[plug] Fwd: Linux User Conference in WA?

[Carl Gherardi]

A little bit of devils advocate here.


On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 14:29:53 +0800, Leon Brooks <leon at brooks.fdns.net> wrote:
> Want to do something like this here in WA?
> 

I think i'd ike to attend.

> ----------  Forward; originally to LinuxAus  ----------
> 
> Andrew Cowie wrote:

>   - the world needs a introductory user conference in AU
>   - users are extremely price sensitive
> 
 
 
> I would like to volunteer to run such an event. The operational concept
> is that of "AusLUG". This is a national event styled on a bigger LUG
> meeting for two days. The cost is kept deliberately low, and the event
> is much simpler than LCA. The concept has room for growth into a fuller
> conference in future years, dependant on demand. I propose that the
> event have two streams -- a user stream focused on introductory / LUG
> grade topics (such as how to install and use Apache, what distribution
> might be right for you, email environments, how iptables works and how
> to set it up, that kind of thing) and an introductory programmers
> stream (what license would be right for you, what an open source
> package usually contains (tarballs, README, license, man pages), how
> to autoconf your package, what languages work with Gnome and KDE, that
> kind of thing).

If the aim is for linux visibility then I think there should be a
stream along the lines of "What the hell is linux"

I may walk a different circle to most people, but of the computer
users outside my work 95% of them dont know the difference between a
Mac and a PC, let alone what linux is. Of the office staff inside my
work the number is lower, but still above 50%.
 
> The cost of attendance should be approximately $100 per person for the full
> two days.
> 

For professionals who are going to attend (and probably get the
company to pay) this is a trivial price. For the larger (intended?)
audience, the novices and hobbiests I think the cost may be
prohibitive.

Personally $100 for a conference i'd like to attend falls in the
'dependant on finances' class.

> I see scope for an associated trade show in future years, once an
> audience has been established (which I believe is needed for exhibitors
> to be willing to spend money on booths).

Perhaps a really cheap version first time around (get 'em hooked) with
prices increasing in subsequent years as content and format improves?
   
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I would not schedule it for Sat/Sun, but rather for a Mon/Tue during the
> school holidays, to give the edu people a good chance to attend and
> others to bundle it into school holiday leave.
> 

Perhaps Fri/Sat or Sun/Mon might be better? For corporate approving 1
day off is less likey to be vetoed.

If something like this was organized there are a few people I would
certainly point in the direction of Intro to Linux and Intro to Linux
programming.