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

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

"Noirin Plunkett" <plunkett at gmail.com> writes:
> 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.

ILUG not able to draw a crowd?

IFSO only has a grand in the bank, ~25 members, and a mailing list of 100
people.  If IFSO can do a Stallman talk with 300+ attendees including 3 MEPs
as quick guest speakers[0], plus the afore mentioned anti-swpat seminar,
then ILUG can certainly do same or better.

[0] http://www.ifso.ie/documents/rms-2004-05-24.html

> > 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.

The software exists and is very valuable.  A massive communitiy working for
many years made this happen.  Some companies with masses of money and
lawyers would like to see that reversed.

They would like it to be impractical for their market share to be threatened
by free software development.  Software patents were one attempt, mass-DRM
plans are another, FUD sent via SCO was another, proprietary document
formats are another.

They would also like to do these things without having them appear on the
radar of too many of the mass of people who are happily using free software.
They are probably pretty happy about how well this aspect is going.


The history of the software is pretty interesting, and even entertaining
when told by some speakers[1].  Raising some awareness and starting some
discussion would be a very useful contribution, and it's not being done by
others.

[1] such as Eben Moglen:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Moglen#Video_and_audio_downloads

> > Users need to know that as well as existing and being great, making the
> > software exist has been a 22-year struggle

> Now you just sound deranged. Linux isn't that old

Planning began in 1983 and it was announced in September.  Software
development began in January 1984.  For the operating system, the last major
component, the kernel, was begun in 1991 and was released as free software
in 1992.



-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan, _________| Belfast, Northern Ireland, Thursday March 16th
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ |           \\ FOSS Means Business //
http://www.fsfe.org________|        http://foss-means-business.org