Relative noobie here, but will do what I can to help.
--- Alexander Henry <
alexanderhenry@cox.net> wrote:
> The last time we had an installfest was in October.
> Myself, I'd never
> seen a PLUG installfest before that last one.
> Despite our marketing
> efforts being limited to these mailing lists and (I
> think) an AzTech
> listing, and despite such a sparse recurrence, we
> had an excellent showing
> of new faces. This tells me that the community is
> downright hungry for
> installfests. What concert ever emits such a faint
> peep and fills their
> house? Curiosity about Linux grows every day, and
> more business and
> government agencies are turning to Linux for
> solutions. Other major
> cities in America hold installfests at least
> monthly. We need to hold
> monthly installfests. I'd like to pick up the torch
> for organizing and
> marketing these monthly installfests.
>
> I picked the last Saturday of the month, as it's a
> convenient day for most
> to attend an all-day event, it distributes well
> among the county's other
> Linux, AzTech, and the cities' Chamber of Commerce
> meetings, and the
> Stammtisch will always be before the installfest,
> which would be a
> springboard for the organizers and volunteers. I've
> already called
> Charles Braffett about reserving the University of
> Advancing Technology
> area. He said we are very welcome to come!
>
> Volunteers: I think we all know what is needed for
> installfests on the
> technical side, and last time we had overwhelming
> support, so I'm not
> going to worry about this one bit. Just tell us
> what you're bringing,
> physically, mentally, and spiritually. I'll watch
> plug-discuss and
> collect a list, and relay the list back here. That
> way any vacuums will
> be seen and filled. We will need several people to
> sign up specifically
> to be at the installfest at 9am, an hour before the
> official start; I'll
> be one of those. Last time food magically showed
> up, and a lot more than
> what Hans's family baked: what happened? I think we
> should probably put a
> coffee can somewhere, and at 13:00 take whatever is
> in there and have a
> food run. Other than that, whatever happens
> happens!
>
> We also had great support for demos and tons of
> ideas about what to 'do'
> at the installfest. Bring them on. However, be
> careful what you ask for,
> you might get it! :-) I'm going to deliberately
> reply to this list to
> those ideas with a feature-itis mentality. I'm as
> guilty as the next
> hacker of wanting to conquer the world in one
> installfest, but here, this
> time, I'm not only going to bite my tounge, I'm
> going to be a
> fuddy-duddy. First, you need support, space, time,
> and interest before a
> Cool Thing[TM] is worth doing. But most
> importantly, the primary goal, I
> think, needs to be gaining momentum for monthly
> recurrence, and to roll
> out new desktops to people who have never seen Linux
> before. For the
> users the benefit is obvious, they always know they
> can show up the last
> Saturday of any month for any kind of help. For us,
> recurrence reduces
> the pressure and makes us more effective. Forget
> something? Do it next
> time. Didn't finish that Dec Alpha install after
> six hours? There's
> always next time. Once you set up that Cool
> Thing[TM], and see people
> like it and need it, it's already ready for next
> time. Of course, hackers
> wouldn't come if they didn't get a treat as well, so
> yes, extra-nerdy
> demos need to happen as well! Bring on those ideas.
> I'm not saying I
> won't accept them, just be forwarned I'm going to
> act like I'm hard to
> please :-)
>
> I want to stress, again, to listen to the needs of
> the n00bs, and find
> opportunities to provide. Those opportunities will
> not be in short
> supply, and it's a lot easier to satisfy those needs
> next month rather
> than anticipate them all beforehand. For now, we
> will just be available
> as volunteers to do one-on-one work. But while
> you're working, look for
> common threads, and the next installfest we'll
> refine it.
>
> Okay, let's have ourselves an installfest!
>
> --
>
> --Alexander
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