[ubuntu-uk] UK linux organisations (was Re: French FLOSS for Schools)

[Benjamin Webb]

On 06/02/07, Daniel Watkins <D.M.Watkins at warwick.ac.uk> wrote:
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> Benjamin Webb wrote:
> > We need to try to get an official UK page for Linux, which will
> > include, amongst other things the list of people and their MPs that
> > was suggested, so that we can all lobby simultaneously. The way that I
> > see it, the Ubuntu UK community would be part of this site, but also
> > other groups of UK Linux users (ie from other distributions).
> Who would make it an 'official' web page?
>
> I also don't think there is any need for any national GNU/Linux site,
> official or otherwise, as this implies that the Free Software community
> is not an international one. There _is_ a need for local user-groups,
> who may or may not have a website, to extol the virtues of GNU/Linux and
> Free Software in general. We can't encourage people using a national
> website any more than an international website, and an international
> website can be found, used, contributed to and funded by more people.

Actually I can see your points. However, what about the co-ordination
of efforts to lobby the UK government (for example trying to get MPs
to sign the FLOSS in Schools EDM). That is UK specific and there
doesn't seem any place for it at the moment.

Perhaps we should create a site that is for people who already use
Linux, for co-ordinating the lobbying of the UK government.

Paul wrote:
> Perhaps the best place to start, or to coordinate any further work is around
> the Linux User Groups site.  This already has lots of LUG websites and a
> server that is available for hosting related sites:
>
> http://www.lug.org.uk/

The LUGs are a particularly good point, which I had forgotten. With
the LUGs we can make sure we have lobbyists in as many constituencies
and areas of the UK as possible. However, I think it might still be a
good idea to create a Linux UK Lobbying Group, with linking to (and
hopefully from) the LUG site.