[ILUG] ICT Expo 2006 update (ideas on helping the community)

[Noirin Plunkett]

On 13 Mar 2006 12:04:19 +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan <ciaran at fsfe.org> wrote:
>
> > If you're stuck for ideas, why not try contributing something to your
> > favourite linux distro? Bug reports, documentation and code are almost
>
> I think there are places where ILUG's contribution could be more significant
> than contributing funding to the software development tasks of a distro.

Perhaps I've been wholly misunderstood - I never intended to propose
that ILUG contribute financially to any software development. I know
there was talk once upon a time of offering a bounty for kernel
development - but I was suggesting that people contribute time and
effort.

> My suggestion to ILUG would be to look at the things that you wish were
> happening, which you can't rely on someone else to do, and put resources
> into them.

I don't honestly think that the things that work for IFSO will work
for ILUG. It's a wholly different community, and frankly, has trouble
getting a decent turnout once a year for the AGM, never mind for other
things. There is, of course, a hard-core group who will turn out for
almost anything. But anything more strenuous than a PoTD really
doesn't seem likely to work.

> IMO, the biggest need for the community is for there to be more awareness
> about sustainability.
>
> Many companies and people can be relied on to spread awareness about the
> existence and value of the software, but not many are talking about what has
> to be done to stop the value from unhappening.

Unhappening? I truly can't parse this sentence.

> Users need to know that as well as existing and being great, making the
> software exist has been a 22-year struggle, and the struggle gets tougher
> now because we're eating away at the profits of some of the world's
> best-resourced companies.

Now you just sound deranged. Linux isn't that old - and as someone
working on an open-source project with >50% share of its market, I
don't see the big, bad grumpies coming after me.

I'm not even going to start on the licensing debate.

Noirin