Community Gatherings

Having read n8k99's post on Sept. 12's NY Ubuntu Blog about cancelling the CD handout - I wanted to post some thoughts. I tried posting on the blog, but for some reason could not, so I thought I'd post here.

I've been hungering for a LuG that can truly offer community and fun enjoying Linux and helping others accomplish goals in usability and overall mastery of Linux in general.

In the IRC chat yesterday I was the one who came up with the "Bring your own noob" meeting concept, simply as a vehicle to try to give everyone "something to do". I think the biggest obstacle to having a good in-person meeting is failure to find a good task to get everyone involved in that's worth doing. I think bringing people together as an end unto itself won't be very successful without a goal or task that's publicized at least to put some context to the in-person gathering.

With so many being able to get the tech support they need online (conveniently by Googling or asking questions in IRC) the in-person meetings need a bit more meat on the bone to get the techies to come out of their respective huts and into the sunlight.

Also, becuase many work full time jobs, a weekend meeting I would think is most-advisable.

I would love to suggest a few topics that I've been interested in getting up and running as possible themes for a physical gathering . . .

1. Discussing, installing & configuring Asterisk.
2. Implementing Ubuntu in a Windows 2003 Active Directory Environment and getting an Ubuntu desktop to appreciate proxy configurations and folder/printer shares in an Active Directory domain.
3. Demonstrating SSHFS implementation for easy remote access to files from home or work without the need for a VPN (I've done this, it's fun).
4. The ins and outs of setting up an FTP server on Ubuntu, especially when trying to present multiple network shares in one unified directory structure to the FTP client.
5. For newbies, how to install Ubuntu on a Windows box by dual booting (leveraging the Gparted bootable CD). (Links into the bring-your-own-noob meeting concept.)
6. Remote access into Ubuntu boxes to support desktops from a distance (discussion and demonstration).
7. How to set up Ubuntu to serve as a Proxy Server (using Squid). I have done this at work with great success (though under Fedora), worth discussing.
8. How to set up Ubuntu to serve as a Terminal Server.

By the way, I live in Brooklyn NY and would enjoy coming to a meeting, and perhaps would bring a friend if possible, depending on the date. Those of us who are married appreciate the prepping of wives for the "I'm going to a community meeting with my fellow nerds to drink from the Cup of Stallman and revel in the freedom of GNU" discussion . . .

I hope this post offers something constructive, and I look forward to everyone's comments!

Bossmanbeta.

Those are some good suggestions. :-)

1) LUGOR has done that recently, it works quite well. 2) oh dear god. Get a _real_ LDAP would you? It's possible to interact with AD through samba, yeah, that would be a long session. 3) It may be cool to see a demonstration of this from you :-) 4) FTP is a good thing to know 5) Exactly what we're most likely going to do the most of: stuff for newbies :-) 6) maybe more of a talk about these kinds of things would be best at first.

... we're new. I have a feeling a lot of our early events will lean towards the newbie range.

bossmanbeta:

that all sounds great! there's plenty of room for ideas here!

if you're free this weekend, feel free to join us at Bryant Park on Sunday afternoon for the Software Freedom Day CD handout/meetup.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NewYorkTeam/Meetings/20070916

I thought that was cancelled? Also I don't think that would be all too helpful, handing out CD's to people on the street . . . most wouldn't know what to do with it, like getting an AOL 9.0 CD in the mail.

I would much more love to contribute to renting some space somewhere for 6-12 hours on a weekend (a reasonable time frame) and just hooking up some ethernet and having a pow-wow about any of my suggestions above, or anything else where we'd get to work together on solving issues, etc.

Since I'm in NYC, I wonder if there's any place that one can rent out say if everyone who attended contributed $20-$30 for rental & beverage/snacks, then bring your own gear for a pow-wow event...

I dont do much with kismet or anything, but that could certainly be another discussion topic.

Bossmanbeta.