[Linux-aus] Grants Scheme and the New Site

[Daniel Tandowski]

Hi,

I'm one of the members who expressed interest early on in the piece, and 
was over the moon that the Linux Australia website was to (finally) be 
upgraded.

However, my fundamental views of how the site should look and feel, seem 
to differ to most. The new (painfully Drupal) site has over 15 links in 
the navigation menu, all of which I would have put under "About Us" - as 
much information as you have about the structure, policies and scheme's 
of by Linux Australia, it is NOT what most people venture to the site for.

When you search Google in Australia for "linux" - Linux Australia comes 
up first, and for all those 'potential users' searching Linux for the 
first time, you couldn't do a better job of scaring them off but by 
having this kind of copy as their first read:

----

"January 24, 2007 - Results of 2007 Elections
The election for the 2007 Linux Australia Committee concluded last week 
just prior to the 2007 AGM, and the results were announced in person at 
the AGM and made available immediately via the online election system.

The details of the election including a list of candidates, vote counts 
for each candidate, and a step-by-step breakdown of preference 
allocations is available online to members at:

http://www.linux.org.au/membership/index.php?page=view-election&id;=9

The Committee for 2007 is:

President: Jonathan Oxer
Vice President: Pia Waugh
Treasurer: Terry Dawson
Secretary: Anthony Towns
Members:
Steve Walsh
Janet Hawtin
James Purser

Congratulations to the 2007 Committee and in particular a warm welcome 
to Steve Walsh who joins as an Ordinary Committee Member.

One person deserving of being singled out for special thanks is Stewart 
Smith who leaves the Committee after 4 years of service. During his time 
on the Committee Stewart (along with Andrew Cowie) was a vocal proponent 
of distributing activity and responsibility to a broader volunteer base, 
with the Committee taking on more of the role of a Board than an 
executive team. That perspective has strongly influenced the way the 
Committee has put more focus into creation of official sub-committees to 
undertake specific projects and areas of responsibility, which in turn 
allows Linux Australia to be part of far more initiatives than would be 
possible if everything were left to Committee members to do personally.

Thanks also to the unsuccessful candidates who stood for election. It's 
important to prevent the Committee becoming stagnant or individual 
members overburdened so we need new people willing to step up to the 
plate, and even though there was only one position changed this year we 
need a broad selection of candidates for each election so please don't 
be discouraged if you weren't elected this time around.

Reports from the 2006 office bearers are currently in the process of 
being published, and are linked from the 2007 AGM page for reference:

http://wiki.linux.org.au/Ctte/AGM2007"

------

*YAWWWWWNNNN* Where's the info about distributions? news, blogs, 
polls??? What about some information about (who would have guessed) 
LINUX... you know, the operating system???


Regards,

Daniel




James Purser wrote:
> At the 07 AGM we had a few questions about the LA Grant Scheme, why
> people weren't taking it up as much as we would like and what could be
> done to improve things.
> 
> I'm currently putting together the new site and I'm looking at the
> grants page and how to improve our processes. So here's the page I'm
> looking at: http://linuxaus.k-sit.com/projects/grants , I'm inviting
> your comments and ideas.
> 
> Also for those who expressed an interest in helping out with the new
> site, have a good look around. Its Drupal based, needs some serious
> theme love and some work on the events/calander module.
> 
> We have the web-team at lists.linux.org.au mailing list and the #la-web irc
> channel if you're interested in dropping by.