Re: Starting Chicago Gnome User Group

[Sriram Ramkrishna <sri aracnet com>]

On Mon, Apr 23, 2007 at 09:41:56AM +0200, Dave Neary wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Sriram Ramkrishna wrote:
> > I don't think so.  Nobody has really ever started a user group.
> 
> Us Europeans, South Americans and Asians have a bunch of them:
> http://live.gnome.org/UserGroups

Coolness!  

> > Then I start formulating some goals:
> 
> I think while all of these are great, they're aiming too high for an
> initial group - the French GNOME user group has three essential mandates:
> 1. Represent GNOME at French language free software conferences
> 2. Have a French speaking point of contact for journalists & magazines
> (more generally: promote GNOME in French speaking countries)
> 3. Provide support to locals who are interested in getting involved in
> promoting or developing GNOME.

Yeah, I just took off the top of my head.  They might be high for
people I agree.  It highly depends on the people you know. 

> Our mail tool is a mailing list, and our activities consist mainly of
> helping people on the mailing list, and meeting 4 or 5 times a year at
> various conferences in France and Belgium where we represent GNOME.

Yep.  Sounds like a good modest way.

> > Those are some sample objectives off the top of my head.  Later on, you
> > could try to create a conference in the tri-state area (Illinois,
> > Michigan, Indiana) to promote Linux desktops with our KDE brethren and
> > start taking some serious mindshare away from Microsoft.
> 
> Aren't there conferences in the mid-west already? There's OLS, of
> course, but I'm sure there are conferences in Michigan and Illinois as
> well.

I think OLS is in Canada right?  It's close to Michigan but probably
a little too far for most other people.  There is one held in Detroit
I believe that Jorge actively participates in, Penguicon I believe.
I agree that having a GNOME conference is probably a bit too much.
We aren't that big.

sri