regionalized LoCo's within Canada
Ryan Thiessen
ryan at ryanthiessen.com
Mon Apr 11 18:42:47 UTC 2005
On Mon, Apr 11, 2005 at 01:15:13PM -0400, Andrew VanSpronsen wrote:
> What do people think about creating more regional LoCo teams within Canada?
> I posed this question to Matthias Urlichs who agreed that it probably made
> sense. Ultimately it is up to all of us though so we can decide for
> ourselves. .
I think this is not a good idea for the short term with ubuntu-ca. Right
now we have a low-traffic mailing list, a low-traffic planet, and a
low-traffic IRC channel. Splitting up the group even further will reduce
the traction that we have already started... and we've really just gotten
started. If any of these functions start to take off in a serious way
then I think that would be the time to look at creating regional/cultural
splinter groups -- but still maintaining the cross-canada ubuntu-ca group.
> Why regionalize?
> Canada is very large and our major population centres are separated by great
> distances. It is hard to build a sense of community in a Country as large
> and disperse as Canada. Social Events stand a better chance of bringing
> in the whole community Easier to target the unique language/culture of
> our different regions Community Support would be more localized
And yet despite all that we keep the country together! Why do we need to
break up to target language/culture? I for one would like to see a
bilingual planet.ubuntu-ca.org with our French and English speakers
working together with common interest. It's the Canadian way, no?
That said, I do understand that there are important subgroups in Canada
with different cultures. Do french speakers want their own mailing list
and IRC channels where they could feel more comfortable speaking in their
native language? If so I really don't have a problem with that.
But outside of language groups, is the culture really all that different
that we can't work together? What purpose does a localized ontario group
have that I can't be part of from BC? Certainly, social events will be
out of my range, but if the meeting is in TO you'd hardly be able to get
people from northern or western ontario involved either. We have the same
problem in BC where many of the local participants need to take a ferry
(or two) to be able to meet up. It seems more logical to maintain a
master Ubuntu-ca group and let regionalized social events spring up
naturally from that.
For example, I wouldn't have a problem with people from Toronto or
Montreal or Calgary announcing and discussing a local release party on the
list -- even if I can't make it I'm still interested in what they are up
to. Am I in the minority here?
Thanks for the email, certainly food for thought.
Cheers,
-rt-
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