[Ubuntu-ch] Would like to become involved in Swiss Ubuntu Group

[Arnaud Praplan]

Hi Tormod and thanks for your interest,

Didier wrote already a lot and I would like to clarify some points.

Le jeudi 25 janvier 2007 11:15, Tormod Volden a écrit :
> 1. Make it more open (mailing list etc). Open the wiki so people can
> just register and start translating if and when they want. It's in the
> free software and open-source spirit to be totally transparent and
> accessible.

We deliberately don't want using mailing list because otherwise, the
forums would have no reason to be there. And because the original idea
of Swisslinux.org was to have some forums, we don't want to change this.

We'll discuss the use of a mailing list to discuss about the
association's projects, but all the question concerning Linux (support)
have to be on the forums, because this is our aim.

The wiki and the forum is open (except for the association folder, for
some evident reasons, but you can edit german pages beginning with de,
like "de:verein"). You just have to register yourself and this choice
was made to avoid spamming (this problem was encountered with the
original website). I don't understand your remark. Can't you register,
is there a technical problem? 
You just have to click on "S'inscrire" (on the left), accept our rules
and give a nickname and an email, that's it.

As Didier said, on top of that IRC and Jabber rooms are also available.

> 2. The membership fee is a threshold that puts people off, even if
> it's an symbolical sum. Are you obliged (as a legal association) to
> demand a fee? (...)

We should change our bylaws (statuts) for this. I think the explanation
of Didier was pretty good. We choose to have an income. We paid 45 CHF
for three months hosting. The annual fee is 180 CHF. We are a very young
association but we would like to realise some projects and this money
should also help us to start/realise them.
Nothing "special" is planed for our members for now. It is as you said
"symbolic" : it is just an encouragement. By paying the member fee you
say : "I like your projects and want to help you".
You can also see the fee as a "minimum donation" ;)

This fee is not necessary to participate at the forum/wiki. But in the
real life, we need money and we chose this system. Some decisions have
to be made and this is the one we made. You can now say it is bad or not
but it is like that. Changing this would imply a vote during a general
assembly.

> 3. Is the general assembly tomorrow open for non-members?
> Are there means to participate remotely (video conference/streaming,
> IRC)? If yes and yes, I would like to join and present my ideas.
> Otherwise I hope you can mention this in the meeting. 

It is open to everyone, but you can't participate to the decisions.
However, we offer the possibility to become a member for 2007 just
before the assembly if you want to become a member and voting rights.
We've not planed a remote participation, but we should discuss that for
the next times, as not everyone can travel a lot.
But it is too short to set up something until tomorrow.
You can try IRC, but I don't know if someone will report.

> PS. will there be a SwissLinux stand at OpenExpo?

We'll discuss that tomorrow, but it is really a short time! Anyway,
we'll try to be present at Linuxdays.ch at the "Village des
associations" in order to meet other opensource involved people in
Switzerland and to show our association and find collaborations for our
projects. Doing both would be great, as what we would do for the
OpenExpo could be used at Linuxdays.ch.

The association was made to insure that the forums will stay online
(before, just one person was doing all the work and it was just too much
for him and he wanted to give up). We don't want to replace any other
Swiss organisation, but we would like to collaborate with other
associations.

I don't know why everybody say that we are splitting the strengths in
Switzerland... I don't know any others Swiss WebForums about Linux in
general. We are not "dissidents" and we would enjoy if some SL.org
people could help the other organisations or collaborate with them. We
have some contacts with TheAlternative (ETHZ) and GnuGeneration (EPFL),
for instance.

I'm looking forward to hear from you here, on sl.org or in real-life

Best regards

Arnaud
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