[Linux-aus] linux professional groups

[David Jericho]

Anthony Towns wrote:

> Basically, I wonder what sort of professional groups are... effective,
> or fun, or useful, or desirable, or something for people. 

I believe the problem you may have with some "Linux" focus is overlap 
with other groups. You have the ACS, you have groups like AJUG and so 
on, SAGE-AU takes care of the sys admin focus. There would be very 
little value for me personally to be a member of yet another group that 
somehow overlaps groups I'm already a member of.

> There's also obviously SAGE, which does a much better job, but is
> focussed on systems administration in general, which I look at as more
> of a necessary evil than something interesting :) AIUI, they have a
> regular meeting on a weeknight that consists of a talk and some food,
> and that's pretty much it.

You forget to mention the other member resources. An active (sometimes 
overly so) IRC channel, and very useful technical mailing lists. The 
lists are all archived and easily searchable as well.

> I guess what I'm wondering is if there's a lack of a group for
> professional Linux developers in Brissie; 

But what exactly would you discuss? Consider that C, Java, and 
Perl/Python/PHP are the major languages used on Linux, there exists 
groups already.

> If we want a "professional community", does it make sense to have one
> that brings together Linux-friendly management types as well as hackers,
> and if so, what sort of talks do you have then? Or what's you excuse
> for a get together?

I see the key problem being the lack of Linux centric work places. Short 
of the now gone ePipe, Snapgear, or Red Hat I struggle to think of any 
workplace where the primary focus is Linux, rather than software in 
general.

There's too much diversity in any workplace I've ever been in to 
actually have a desire to focus only on Linux as part of a group.

-- 
David Jericho
Senior Systems Administrator, Plugged In Software