OT: LUGs dying out

[Darrin Chandler]

On Mon, Jul 23, 2007 at 02:48:55PM -0700, der.hans wrote:
> When I look at PLUG attendance I think we're still below where we were
> several years ago. Then I remember that we have two general meetings on
> different sides of town, a developer meetings and a monthly InstallFest.
> We also have two Stammtische for the food, beer and socializing side of
> things.

This is good. And this is bad. As long as the individual meetings have
"critical mass" it's a good thing. Otherwise it's not.

> Other tech groups are rising as well: AzPHP has a strong attendance, Darrin
> started PhxBUG, there are several Ruby groups, the Perl Mongers group
> waxes and wanes, ASULUG, DeLUG, SMCC LUG, Desert Code Camp, the Phoenix
> devhouse, Ubuntu LoCos, etc.
> 
> That's quite a bit!

Yes, that *IS* a lot. And I've noticed several developer oriented events
lately, all of them *almost* the same thing. BarCamp, HappyDevHouse,
Code Camp. Personally, I *love* to see more developer oriented events,
but I wish they were all sponsored/run by a core group of devel
enthusiasts rather than everyone trying to roll their own.

For my part, there's some crossover between the PhxBUG list and the PLUG
list, but almost *no* crossover in meeting attendees. I encourage BSD
folks to attend Stammtisch, and have had luck here and there.

> My fear is that we're losing the message of Free Software. I know Darrin
> keeps mentioning it at PLUG and PhxBUG, but only one or two people isn't
> enough.

I know sometimes I come across a bit strong on software freedoms, but I
feel it's important. It's becoming harder as big players get into Linux
and *say* "free" even when they aren't. There are many little wedges
being driven in to undermine the freedoms that Stallman and many others
have been working for all these years. Paying attention to these things
will be the only thing that stops Linux from becoming what you all hate
about MS.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD User Group  |  MetaBUG
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://phxbug.org/      |  http://metabug.org/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |  Daemons in the Desert   |  Global BUG Federation