MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-12-24 |
| FROM | David Sugar
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] My thoughts on LinuxWorld & the future
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Now that it seems "LinuxWorld" is leaving the world's capital for some obscure
little city up the coast, I do not find myself particularly mournful of this
loss, but rather I would like to put forward the suggestion that this as an
opportunity for all of us in this region to consider.
I think long ago LinuxWorld failed to serve well the needs of our community,
whether commercially or not. Even as a commercial free software vendor, I
found so little potential value in this year's LinuxWorld in NYC that I had
already chosen to participate in a more obscure event in Germany instead, and
so I will not be attending this very last LinuxWorld in NYC at all.
What I think we need is to think and plan about some kind of event that can
effectively serve the needs of our community and show why NYC is also the
capital of software freedom. Such an event need not be a "large" event, like
LinuxWorld, but for whatever scope it has, it should be well funded from the
very start, and I believe principally through local resources if at all
possible. I also believe it should focus on the freedoms offered, both
commercially and non-commercially, through the use of free software.
Some events I have seen like this include the annual "GNU/Linux Summit" hosted
in Helsinki, or perhaps something like LinuxTag in Germany. In fact, I think
that particular event (in Helsinki) is probably closest in nature and scope
to this kind of model and event I am suggesting here, besides, "NYC GNU/Linux
Summit" does have a nice ring to it, especially if it takes place on land
owned by NJ :).
Perhaps a good time to plan for a potential future locally sponsored free
software event would be the week after the close of this year's LinuxWorld
itself. This would provide some opportunity for people to discuss such an
event with local vendors at LinuxWorld and also to collect a list of
potential sponsors. Perhaps planning for this new event would best be done
at some kind of retreat over a weekend, where quiet and thoughtful planning
can occur through the use of liberal libations. Perhaps Ruben may be able to
suggest an appropriate setting to do this kind of planning?
David
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