On Thu, 26 Jun 2008, Jim Grisanzio wrote: >> Also, I have been thinking that the typical 1-2 hour presentation just >> doesn't work these days. > I agree.
This just needs to break up somehow. The global economy is changing, people value their time differently, YouTube and similar is changing the way we value/use our time these days. > The Sun Japan team does little micro-talk events called "Developers' Lounge" > in Tokyo from time to time. Multiple communities. Food. Drink. A series of 5 > minute presos with the schedule made up on the spot. Pretty cool. Lots of > participation. http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/tags/lounge Years ago, when I was a part of Tokyo PC User Group (which still exists today in Harajuku, I *think*, they have a web site), there was a group that met at the International Club in Ginza which was similar, and they would have various tech talks as you describe. > I also know that the Ruby community in Tokyo does a lot of shorter talks at > their conferences. I think shorter is better. I agree, but the question is how can we create content that can be shared? What is useful to others once the meeting is done, and this is where we are missing something, at least we are here. I find some of our video useful, the audio is good now with the wireless mic I got, and John Weeks has helped me get some of the multimedia stuff tested and working. > I think UGs come and go, and that's normal. But I think our focus should be > on /users/ much more than user /groups/. We should look beyond the mechanics > of how UGs form and function and look to building a global user community. If > we can better support the needs of users generally, then I think the user > /groups/ will take care of themselves. This is a good point, but most groups are not very healthy, because of how people value their time. They are still useful for social, quite a bit, IMO...but less people are inclined to attend meetings. > Also, another example from Tokyo. The Tokyo Linux UG meets monthly -- one > month for a technical meeting and nomikai (party) on a Saturday, and the next > month they meet for /only/ a nomikai usually on a Friday after work. In other > words, they value the act of just meeting as much as delivering technical > talks. UGs don't have to always have a monthly technical meeting. Yes, our local groups have a CABAL that meets at one of my friends houses in Menlo Park, kinda close to SLAC. CABAL is an installfest that meets twice a month and they help people install. I have attended those and helped folks install OpenSolaris in the past, and want to start going again. They have a casual social, BBQ is provided, you bring your own meat, and I've been known to shove some steak down people's throat rather than software...*lol* but I have taken OpenSolaris/Solaris CD/DVDs over there before in the past. These are the kinda people that stage and put together events, like Windows Refund Day, Free Dimitry, Burn All GIFs, DeCSS, etc... We don't really have "activits" like that in our community, other than someone like me that goes off the norm, but even so, we don't have any type of publicity events that promote OpenSolaris, and they do things like that for Linux all the time. It is not just Linux, the person who holds the CABAL also sits on the OSI (or did) and was one of the folks to review the CDDL (a can of worms in itself for OpenSolaris, it's a double edge sword that cuts our community on both sides). -- Alan DuBoff - Solaris x86 IHV/OEM Group
