[ale] ALE Meetings???????????

Sun May 10 13:31:27 EDT 2015

There's always a group of Atlanta people to the SELC!

We have a sizable number of subscribers on the ale mailing list but only a
tiny fraction have ever attended meetings.

Things have changed over the years with Linux enthusiasts. Dilution of
interest is a big factor. For many years the focus was on "can we make this
kernel hack work" but now that Linux is mainstream enough that it's
expected to be learned in CS schools, the focus is on smaller subsections:
process monitoring ( nagios, etc), application development, security,
specific use cases (HPC, web services, file servers, etc), automated
configuration (puppet, chef, spacewalk, foreman, etc), user environments
(gnome, kde, tiny gui spaces, etc).

In short, the success of Linux has resulted in the demise of the Linux
general interest group being replaced with specialty groups.

Many, many years ago, ALE pulled off multiple years of (the wonderful and
hugely successful) ALS, the Atlanta Linux Showcase. That conference set the
pattern for many following conferences. It also worked a tiny handful of
people to the point of volunteer apathy and burnout. What they did was
outstanding but it took a heavy toll.

In the years between ALS and now, many of the founders and leaders of ALE
have (wisely) developed new hobbies outside of work (Linux stuff of
course!) and involvement with ALE is an unpaid extension of work. Mix in a
family life and ALE takes an ever diminished role.

I have given much thought to formally announcing the intent to not pursue
ALE meetings any more. So many of us are deep into the minutiae of a
specialized area that a talk reaches a fraction of percent of ALE
subscribers and is too technical to attract a younger, student crowd.
Without a student crowd to involve faculty support, free access to meeting
space at local universities is not an option.

But I can't bring myself to make that announcement. I keep holding out that
I'll get an offer to give a talk that will get 20 people to show up again.
Plus I would be horridly depressed to see something I've been involved with
for 15 years roll over and die. But I've only got so much time and energy
with _my_ non-Linux hobbies and I don't want to give a talk every month. I
could. Getting me to talk is not the problem. Getting me to shut up is :-)
But that would make it look like it's  Jim's ALE group and it's not.

That said, I would do a talk a month for many months (I can commit to 6
right now) if there was a firm commitment of at least 30 attendees. That
would allow for some variation due to illness and schedule issues for
attendees so a group of 20+ would be present every month. It would also
inspire me to hammer the CS department at Emory for official sponsorship
(reviving LUGE - Linux Users Group of Emory) which could include possible
access to a lecture theater classroom and active student participation.

But I've got to have an audience for this stuff. I always enjoy seeing the
2-4 people that attend every meeting but that's too small of a crowd for
the effort. If the attendance dips below 10 any single month or below 15
for 2 consecutive months, I'll call it off.

I guess I've thrown down the gauntlet here.

If 30 people commit to attendance in the next 2 weeks, I'll work up a talk
schedule to begin for a June meeting date with May meeting for general
discussion of topics and beers afterwards.
On May 10, 2015 11:45 AM, "Mark at markulmer.com" <mark at markulmer.com> wrote:

> Jim,
> Thanks for the reply. I moved to GA in October and I was looking forward
> to ALE meetings. Sorry ALE meetings are dead. I'll continue to watch the
> mailing list.
>
> Are you familiar with the Southeast Linux Fest that is in Charlotte each
> June. It's a great small conference. May I suggest we look at doing
> something similar (annual Linux geek out) here in Atlanta.
>
> In the meantime the GA 400 Linux group meetings are good and I encourage
> others to check them out.
>
> Thanks Jim,
> Mark Ulmer
>
> On May 10, 2015, at 9:16 AM, Jim Kinney <jkinney at jimkinney.us> wrote:
>
> So you will get this before the daily digest.
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Jim Kinney <jkinney at jimkinney.us>
> *Sent:* May 10, 2015 9:05:55 AM EDT
> *To:* Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [ale] ALE Meetings???????????
>
> If there were meetings they would be posted on the web page. We have not
> been having meetings as there's little/no interest in meetings. Having a
> talk for a crowd of 2 was not worth the effort. ALE-NW has lost it's space.
> ALE-Central is likely going to lose it's space soon due to remodeling in my
> department.
>
> ALE is dead. Long live ALE.
>
> Aaron stepped down over a year ago.
>
> Who knows. Maybe we can pull off a last gasp cookout this summer.
>
> On May 9, 2015 10:31:22 PM EDT, Mark Ulmer <mark at markulmer.com> wrote:
>>
>> Aaron,
>> When is this next ALE Central or NW meeting?  Could someone please post
>> the meetings to the ale.org website?
>>
>> I'm on the ale mailing list, yet there is too much general conversation.
>> I had to drop it to just the daily digest.  I've been watching this year
>> for ALE meeting announcements and seem to keep missing them or they are
>> not being announced.
>>
>> Do you have a better suggestion for me to follow and be able to attend
>> the ALE meetings?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mark Ulmer
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>
>>
> --
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
> --
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>
> ------------------------------
>
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