[Linux-aus] What do you hope for LA? Was: List alive?

[Bret Busby]

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 greebo at pipka.org wrote:

> Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:13:29 +1000
> From: greebo at pipka.org
> To: Ryan Verner <xfesty at computeraddictions.com.au>
> Cc: lug at phormix.com, linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> Subject: [Linux-aus] What do you hope for LA? Was: List alive?
> 
> Ryan Verner writes:
> >> This list used to be quite noisy.. what happened?
> > 
> > List seems to be quite active when there's LA going-ons, such as LCA or the AGM.
> 
> And crazy free trade agreement crack ;) For the last few years around July 
> August was when it all slowed down a bit too, probably due to people being 
> busy catching up with pre-financial year end work, doing their own taxes, 
> etc etc. I'm looking forward to the flurry returning, and some of our news 
> along with the new website will probably poke that somewhat. Coming soon :) 
> 
> This is probably a good chance to ask where people would like this mailing 
> list to go? Thus far, particularly over the last year and a half it has been 
> a forum for discussions about a range of topics, a lot of which were to do 
> with where LA is going, what we are up to, current events, issues etc. What 
> else would the list be useful for? Should we try to keep it within those 
> bounds? We have a LUG mailing list which has largely been unused, maybe we 
> could move some LUG news here and encourage wider posting of projects, news 
> and LUG activities? In the half year report (will post on the weekend!) we 
> have a new set of communication strategies for LA with the LUGs, as it is so 
> important to focus on that. 
> 

Perhaps, it would be good to also use the list for announcing events 
happening in Australia, that relate to Linux and applications that run 
on Linux; an example that comes to hand, is the recent announcement on 
a PostgreSQL list, of the inaugural meeting of a Sydney PostgreSQL Users 
Group (SPUG), of which I have so far, seen no mention on this list. Such 
announcements being also posted on this list, as they affect Linux and 
open source users in Australia, would also be good.

And, I think that, especially if the LUG list is not much used, news 
about LUGS could instead be redirected to the Linux Australia general 
list. It could be, for example, that a person becomes aware of a local 
Linux User Group starting, or meeting, of which the person may not have 
otherwise become aware, due to the restriction of such information to 
a(n apparently) not much used LUG mailing list

Of course, there is always the topic which has not been raised for a 
while, of the operational policies of this list. An example that comes 
to hand (interesting expression that,  like something easily within 
reach, to grab and hurl), is the possibility of setting the Reply To 
field, to default to the list, so as to avoid starting a list of To and 
CC addresses in headers of messages posted to the list, which occurs 
when a list lacks having the Reply To header field default to the list, 
so that, as a thread lengthens, when people use the Reply To All option, 
to ensure that a response goes to the list, it can happen that the To 
and CC fields end up including almost everyone on the list, doing away 
with the need for posting to the list.

> Are people generally interested in more political issues with Open Source? 
> Business issues? Community issues? Legal issues? One and a half years ago I 
> approached many people at LCA2003 with questions about what they wanted for 
> LA, what was needed for the Australian OS community and businesses. I've 
> been asking that question ever since, and I'll open that question again and 
> we can see how it goes :) LA has been a combined effort of the many people 
> participating, and through this, we can all draw a path that is useful and 
> relevant. 
> 
> 

The above refers to Linux and open source in Australia, and, once again, 
I think that the direction of Linux Australia should be reviewed, 
especially when it decides to start holding its conferences in foreign 
countries. The Linux conference was at one time (I think) more 
appropriately named Conference of Linux Users of Australia (CALU), and, 
whilst overseas attendees should be welcome (in attendeees, I mean 
attendees and not presenters, who are, I believe, an integral part of 
such a conference), the conference, and, Linux Australia, should be 
Australian oriented, and held in Australia, or, if their directions are 
to be changed, renamed to indicate the change(s) in direction, if they 
are to be no longer Australian.

Apart from that aspect, perhaps, in asking what people want from the 
list, and, what types of issues people want discussed on the list, it 
may be worthwhile, publishing on the list, the official direction of the 
list ("The list is for the purpose of discussing <list of topics>, and 
is not for discussing <any topics not for discussing, or, disallowed 
actions on the list, such as flaming, or discussing the merits of 
various wars and political incursions, etc>". Then, with that as a 
starting point, people can discuss having the allowed and disallowed 
directions of the list, changed, or confirmed.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of 
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams, 
  published by Pan Books, 1992 
....................................................