[Linux-aus] Nominations and their spiels for the LA election

[Janet Hawtin]

On 1/3/07, Janet Hawtin <lucychili at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi folks
>
> I think we have organisations, campaigns and events.
> I think we have a good organisation and event.
> There are other organisations and events happening in AU and campaigns
> which we are participating in.
> We can participate in diverse campaigns and events.

Trying to be more specific.
There are a range of orgs in AU computing and technology and
information communities.
There are areas where each overlap, and where each represents
domething distinctive.
I see the overlaps as opportunities for joint events and campaigns.

OSIA is about open source and industry, there would be some overlap
with AUUG and some with LA, would be interesting to see if there were
events or projects which were interesting to OSDC and OSIA or AUUG.
Basically the intersections are opportunities to do things together
with other groups?

FOSS essentially about freedom and software.
So far it is a campaign, an event like SFD, It might also be an
interesting federated org, but which groups would be interested? Those
which are specifically interested in OS as distinct from FOSS would
better fit into the previous theme. SFD is an event/campaign/org on
this theme. Does SFD join/partner/parent FOSS.org.au or does LA
express its FOSS through SFD and other events which focus on the
freedom in software idea.

FOSS in education and open education generally is represented on
openeducation.org.au
There are people who are interested in open standards in education and
not FOSS specifically. In a website it is easy to make sections for
the range of ideas.
Making projects/sections out of the intersections means we can reach
more people and not exclude others because we can cover another
intersection next time.

Copyright turns most people comatose, Digital alliance, Access to
knowledge and probably some AU law associations would be interested in
the topic from different perspectives.
Digital alliance is largely focused on the impact for institutions eg
libraries and archives, Access2Knowledge includes education sector but
also includes medical patents and access to knowledge and information
in a broader sense than is core for software folks.
It would be great if we could have events or participate in projects
which build links with these groups. Medicins sans frontiers is
involved in this work, some of our projects are sort of like geeks
without frontiers, there could be some interesting things in common
with these groups even though the connection is not a natural one for
the organisational scope of either group.

Embedded Linux folk could have interest in more custom hardware
oriented events or projects?

Making ride on robots is funky and interesting and not particularly
related to a specific box.
There are people in Adelaide doing bike mashups and riding bikes
sitting two bikes height off the ground. I think there is a
participative culture kind of train of thought which they would share
with us.

Wireless community network group Air Stream participated in Software
Freedom Day.

Free beer recipes are related to free culture.

I took old tech to the spinner and weaver's guild and we made jewellery from it.
We had the participative make culture thing in common, we did talk a
bit about linux, tech, copyright, but an org which included spinner
and weavers as well as programmers and system administrators would not
suit either group effectively. Building a relationship so at some
point when we say, this law impacts on our 'right' to code and
participate, they will have some kind of relationship and hands on
empathy.

Generating an organisation to fully represent the possible overlaps
would make it harder to make statements which respond to different
contexts without compromising relevance for one or other segment.
Projects communications, events which cover diverse issues are more
flexible. Trick is largely keeping connected with other groups. I
think the fosscasts have been an interesting step forward in this
direction.

I think people join organisations which represent something specific
and known, and that they participate in a range of activities events
and projects which might be more variable.
Lets build effective activities and partnerships and see which of
those need to have an organisational structure around them once they
have a critical mass and momentum which makes the whole
scoping/admin/pli/entity-ness thing worthwhile.

Janet