Hi, I attended "Near-Fest", the replacement for Hosstraders the Ham Radio Festival on May 4th and 5th. Near-Fest was held at Deerfield Fair Grounds. For the last several years GNHLUG has had an advocacy role of promoting Linux and FOSS to Ham Radio Operators at this outdoor Ham Flea Market and Convention called "Hosstraders". Then last fall the organizers of Hosstraders called it quits after thirty years, and a new group of people called "Near-Fest" took it over.
For a first try, these guys did a good job. Of course they were leveraging off the previous Hosstraders program, but they were relatively well organized and had a good turn-out. I say "relatively", since when I called two weeks before to check up on my space I had reserved, they told me that they were "sold out", and that we did not have a space. When I pointed out that I had reserved one by email months ago, they admitted that they were a bit confused about the linkage between "GNHLUG" and "Linux", but that we did indeed have a space reserved. Then when I showed up a bit late on Friday, there was another vendor in my space who also said that they had made a mistake on his reservation. Eventually everything worked out, but it was confusing. Ben Scott showed up the first day. We had agreed that for this first Near-Fest we would not do a big "dog and pony show" and that we would stick with some simple laptop demos. I had printed up some half-page brochures about GNHLUG which included our URL, etc. but we did not make distributions to give away. Ben did give away one copy of a distro to a guy who begged him for it, and I made up a distro when I got home and mailed it to someone who lived in Maine and had only dial-up. Other people also showed up, but the second day collided with "Kentucky Derby Day" and we did not get the normal GNHLUG faithful to help staff it, so I was mostly alone that day. The admission price for people was basically $10. per person and $10. for a car, with $35. for an RV hookup (tent camping was "free"). Those who drove in with a car or RV could basically set up a table and/or tent/tarp and sell their "stuff" for the same price as admission. >From a GNHLUG perspective, we were part of the "commercial vendors" who were inside of two large buildings. I paid $40. for an 8-foot space, and an additional $16. to rent a table for the two days. The building was nice and there were plenty of electric outlets. The building was unheated (of course), but at least it was dry. As a commercial vendor I was able to enter without the $10. fee and bring my car in, so the privilege of being in the building really only cost me $20. for the eight-foot space. To compare these prices with the old "Hosstraders", we paid $35. for about three tables worth of space. We typically had one table for the demos and to make CDs, with one or two tables ($14. per table rental) for putting "stuff" to swap/sell, etc. on. Given the cost of the space in the commercial buildings, I would suggest that future GNHLUG/NEAR-Fest activities inside the building be limited to demonstrating Linux/FOSS and the "stuff" be kept outside by someone's car for sale/swap, unless the "someone" wishes to contribute another $40. and provide a table for their "stuff". Likewise, while the old Hosstrader's organizers knew about GNHLUG and Linux, the new organizers were a little confused about our participation and why we were there. I tried to show them over the weekend what we were about and how Linux and Ham Radio really do go together. Bill Sconce reports that at least one major "Ham Radio" magazine has been having FOSS articles in it, so this may help make us more of the "family" in the future. Since the buildings were fairly good at DeerField, I would suggest that GNHLUG might want to try and develop some simple classes in how to install Linux, or use some Ham tools with Linux to do at the next Near-Fest. October 12th and 13th, 2007. I will be in Toronto that weekend, so I will not be able to attend or lead this. If someone else would like to take the mantle for the Fall Near-Fest, I will be happy to give you the contact information for it. maddog -- Jon "maddog" Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006) (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
