[ubuntu-uk] LUGs

[TheVeech]

On Sun, 2007-04-01 at 10:05 +0100, Robin Menneer wrote:
>         
>         I personally am happy, for the moment, to stand on the side
>         lines of the exotic discussions that go on because they are
>         sampling what may happen to me in the future (providing my
>         thickie problems are solved for me when I ask for help).

This is a great way of increasing your knowledge and for getting an idea
for how to contribute to the collective wisdom.


>         But to someone coming fresh to the computer world, who are
>         potentially the vast majority, the exotic discussions could be
>         very discouraging.  Possibly the dedicated telephone support
>         would be taken up more enthusiastically by the average poor
>         communicator.  After all we all have to start by asking if the
>         power is switched on at the wall.

Online, the support's nearly always out there, but it's getting all
sorts of new people knowing it's there, how to find it, and make the
most of it, that might need looking in to.

Complexity can be relative.  Ubuntu itself can be as complicated as you
want it to be - I've had people telling me that they prefer Windows
because Linux is too simple!  Likewise with support areas - there's so
many options to choose from that you can find an area that's more at
your current level.  But I appreciate that part of the problem is
getting there in the first place.

There's also the issue of people who don't have online access at all.
You've got experience with documentation, so you might have something
important to say about this.

The beauty of having a Linux for Seniors initiative is that it would
almost certainly include many people at different levels of competence,
but with a better overall appreciation of the specific issues that its
members can face (I've found, for example, that TuxPaint is THE killer
app for grandparents!).  It's also another option for tapping into the
knowledge and skills set that this group has, but which may be felt to
have little value in IT (e.g. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a place
for the skills and experience you're putting into your methodology
paper).

Getting to such an initiative is another matter - which is why I
answered Caroline Ford's post.  Those experienced in how other groups
work would probably have something constructive to say about how people
could go about this.  When I've got some more spare time, I'll put out
some feelers.