|
And so the BLUG met on Thursday, for the first time since early 2004.
And I loved every moment of it. I would have written about it yesterday, but something came up (which I shall write about later).
Here's my report on the meet:
First of all, it wasn't the huge crowd I had begun to dislike at the last few BLUG meets - you know, where people were there only to listen to the technical talks, and who weren't really interested in the FOSS part of things, and who wouldn't attend another meet.
The 50+ people who attended yesterday were for the most part people who have been part of the BLUG from the early days, or who were genuinely interested in the FOSS part of things.
By the time the meet started (fashionably late at 6:45pm), the place was crawling with veteran BLUGgers, and as the meet progressed, more joined in. Offhand, I can remember Kalyan, Samyeer, Surjo, Mahendra, Hanish, Nikhil, Gopi, Aivalli, Sony.... Lots of new faces as well, including quite a few ladies (forgive me if I sound like an MCP, but that is an unusal experience at a BLUG meet, but a welcome sign of the times). Shreyas was there, taking a mighty whacking over anything related to OpenOffice.org (which isn't actually his fault, but he was there, so why not? :) while zapping people with his Mac.
It still didn't feel quite right, but that was fixed when the door opened and Biju walked in - then we were complete.
Surjo gave a quick intro-ramble (I remember doing that until sometime end 2002 or early 2003), and quickly made it clear that the BLUG meets were back to stay, and that henceforth we would be meeting every month. That was welcome news for many. Surjo has been doing a good job keeping the spirit alive by organising BoF meets over the past year or so, and I frankly couldn't think of anyone more suitable for the job that he had unwittingly accepted by standing up front - the BLUG now has a new Sacrificial Goat (SG) aka coordinator. :)
Surjo went on to say that there was really no formal agenda for this meet, other than have fun, talk about anything, meet old friends, bring up any topic, etc. This is a good approach, and I hope that the informal and impromptu nature of things continues. It will help keep numbers down at the meet (can you believe that this has become an objective???) and that the people who attend are less formal and more interactive.
Pravi had earlier indicated that he wanted to say something about Software Freedom Day (SFD) that happens on September 10th. He outlined what the day was about, and asked for ideas on what could be done.
This led to the kind of discussion that I have not seen happen at a BLUG meet in the past few years.
*Everyone* had something to say. People responded to each other's points, the more experienced ones egging on the less experienced ones, Samyeer trolling with "What's so cool about free software" (which was a fantastic point - it lead to a completely new direction of the discussion), Kalyan getting helplessly yanked all over the place as he was mad ethe focal point of one example after the other, veterans and newcomers making valid points which led to more discussion...
Damn, I had the time of my life. This is what the LUGs are all about - people facing each other and discussing issues, coming up with ideas, and enjoying the process of interaction.
We didn't actually come up with any major idea,s but it became clear to one and all that what was really needed was to get students involved again, relight the fire in colleges, etc. We identified one of the issues as being that advocacy and evangelism is really pointless when everyone already *is* using Linux and FOSS stuff. The thing that needs to be done now is to get people *involved*, rather than just using it.
Before we broke for snacks, I quickly announced that I wanted the BLUG to be seen more independently, have greater visibility. I had registered a new domain for the BLUG (BLUG.IN, and called for volunteers to take over that site and fill it with content.
We then broke for snacks, and we also started the screening of a video of Eben Moglen's talk at WOS3. This led to a nice "polarisation" of people - after everyone grabbed their food, some people settled down to watch the video (and apparently thoroughly enjoyed it), while others (including me) did what we do so well - stood around, and yacked. :)
Most people make the mistake of assuming that BLUG meets are about what happens between the beginning of the meet, and the time we break for food. Bad mistake. The good stuff comes *after* that. :)
Over the next two and half hours, groups formed and reformed in the hall, the foyer and the parking lot, discussing anything under the sun. One discussion about gcc led to a discussion about life and education, another discussion was about OpenOffice.org's change to the ODT format (with actual OO.o developers pitching in). This led to a discussion about powerpoint, impress and other presentation packages, which then led to Biju coming up with references to S5.
By the time Sony and I headed off home, we were totally sated - my guess is that the 20-odd people (who knew when the good parts of a BLUG meet are) got a year's worth of discussions. :)
One strange and frankly wonderful feeling was that no one was looking at me to drive/do things. I was there as a plain old member of the BLUG, and that added to the enjoyment.
This meet rocked, and if things aren't allowed to degenerate like before, then the BLUG has a great future ahead.
I, for one, can't wait for the next meet (which should be on September 23rd, but stay tuned).
Ladies and gentlemen - the BLUG is back.
p.s. I couldn't find any blog entries or other discussions about the meet online, so can't link you to any of them. If you come across any, feel free to let me know so that I can update this entry.
| 
Mobile
RSS Feed
