On 12-03-22 10:05 AM, Richard Guy Briggs wrote: > Another factor to consider is a question of demographics of > participants. If we are looking at a seniors' club, then parking is > going to be more important and perhaps not too late. If we are looking > at a students' club, then centrallity and transit are going to be > important since fewer youth are placing the value in owning motor > vehicles in the last 5-10 years than the 50 before that, which is > partly due to the disruptive technologies we meet to discuss. Perhaps > I am nostalgic for societies that value intergenerational > collaboration, but I think it makes sense to make an effort to > accomodate both in this particular area of interest. Does it make > sense to restrict ourselves to Linux specific topics, or open source > software (and perhaps hardware?) in general?
From a club viability perspective Richard is right (as usual). I share the same nostalgia for intergenerational collaboration. Given the geography, culture and climate of Canada, I think it is going to take a long time to wean ourselves off personal vehicles. At 51 guess I'm now a senior? I spend around an hour most days on my bike in the summer, so I don't feel like one. I wonder (having done no substantive research) how well collaborative Open Source communication technologies work for large scale meetings? (25-50 live participants?) Video conferencing for Board meetings may alleviate some physical attendance pressure. I use telephone based conference calls very frequently for client meetings as geography prevents face to face meetings. There may be a lot of value in investing in working with disruptive virtual presence meetings, as the scope of possible members may increase, and the geographical lines drawn may become less relevant. Being able to "watch" club presentations after their "live" broadcast would be far more interesting than reviewing presentations without the audio, the questions, the responses and the community. From 20,000 feet, this is where I think "social" applications should be - I hate the reality that an American corporate entity run by a miserable spoiled brat "owns" all the interpersonal communication between today's youth. Open, free and non-commercial social participation using the Internet as backbone would be far more acceptable to me than freely allowing corporate America to mine my son's traffic and sell him to the highest bidders. Just a thought. Certainly would be far more eco-friendly than driving my fossil fuel dinosaur belching it's planet killing crap. Although I certainly would miss the Beer Sig! -- Bill _______________________________________________ Linux mailing list Linux@lists.oclug.on.ca http://oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/linux
