regionalized LoCo's within Canada

[Ryan Thiessen]

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-