[ubuntu-us-mn] Map your location, start meeting people

[Tony Yarusso]

Hey everbody!  So how many of you made it to the release party /
installfest in St. Paul last Saturday?  I was able to swing by for
part of the day, and it was great meeting some of you, along with some
other distro's folks from TCLUG.  Now, looking over the numbers here,
it seems to me that a) we should be able to hang out with each other
more often, and b) we should be able to do so in more parts of the
state than just St. Paul.  There are now 107 people on this mailing
list and 87 registered on our Launchpad page (!!) (why the
discrepancy?), so I'd like to start finding out where you all are so
we can make that happen.

Conveniently enough, since this team was started some smart chaps over
on the Launchpad team wrote a mapping application for LP, so our team
members can indicate where they are in the state right in their
profile, and have that aggregated onto our team page.  We've had a
handful of you already give that information, but there are still
plenty to go - check out
https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-minnesota/+map for the current
display.  If you already have a Launchpad account, you can set your
location by going to
https://edge.launchpad.net/~yourusernamehere/+editlocation.  If you
don't already have an account, you should make one by visiting
https://edge.launchpad.net/+login.  I know some people aren't really
comfortable giving out their location like that, which is fine - for
those folks I'd suggest just putting the marker at your city's town
hall, city center, or other appropriate location that gives us a
general idea of where in the state you are.

If you weren't aware of our Launchpad team, it's located at
https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-minnesota, and serves as the
"official" roster for our LoCo.  Make sure you're on the list, and get
your Ubuntu-y friends in the state on there too!

Once we get everyone's location figured out, I'd like to start
planning regular events, get-together, efforts, and what-have-you in
various parts of the state, centered around clusters of users so that
as many people as possible get a chance to attend something.  This
also seems like a good time to remind people to take a look at some of
the longer-term goals listed towards the bottom of
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MinnesotaTeam, as well as the subpages linked
at the very bottom, for ideas of things we might do as a team, and see
which kinds of things interest you, or add your own!

(For anyone who was wondering, yes, the ultimate goal is to have the
Launchpad mapping application replace the clunky duplicate list of
people on our wiki page.)

Also, you can always drop by for some real-time chat with other folks
from the team, for support, event planning, or just general babble, or
our IRC channel - #ubuntu-us-mn on Freenode.  If you've never used IRC
before, there's a super-easy interface to get started that just runs
in your web browser accessible from the "Talk With Us!" link on
http://ubuntu-minnesota.org/ (which one day will morph into a team
portal of sorts, replacing some of the current function of the wiki
pages in a prettier fashion, although it certainly is not currently).

-- 
Tony Yarusso
Ubuntu Minnesota Team Contact
http://tonyyarusso.com/