[Ubuntu-BD] The get together of Ubuntu and Mint users

[Shabab Mustafa]

Dear Comrades,

Hope you are all fine.

I guess we all know about Ubuntu T-shirt project (thanks to Lenin bro for
his posts). By this project we have experienced some extra ordinary
experiences and the response was times more than our expectations. Not only
from Dhaka, but also from all over the country. Some came to Dhaka in
morning bus, bought 2 pieces of T-shirt and returned in the evening bus. And
the interesting part is, that was the first time that he traveled to Dhaka
in his life. And this is only one story of several.

This kind of responses proves that the level of interest of people in Ubuntu
and Linux Distros has been increased at a geometric progression in last few
months. Even people, who always stayed silent in online communities,
expressed interest about Ubuntu this time.

By receiving this kind of responses, personally me and Shahriar felt an
communal responsibility for these people. So, last past few days we were
brainstorming about how we can do something. By then we got an idea for
arranging a get together to meet and greet out silent friends.

The Idea
------------
Well, idea is simple. This time we will meet, chat, discuss, enjoy movies
and do similar easy going things. This will be not anything like ‘release
party’ or similar type of gathering. There will be no training or
demonstration type of thing. We will laugh and make others laugh. Something
likes a fun carnival. :D

In this course, I have contacted with our brothers of LinuxMint-BD to join
with us ( thanks to Ayon Khan and Raju bhai aka the hungrycoder ). And they
also interested and got excited, too. So, this one gonna be a gathering of
both Ubuntu and LinuxMint users. And we gave it a name: ‘বন্টু-মিন্টুর
আড্ডা’ :D

What will we do?
-----------------------
Well, there are several ideas.

1.    Introduce to ourselves. Meet and know our buddies.

2.    Enjoy a documentary film together. Selected ‘Revolution OS’ with
Bangla subtitles for screening this time.

3.    Experience sharing. Most of us have tons of experiences about Linux.
How we know about Linux, how much we struggle with it, interesting
experiences about Linux advocacy and motivating others etc.

4.    Discuss about future plans. What we can do next to spread out the
message of FOSS and Linux.

5.    Few words from the representative our affiliates and associates.

6.    A temporary shop for collecting Ubuntu and LinuxMint T-shirts,
Customized DVDs including necessary software (thanks to Shazed bhai),
Printed user guides (depending on availability of current version)

7.    May be enjoying some snacks together. (depending on getting sponsor
for that)

When and Where?
--------------------------
We have found 22nd of July, Friday is convenient. Venue is not set yet,
because we have no idea about exact number of participants. Primary plan is
to run a registration campaign to get the idea of that. My personal guess is
no less than 200 after 3 weeks of campaign / promotion.

Some Explanations
-----------------------------
A.    First question is ‘Why movie show?’ Well, the experience says that a
lot of people out there who are convinced and preaching others about FOSS.
But many of them have no clear idea about FOSS philosophy and history. So, I
think ‘Revolution OS’ is a fantastic Documentary for knowing these things.
And people love to see video together. We have noticed that in Jaunty
Release Party when we showed the ‘Big Buck Bunny’ and the really enjoyed it.

B.    The customized DVD plan was a long planned thing. It will be available
in IDB for buy soon (Thanks to Jamil bhai). It can be handy to get those DVD
in our get together.

Some progresses and analysis
----------------------------------------------
A.    As you know ‘Revolution OS’ is not a free film to get. It’s DVD can be
found on Amazon.com and some other online shop, which costs $22 excluding
postal charge. And there is no convenient way to get those DVD legally.
Under this circumstance, I personally contacted with the Director J.T.S.
Moore regarding this issue. Mr Moore was kind enough to give us permission
for screening of ‘Revolution OS’ with a condition of not to copy and
re-distribute the file. I convey the gratitude to Mr Moore on behalf of the
community.

B.    We already have 70 Pieces of Ubuntu T-shirt in stock and another 60
for LinuxMint will be available soon.

C.    As Ankur Bangladesh previously expressed interest to sponsor programs
of Ubuntu-BD, I have talked with them casually about the snacks sponsorship
and they said to send them a mail about the plan. I am forwarding this mail

D.    We may need some sponsorship/arrangement for Projector and Sound
system if the venue (yet to be fixed) doesn’t have those facilities.

This is the things/progress happened so far. We have 3 weeks for promotion
of this event to reach the event news to all. There is a fair chance become
the biggest gathering of Linux User's this time. So, we need to work hard.
And we need some volunteers to make this event successful, too.

So, anyone have any suggestions?

I am adding Raju bhai in CC of this mail, pretending that he is not
subscribed in this list yet. Requesting Raju bhai to join with us and
participate in discussion.

Cheers,
---
Shabab Mustafa