[Linux-aus] Some questions

[Mike Lampard]

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 10:39:44 am Janet Hawtin wrote:
> On Dec 16, 2007 3:58 AM, Mike Lampard <mike at mtgambier.net> wrote:
> > On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:08:22 am Janet Hawtin wrote:
> > > Hi folks
> > >
> > > Would you like to throw your thoughts in the middle around these
> > > questions?
> > >
> > > do you visit a lug
> >
> > no, the closest one I know of is 400km+ away.
> >
> > > do you subscribe to a lug list
> >
> > Yes, LinuxSA
> >
> > > are you a member of another free or open community?
> >
> > As a developer/contributor and/or admin of several free and opensource
> > projects, I'm a member of a number of forums and 'lists that are
> > dedicated to supporting the users of that software..  I also try to
> > assist folks with more general questions in a variety of
> > online-communities such as ubuntuforums and linuxquestions, as time
> > allows.  Long story short: yes.
> >
> > > are you a member of another 'maker' community?
> >
> > If you mean proprietory/closed, then no.. Happily, I left the bad ol'
> > days of proprietory software behind years ago :)
>
> No I mean like welding bicycles into funky things or
> making frocks. Free software is about making and participating.
> A lot of hobbies also have that kind of get involved flavour.

ah, ok.  my bad.  In my mind, electronics (think old-school amatuer (ham)), 
wifi (think airstream) and free software are basically intertwined so tightly 
I haven't a hope of loosening one of them.

> Kat Jungnickel's enthography work with Air Stream got us talking about
> 'make culture'
> as compared to 'shopper culture' in SA. She sees the different kinds
> of interests as having
> different social dimension and also requiring different kinds of house
> space(eg. shed) and
> public space. http://studioincite.com/makingwifi/

cool.
 
> Paul Schulz is in a Conccert Band and they performed at the Software
> Freedom Day last year.
> There were also Jazz Dancers there. It gave the event different
> dimension and the people came to the event to do their 'make' thing
> but also had an empathy for ours.
>
> I have taken CD Drives to the SA Spinner and Weaver's Guild and joined
> in a workshop for
> weaving with wire. We used Dremel tools and copper wire to make quirky
> jewellery.
> They asked about tech and I asked about Japanese braiding.

now that's an interesting convergence :)

> I guess I am thinking about our context in terms of what communities we
> also are rubbing shoulders with and also where we might find common ground.

As a society of builders there must be a thousand sub-cultures dedicated to 
our need for being creative.  Some of which are likely closely related, 
others less so.  As you say, it would be worthwhile investing some 
time 'meeting the neighbours', 

> Scheduling a foss event for the weekend of the Adelaide bike race or for
> the Tour de France would probably get more people if you held it somewhere
> with a view of those.

True.  My apologies for misunderstanding earlier.

Mike