[plug] #introducing and Installfests

[Harry McNally]

Thanks Senectus, useful feedback.

I can't get to as many events as I'd like but with so many resources on-line, 
perhaps IRL is what PLUG offers. That has a higher cost to PLUG except PLUG in 
the Pub but some people may prefer events that don't have beer and food cost. 
I don't know without asking the people here or doing the meetup Onno proposed.

All the best
Harry

On 15/6/26 14:20, Sen ectus via plug wrote:
> My involvement is dependent on whats going on in life...  so over the many 
> years I've basically just become a lurker.
>
> I'd like for PLUG to get a little more lively while not being demanding... 
> something like the https://allthingslinux.org/ project (before it got 
> cancelled and trolled and hacked into oblivion).
> A discord like chat/forum would be nice.
> But again, while I use Linux daily at work and home, I'm mostly just using 
> it these days. I dont often get time to play or contribute.
>
> On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 at 12:16, Harry McNally via plug <plug at plug.org.au> wrote:
>
>     Late last year, Onno and I discussed ways to find out what subscribers
>     might be seeking from membership of PLUG or subscribing to the PLUG
>     mailing list. Onno had helped another NFP group by hosting a meeting
>     that, after four hours of ideas, arrived at a direction that suited the
>     whole group. We wondered if a special event like that might increase IRL
>     participation at events and encourage paid membership to support those
>     events.
>
>     To add to that Onno posted about his own experience with Linux and,
>     while he got a few people figuring out when they started participating
>     in PLUG, there wasn't a lot of feedback to match Onno's thoughtful
>     consideration of how Linux has been part of his professional and
>     technical life.
>
>     It takes time to articulate and, I wondered, what am I going to say
>     other than that I use it every day (pretty much exclusively other than
>     when I use Win10 as a software wrapper around Altium Designer) ? So,
>     apologies Onno, this post is a long time coming.
>
>     With the next Installfest less that a week away, I thought I'd explain
>     why I asked the committee if I could run a series of Installfests this
>     year. The journey begins in the last millennium.
>
>     I'd been using Linux for a few years by 1999 although I think the first
>     system in the house was a firewall installed for us by Harry Protoolis
>     around 1994.
>
>     In the late 90's the Coalition Federal government needed support from a
>     Tasmanian senator for <some unrelated bill> and he predicated his vote
>     on the introduction of a net censorship bill. Wikipedia is light on the
>     machinations but EFA has some archive material:
>
>     https://efa.org.au/media-releases-archive/
>
>     There was a lot of campaigning by the EFA and the first (of not very
>     many) political rally I attended was the Anti-Censorship Protest in
>     Perth May 28, 1999.
>
>     See: https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/perth/index.html
>
>     My reason for taking part was a technical one; that the methods they
>     were proposing would not work and it was easy to take that position
>     because CSIRO were an authoritative source that were informing
>     parliament in the same way.
>
>     The political reaction was savage. For anyone that remembers, the tactic
>     taken was that anyone who opposed the Online Services Bill was a bomb
>     maker, drug dealer, or child molester.
>
>     I wondered, outside of the astonishment and outrage, if more people were
>     better informed about what the Internet offered, then the debate might
>     be more rational.
>
>     That started what turned out to be 7 years of participation in Computer
>     Angels in various roles and I am forever grateful for the participation
>     of so many other technical supporters and non-technical volunteers for
>     what was a free training and awareness organisation that supported that
>     with a free re-furbished Linux computer.
>
>     But while there was a lot of support from all sides with time and
>     knowledge, the thing we constantly struggled with was financial; a
>     premises needed rent and disposal costs for "working glass monitors"
>     that were found to have weeds growing through them meant we were
>     constantly looking for operating funds.
>
>     That really wore us out and stopped us in 2007. Associations law
>     required that we had to wind up in the black and boxes and boxes of IEC
>     power cables became a skip full which went away for chipping to copper
>     scrap. The copper price was at a peak and we got $2400 (I think) for the
>     scrap which cleared our debts and, as required to wind up, we passed the
>     remainder to "a like-minded association" which naturally was PLUG.
>
>     I've also learned that a past Benjamin (we have a few) donated all fees
>     from one of his consulting contracts on to PLUG so these intermittent
>     cash injections have helped PLUG continue to host events; albeit frugally.
>
>     Skip to late 2025 and this year and with Online Services (Age
>     Restrictions) Bill and AI and I wondered if Installfests could encourage
>     a new group of users to install Linux or become proficient with
>     independent content using Hugo or a Mastodon server.
>
>     James has demonstrated the minimal cost required to host PLUG on Digital
>     Lane and my own interest is still RaspberryPi hosting on a home network.
>     Could PLUG share Ansible scripts or configured RPi images to download to
>     offer alternatives to social media algorithms ?
>
>     So far public attendance at the Installfests has been mute but I have
>     extended the promotion this time to see if we can reach people to simply
>     install on a retired machine and give it a try. I see it as a Computer
>     Angels flashmob; all the fun but at much lower cost.
>
>     So the event this Saturday is on the usual page.
>     https://plug.org.au/installfest
>
>     Committee has added backup/restore as a theme and I have extended the
>     RPi theme if anyone wants to bring ideas for home hosting servers or all
>     other things Pi. If you let the list know if you are coming for an hour
>     and what time then it is an opportunity to get like-minded project ideas
>     at certain times.
>
>     If we get more public attendees then more hands will be helpful. If we
>     don't, then we can hear your ideas and projects that you can bring. It
>     would be great to see you and them.
>
>     All the best
>     Harry
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
>     https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
>     Committee e-mail: committee at plug.org.au
>     PLUG Membership: http://www.plug.org.au/membership
>
>
>
> -- 
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list:plug at plug.org.au
> https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
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