would like to join Portland/Oregon team

[John Montgomery]

On Tue, 2009-08-25 at 15:50 -0700, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 03:30:04PM -0700, John Montgomery wrote:
> > On Tue, 2009-08-25 at 15:05 -0700, Brian Murray wrote:
> > > On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 04:17:35AM -0700, David Kaplan wrote:
> > > > I would like to join the Portland or Oregon team. I contacted Dan but I
> > > > think he lives in Florida now.
> > > 
> > > I don't think there is much of a Portland team which is rather odd since
> > > there are quite a few Ubuntu developers in the Portland area.
> > >  
> > > -- 
> > > Brian Murray                                                 @ubuntu.com
> > > 
> > 
> > I agree, it is rather odd. You would expect Oregon to be a hotbed of
> > supporters (this is the home of the OSL, after all), but it's beginning
> > to seem there isn't much of a team anywhere in state these days.
> 
> Or maybe it's not so odd... maybe there's so much open source / linux /
> ubuntu stuff going on here that the demand is already being satiated
> through other forms?
> 
> Perhaps the trick would be to focus on specializing a bit.  I.e., in
> states with little open source activity, a general purpose interest
> group can take off, but in one like ours with lots of open source
> activity, it'd need to focus on one aspect, like marketing/outreach, or
> Ubuntu end-user training, or some such.
> 
> 
> Lately my wife and I have been upgrading our parents to Ubuntu (netbooks
> all around), and spending time with each giving lessons on computer
> usage... basic stuff like how to use google (maps are a big hit), how to
> use OOWriter to make documents, how to get photos off cameras, and so
> on.  Parental friends are getting invited over for help too...
> 
> It occurs to me that there is a vast market of potential Ubuntu users
> for whom it really doesn't matter whether they're using Windows or
> Ubuntu, but rather which platform they can get some basic training on.
> Seems like a local user group would be an ideal vector for using such a
> tactic to gain converts.
> 
> Bryce
> 
Bryce -

I definitely agree and understand what you're saying about outreach and
such, and I'm certainly trying to do my part. I've pretty much decided
to quit worrying less about organizations as such (although it would be
nice to have a bit more interaction, just for the sake of exchanging
ideas if nothing else) and more about doing what I can do in the
advocacy department. I'm neither a programmer nor an artist, so I've
started (this month was the first one) to get out there in the local
community about once a month and talk to people about Ubuntu, handing
out CDs, offering installation assistance and support, etc. and just
trying to raise awareness in general here in my part of the state where
the concept is not quite as prevalent or popular as it is up North. It's
been a varied and interesting experience so far, but well worth
continuing in my opinion.

-John