Michael,
Thanks for your post.
No you haven't stepped on my toes.
It is what this group needs, some frank honest discussion.
Every single point you make is very valid.
I believe ( hope) that everybody involved with ubuntu-au have similar
motivations to promote the use of Ubuntu throughout Australia
When the governance issues are sorted out, your various points can be
addressed. (IMHO)
As it currently stands, (IMO) there is really no mechanism to address
your concerns.
When we can identify people / resources of ubuntu-au, we can delegate
responsibility for these things to be fixed.
If we have a mechanism that is accountable, any or all goals set by
the members of ubuntu-au can be achieved.
We need people like yourself to step-up and be counted.
I like your enthusiasm.
Cheers,
Andrew G.
On Mar 9, 12:44 pm, Michael keltoi...@gmail.com wrote:
Hi everyone.
I hope I'm not about to step on any toes with this post, it is not my
intent but I shall apologise profusely now before I start.
In my waking hours last night I had a think about yesterdays various
discussions, especially the governance discussions. Now I'm not going
to suggest that the loco's governance should or should not be changed
as I have already made my point with regards to that and not being a
veteran of Ubuntu-AU I'm not sure if I should really get to far into
that without knowing more than I currently do.
I will say, and said in another thread, that to me it seems Ubuntu-Au
isn't really visible on the Ubuntu forums. To me if Ubuntu-AU isn't
visible on the mother site then it isn't going to be very visible
anywhere else. So yesterday I changed my Ubuntu forums signature to
include a link to Ubuntu-AU so that any Australians, or anyone who is
interested for that matter, can go to the link and see what is
happening with Ubuntu-AU. Who knows it may even encourage a few others
to become active participants.
Some other things I thought about, some have already been posted by
others, are.
1. The Ubuntu-AU pages really need updating.
2. The membership list for Ubuntu-AU google group REALLY (not shouting
just making sure its understood how serious this issue is) needs
cleaning up. Has anyone had a look at the membership list lately and
seen how many references to porn there are in it?
3. The Ubuntu-AU planet page, what is its purpose? I understand this,
Planet Ubuntu Australia is a window into the world, work and lives of
Australian Ubuntu developers and contributors. but I would have
thought it would be something that each post would by necessity would
have to have some relevance to Ubuntu or FOSS in general. I frequent
SILs Linux development page and each post is relevant to the work of
SIL Linux Developers.
4. After the, apparently necessary, governance positions are
finalised I think Ubuntu-AU needs to work out what it wants to
achieve. I'm not talking about what is already written on the website
as it probably needs rethinking anyway, I am talking about developing
a realistic action plan for the next 12 months. So we need to know
what are peoples strengths, what contacts do they have, what
industries etc are they linked to? Then we need to be realistic as to
how we can use this to the advantage of Ubuntu-AU.
I'll give an example for 4. Being a teacher I am interested in
promoting Ubuntu to schools and students. To me Ubuntu has huge
potential in schools, the public system at the very least, because it
is after all free thus helping the education sector to save money over
time not only for the basic OS but also for the ongoing costs of AV
software and even helping to keep older hardware going for longer with
the Thin Client option.
How could Ubuntu-Au promote Ubuntu to the various public sector
education departments, well going to individual schools is a waste of
time because not every school has an IT manager that is capable of
working on the schools IT infrastructure so you would need to canvas
the entire department starting from the Director General (being from
NSW I'm using NSW terminologies) and then work your way through the
levels down to the various schools. They need to be convinced that
Ubuntu is a viable option not only that they will need to be convinced
that Ubuntu-AU is going to be there to help.
What will they look for? I think they will want to know what Ubuntu
has to offer. I wouldn't even bother telling them to check the
Edubuntu site, why? well its not even up to date. So, and this will be
the same for every industry we want to encourage to change over, we
would need to update (for Ubuntu-AU) the list of programs available
and how they can be used instead of the Windows options. We would need
to show things like costs savings, we would need to show training
options for staff and possibly also students. We would need to have a
possible role out plan formulated so that, incase of difficulties,
there are still usable PCs available to use. Believe it or
