IRC Meetings

[Josh Rhoderick]

>
> The IRC chats should continue. That's great, but if no one attends, do
> they
> happen? I can say from my point is that I tend to forget to log in for
> them,
> or do not have time to. It's not a matter that it's not on my calendar,
> it's
> a factor of simply 7pm coming and going without a thought about the chat.
> The few that I have actually gotten in on it has been the same people for
> the most part that attend the physical meetings.


I don't think it's reasonable to cancel the IRC meetings because you forget
them. Maybe we can send out e-mail reminders or send SMS messages prior to
the meeting or something. Or even a phone tree.

I've been unable to make the physical meetings. I don't get home from work
until around 6pm most nights, and then I'd have to leave immediately to make
it to Columbia by 7pm. That means I wouldn't get a chance to eat, shower, or
do anything until I get home around 10pm. For me, that's a tight schedule,
especially considering that I work full-time and I'm a student. My point is
that without the IRC meetings, I would have no way of meeting with the team.
Getting rid of the IRC meetings would be a quaint way of telling me that I'm
not worth the effort... as well anyone else who happens to live too far away
to commute to physical meetings. I did some search of other LoCos to find
out how they manage these, and most have IRC meetings far more regularly
than physical meetings.

Another thing I see is wanting to do more enthusiast type activities. What
> do you picture being done at these? Is it simply an Ubuntu Users gathering
> such as we did for the Gutsy release or do you want to work a presentation
> into this? From discussions we've had on the upcoming install fest and
> this
> thread I do have a first thought on a topic. Either we do the 'Why
> Ubuntu?'
> presentation or a 'New Life For Your Old PC!' type of presentation. This
> leads to a when and where discussion.


Sure, we could do a number of things. As I mentioned above, I've been doing
some research on other LoCos and there are a variety of things we could do.
Some are physical, others are internet-based. We can discuss these in
upcoming meetings or in the forums. I've been planning to start a thread
about this for a while now but I wanted to gather my thoughts first.

As for the the install fests, this is something that members seem to want to
> do. I don't feel that we are cracking a whip in this direction, but it is
> something that we get people wanting to help with.
>

I don't want to sound like an install fest hater, but I think it's critical
that we first acknowledge our target audience. Who are we trying to reach?
How are we most likely to reach them? If you think about this for a few
seconds, you'll realize that install fests are not the way to reach our
target audience. The people we're trying to reach don't even know what an
install fest is, and those who DO know what they are probably don't need to
attend one unless they have a particularly troublesome computer. So what
we're left with is an event (mostly planned, managed, and executed by Craig
and John) that takes up all of our time. Besides, Ubuntu is easy to install,
right? Why are we spending so much time INSTALLING it? Let's spread Ubuntu.
Let's talk about it. Let's show it to people. Let's popularize it. Let's
work on it and make it better. Have you seen the new LoCo initiative? I
don't have a link at the moment, but Jono is pushing for LoCos to start
doing bug-squashing and documentation.

Frankly, I think we'd get more exposure by walking around the mall while
wearing Ubuntu T-shirts than doing 20 install fests. So, yes, the team may
enjoy doing install fests, but that doesn't mean that they should monopolize
our time and effort. Poor Craig is ripping out his hair trying to pull these
things together. If everyone is so interested in them, why aren't more
people stepping up to help out?

-- Josh