Re: [Linux-aus] State representation on the board: vision for LA

[Leon Brooks <leon@cyberknights.com.au>]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 19:48, Anthony Towns wrote:
> The main reason for this is that no one in Qld thinks LA particularly
> matters. It's been a Sydney-obsessed thing forever, and whenever we
> try to broaden its horizons, we get told we're not kickarse enough.

You want broad horizons? Come to WA, we've got broads to spare... hmmm, 
needs some work... (-:

> I think it's indicative that the only people to nominate themselves
> for the officer slots are from states that had exec members this
> year. I think it's also interesting that of the newbies, four applied
> for any of the four officer slots, while ten (with an overlap of
> three) applied for the three ordinary positions.

SYD == 4megapeople, MEL == 3megapeople, PER == 1.5megapeople, CBR == way 
less than a megaperson, yet CBR has twice as many rep's as PER. Unfair! 
Vote (1) Mark Tearle for Treasurer! Redress the imbalance! (-:

>> I want *good* people on the committee, not people who live in
>> certain places.

> Why, exactly? What do you want Linux Australia to achieve? Do you
> think it should just be a forum and an expense account that whichever
> seven people get elected use to promote their pet projects for a
> year?

Kim, care to comment on LinMagAU and "pet projects"?

  * I want to see LA equipped with steelies, so it can stick its
    foot in more doors.

  * I want to see the current steady increase in energy continued.

  * I want to see it continue to represent people besides the
    corporate behemoths.

  * I want to see a conf on Cable Beach one year.

  * I want to see LA channel funding between people with money to
    spend and the aforementioned small guys (this year Tetrinet
    'bots, next year F-117 'bots? $50 a head donated as one prize?
    Consider where we could put a dozen "prizes" :-).

  * I want to see the job boards continue and flourish<*>.

  * I *don't* want to see LA get bogged down in standard business
    concerns (but I'm happy to see it as a go-between for SLPWA,
    OSV et al until a better organisation gets forged for that).

  * I *don't* want to see it buried in politics; part of the FOSS
    magic is keeping things low-level, technical and pragmatic.

  * I want to see it stay unconventional; I'd even be happy with
    David Lloyd on Committee if that's what it took<**>.

  * I don't want it so committed to any one policy or attitude that
    it fossilises (beyond, of course, generalisations like
    integrity, enthusiasm and care).

> I don't think we can do it well, without LA
> having representation in each state.

No worries. Which of the nominees is from NT or Tas? Maybe next year we 
can do dot-cx and all.

Or perhaps we should lock you and Bret into a room and see who survives; 
Bret's allergic to location and you want to cover all locations. If we 
wrote one-per-state into the Constitution we truly would be a digital 
Parliament, with the larger states badly under-represented per capita 
or per hectare.

And how about WA? Kununurra and Broome and Hedland and Geraldton and 
Perth and Augusta and Esperance and Kalgoorlie are all utterly 
different, and that's just the towns. Should we have a certain 
percentage of rep's from the country? Should our borders match the 
State borders or not?

You need to support your choice of the state as being the electoral 
unit, because I can't.

> Having someone you can _talk to_ is what helps.

I'll go remote-area rep, since I'm in the most isolated city in the 
world. Talk to me. 0409655359.

> It's not so plausible to do that if you live in Brisbane.

Or Broome. Talk to Ben about that at the conf. Hey, you do know about 
these cool little gadgets, some of them even have blue LEDs, called 
'phones?

> With a local LA ctte member, if I'd thought the Digital Agenda stuff
> was important enough, I could've pestered them easily enough in
> person,

Email committee@ and if you're that desperate for a quick response, do 
it daily. Things will happen, trust me.

> LUG meeting, or chatting with some government types, or giving a talk
> at a conference in Geneva,

You sound as if, viewed from Geneva or Brazil, there was a perceptible 
difference between Brisbane and Sydney (or even Perth), but there 
isn't.

> or face-to-face board meeting.

Rare chickens, them. The ratio of teleconferences to face-to-faces has 
been about, what, fifteen to one? Welcome to the Big Country, dude.

Cheers; Leon


<*> Hmmm. I'm wondering if we could do a project-seeking-resources and 
donors-seeking-projects dating service through them?

<**> That's for the "facial hair" comment, Mr Lloyd. (-:

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Committee Member, Linux Australia