home users, system administrators, student/college users and developers can share shop-talk, without feeling they are talking over peoples heads.

When ? Where ?
The talks, and the discussion of the new consititution will be in the McNeill Lecture Theatre in the Hamilton Building (Hamilton 3) on Saturday, 17 June, from 11am to 6pm. The Bird Of a Feather meetings will be in smaller rooms, off that main one.

At the moment, if you don't know where to go, be outside the Hamilton building, but on the TCD campus, just before 11:00. You don't know where the Hamilton Building is ? Check the East TCD map

Bring CDs!
Everyone has old CD's at home they don't want anymore. Bring along a few CDs, and hopefully there will be people there that can make use of them!.

Hopefully, we'll be able to bring some Corel Linux CDs, and some old RedHat / Mandrake / Debian / FreeBSD etc. if we can get some from CD distributors, so people can "widen their experience".

Souveneirs
We are also looking into having ILUG caps, tshirts & fleeces made up, to be bought (profits going to the ILUG bank account) at the meeting.

Raffle!
The nice people in O'Reilly & Associates have offered a number of books & tshirts to be raffled. We will also have some boxed copies of RedHat and SuSE to give away, as well as the free versions of Corel linux, for people that want to get their mother's using Linux.

Planned Agenda (very very subject to change)
11:00 ILUG "doers" Short talks
Details: Various people will give break (60 second) talks on what has been happening on the Irish Linux scene over the last year or so - LAID, Cork Linux User Group, Dublin Meetings, ILUG goes to Windows world, etc. If you have organised an event, or know of something that has been "of note", please, contact Kate with details, so we can fit you in.
 
11:30 "Round pegs in square holes: making Linux a snug fit" First talk, by Peter Flynn
Details: Talk on using linux in strange places.
 
12:15 Bird of a Feather Meeting Hosted by ILUG members
Details: Kenn Humborg (Development), John Looney (Business), Donncha O Caoimh & Adam Beecher (Web development) and Raymond Kelly (Windows Integration) have offered to host some.
 
13:00 Break for lunch Somewhere Nearby
Details: If anyone can suggest some places that would cope with large numbers of ILUGgers (or perhaps we could order pizza etc?)
 
13:45 The evolution of internet communities Open-talk, hosted by John 'Kate' Looney
Details: A brief look at how internet communities bloom and wither, and discussion on how ILUG can avoid this happening...
 
14:30 RedHat's business model David Owens from RedHat
Details: David explains how RedHat make money from Free Software, and runs through some relevant statistics, showing Linux growth around the world.
 
15:15 ILUG consitution discussion Anyone want to host this ?
Details: Hopefully this can be kept to about 30 minutes - parts of the constitution will have to be explained & justified. We will also discuss titles & responsibilities of elected officers.
 
15:45 ILUG elections Open to all members
Details: Fight to the death, for the honour of getting spammed by businesses & blamed for the inertia of ILUG >grin<.
 
16:00 ILUG agenda Open to all members
Details: ILUG members discuss society related matters:
  • ILUG Working Groups - open groups to discuss how to do stuff (education, events, etc)
  • Setting up ILUG geographic groups - Cork,Galway,Belfast - any more ?
  • Any other business
 
16:40 Tech demo Pretty colours!
Details: Various ILUG members show off new linux (and not so linux) related kit, on their own machines. Please contact Kate with details, so we can arrange room/time etc. Ideas welcome.