[Ubuntu-US-CA] "The Ubuntu community cannot, and does not want to, prescribe which formal structure its local teams should use”

[Robert Lewis]

This group is to inward looking and therefor self serving in my view.
 I think we need to focus on the real common goals of helping others
in our efforts to promote Linux within the community.

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 8:30 AM, kdemarest <kdemarest at gmail.com> wrote:
> I couldn't help but get the feeling that we might be taking this leadership
> election a little too seriously.  Maybe it would help to point out the
> truism that a leader can't force anyone to do anything on our team.  All
> they can do is make suggestions.  I mean, from the looks of things we're all
> volunteers for goodness sakes.  The best that a leader can do is remind us
> why we're here, in case we spend too much time chasing our own tails.  I
> mean, if we refuse to do what the leader wants, who is going to force us?
>  The FOSS police?
> We should probably be looking to ourselves for leaders, and not looking
> outside ourselves.  Oftentimes, we expect too much from our leaders, because
> we expect so little from ourselves.  For this we probably owe our leaders an
> apology.
>
> I still think the best leader is someone who is best at teaching.  I know
> for me, personally, I need to connect with knowledgeable individuals who can
> *gracefully* show me what I don't know.  I mean, let's just get the fact
> that I'm an idiot out of the way, and let's just move forward to try and
> reduce my idiocy.  -_-  On this same line of thought, I would suggest that
> ego is detrimental to Us.  Wanting to help with FOSS is great, but if you
> don't have the knowledge, what good is the desire?  And I don't mean to
> project my own feelings of inadequacy on the team, but I really don't see
> how the problems I see with Ubuntu, or GNU/Linux for that matter, are
> presently going to be solved.
> I talked to a friend yesterday.  You know what she said?  I mean, we all
> probably already know this, but it is probably worth repeating.  "I want
> something that works and is cheap".  How can I, in good faith, recommend
> Ubuntu to someone when this is what they are looking for?  What is the sound
> bite?  They are not interested in philosophical notions of right and wrong,
> monopolies being bad, etc.  They want it to be cheap, and to work.  Enough
> said, end of story.  I mean, having their ear is fine.  I suppose the best
> that can be done, at present, is planting the seed that there is a more
> ethical alternative, that may be cheaper and work better for them (but
> probably not on the latter).
> This all having been said, if I offended anybody with my candor, let's talk
> about it.  I am more than inclined to admit that I'm wrong with my opinions
> based on my own limited personal experience.
> Speaking of personal experience, I know that my own insistence on working on
> my own projects is a major reason why I'm doing them alone.  So if you have
> a project you want help with, even if it's just you in front of your
> computer "alone" on the Internet, by all means, let me know.  Perhaps others
> will feel the same way.
> So, this all having been said, here are the projects I'm presently working
> on everybody.
> *  Trying to figure out why top says that all but 52MB of my RAM is being
> utilized at present of 2GB
> *  Trying to see if i can configure compiz standalone by following this
> guide:  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompizStandalone
> * Figuring out how I'm going to host my website
> http://www.fictionalphilosophy.org
> * Reading Python the Hard way (ug, someone give me some motivation on this
> one!).
> * Trying to figure out what all the processes in ps aux are for, and if any
> can be eliminated.
> seidos
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