[AUUG-Talk]: South Australian Happenings

[David Lloyd]

Well, seeing as I've been stating the glass is half empty for the past 
number of months, let me try to put something positive:

1. AUUG in South Australia is alive

...but we're more like an unincorporated association of various types of 
people who enjoy computers, like some form of Unix or open source.

Most if not all on our local mailing list aren't paid members but that's 
only because they saw no real benefit from AUUG to be so, bringing me to 
the next point...

2. Many of the mailing list members would probably (re)join AUUG if:

a) The pricing was significantly reduced
b) The ROI (sorry to use such a buzzword) was more obvious and/or higher

I sense our reason for not (re)joining is a simple cost/value equation 
and not really because we don't want to (re)join AUUG. It's possibly a 
time/value equation too. Most of our members have a partner, family and 
a full-time job and may be involved in other community activities.


3. AUUG-SA has met continuously on the 2nd Wednesday of every month

...for the past two years if not more. I sense that if you count 
"activity" as "having regular meetings that are AUUG branded, where the 
discussion remains relatively on topic (i.e. it doesn't become a big 
discussion group about, say, crochet)" then I suspect we'd get a place 
in the finals.

I (not so quietly but that's just my style) made sure that all the AUUG 
members on the list could stay in contact in case AUUG itself went for a 
major wander, ie. it's mailing list server suddenly stopped. Some might 
see that a rather Machiavellian maneuver however I was more concerned 
that we kept meeting like this even if AUUG itself didn't survive.

4. What can SA do for AUUG?

Baby steps; anyone in Adelaide or who comes to Adelaide, we meet:

MEETINGS
--------

* Every 2nd Wednesday of the month
* Marcelinna's Pizza Restaunt, West Tce end of Hindley Street
* Someone is generally there by 7 PM

Our unofficial title is the "Calzone Club" but I tend to have a pasta 
dish. Their Calzone's look really good but I'd be too embarassed to 
order "1/4 a Calzone".

UNIXY STUFF THAT ISN'T LINUX
----------------------------

I know, UNIXY probably made you all cringe.

However:

1. What's wrong with having a BarCamp where people learn about
    OpenSolaris?

    - One could certainly announce this and promote it on LinuxSA
    - But I doubt LINUXsa would actually formally run it
      (but then again, I've known stranger things to happen)

2. Ditto the open source BSDs (are any of them closed source?)

I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do exactly; the OSs I'm familiar with 
(ignoring mobile phone OS and Microsfot ones) are limited to NetBSD, 
OpenBSD, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, Solaris 10, Nexenta and I managed to 
install OS/2 once. I've "seen" Dec Unix and I used to "have" an Ultrix 
machine...

...however I believe that if a chapter can sustain a monthly meeting, 
even if it's only a few, regular core people (who don't burn themselves 
out)...then AUUG can survive.

---

So, in short, I'm willing to help out in SA by simply figuring out ways 
to make sure we keep meeting on a regular basis.

DSL