[Linux-aus] Should Linux Australia change its name?

[John Vandenberg]

Josh,

Do you think changing the name of the conference (removing 'Linux')
would be a *net* positive?  I'm guessing a name change will replace on
set of problems with another, and it would be a net negative.  And the
same goes for changing the name of 'Linux Australia'.

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:35 AM, Josh Stewart <josh at noisymime.org> wrote:
>
> On 23/04/2012, at 6:27 PM, David Newall wrote:
>
> On 23/04/12 14:47, Luke John wrote:
>
> [T]he present activities and role of the Linux Australia organisation
>
> are being impeded by retaining a name that no longer accurately
>
> reflects its membership.
>
>
> With respect, I disagree: Linux is not the forefather of open source
> (possibly Sendmail is), it is the poster-boy.  I doubt anybody with a
> keen interest in, let us say, WordPress, would be confused by a
> WordPress event being sponsored or run by LA.  Similarly, I dare say I
> am not alone in that I would think less of a Linux aficionado objecting
> to a WordPress event being run by LA.
>
>
> To give what is purely anecdotal personal experience from having just ran
> LCA2012, I can say that exclusively using linux in the title of an
> organisation or event that is actually covering a much wider span of topics
> definitely causes problems.
>
> I lost count of the number of individuals and organisations I had to set
> clear on around linux.conf.au purely because of the name (To the point where
> they don't check the talk topics because of their assumptions about it being
> purely linux related), and these were people I would've certainly thought
> would have understood the difference. It's easy to forget that there is an
> incredibly large body of passionate FOSS users out there who have no
> interest in linux itself and I am now 100% sure that there is a subset of
> these people who are being put off by the organisation being called Linux
> Australia.
>
> (Yes I know we're talking about Linux Australia and not linux.conf.au, but
> I'd be surprised if the problem is not shared)
>
>
> - Josh Stewart
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Conference director
> linux.conf.au 2012 - Ballarat 16- 20 Jan
> http://lcaunderthestars.org.au
>
>
>
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>



-- 
John Vandenberg