[ILUG] Educating the masses

[AJ McKee]

Well this is very much my own personal opinion in here so here it goes;

>What is the purpose of ILUG?

Well if I am reading the constitution correctly, Article 2 is follows;

2. Aims and Objectives.
       The aims and objectives of the society shall be as follows:
         1. To increase and promote awareness of the Linux operating
            system within both the home and corporate sectors of the
            Irish Computing industry.
         2. To provide a forum to discuss and gain experience of the
            Linux operating system.
         3. To help educate people in the usage of Linux and related
            software.
         4. To promote Irish contributions to the kernel source code
            development.

However I would also be of the opinion that perhaps we are or should
also be adding to the aforementioned list "Aid, Support & Promote Open
source Software and their respective communities."

>How can ILUG serve the OS community?

By being vocal, passionate advocates of Linux and by association, Open
Source Software. By helping to foster new projects in the Open Source
Community, By supporting Open Source projects be it in code development,
testing etc, and I am quite sure there are a lot of other areas too, but
I am just too tired right now. I do note that we do have members (Some I
have named enough already to the media this week), that are out there
getting involved, I just think it would be cool, if we can keep adding
more and more people all the time. It does good for ourselves, the lug,
the country... Our community.
 
>Does ILUG want to educate the masses on OS software?

In a word, YES, I think it should anyhow, but as always every member
will differ. But if it were to be put to a vote I would vote yes

>Does ILUG want to take a more political role?
Again yes, I am all in favour. We see recently how electronic voting
systems have been used as a political football recently. Well why could
we not have (Or indeed still can) contribute to the debate in an
intelligent and professional manner. After all it is something that the
Open Source Community is affected by, and is against the principles of
OSS is it not? That's just one example, but what about the way your
kids/niece/nephew/grandson etc is though. Do you want them brought up in
a one OS schooling world? That is as much about politics as it is about
education.

>What kind of practical role do people want ILUG to have?

Well I can only speak for myself, But I can shoot my mouth off real good
sometimes (Really badly others :), Do a bit of web site scripting in
PHP, Look at things from a users/public/business perspective. As far as
a practical role for ILUG, I would love to see it get heavily involved
in spreading Linux and its associated OSS applications, especially in
relation to the education sector. I would like to see ILUG help
consolidate the Server/SME sector and begin drawing up plans of how to
contribute to the forthcoming Linux desktop revolution. We should be
calling this guy and that guy saying, hey well done nice bit of code
there, can I help in anyway? Or just generally, get out and about and
evangelise Linux to the masses.

>Why was ILUG not contacted when a subject directly pertaining 
>to its activities and its members was under discussion?

I would argue here that our profile is not high enough in the media (And
I take blame for this). In fact in business as well. While most business
I have met love the idea of Linux and all that, they view ILUG as being
a mad bunch of anything between Mad hackers and Social misfits to just
geeks making noise. Now I of course don't agree with them and defend us
viciously, but the businesses I have meet, have this opinion. I am sure
that someone else has a totally different experience than mine, but why
aim at 50% penetration when you can go all the way...?

Now these are just my two cents to what really is a long term discussion
and development cycle of ILUG. We have great members, great ideas, great
technology, great IT culture. We don't have to promoting the "CODE" all
the time, hell we can get to gether on a personal level too. Its as much
about social interaction as it is about computation interaction, but hey
my soap box is tired and so am I. So enough of the senseless ramblings,
that's my point of view but I am willing and would love to see healthy
and meaningful debate on stuff like this.

AJ
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