[ale] ALE Meetings??????????? -- [OFF LIST]

Sun May 10 14:14:02 EDT 2015

Jim,
I'd commit in a flash if I could,

BUT . . .

I'll be leaving Atlanta in a few weeks and we will not return until
after Labor Day.  Between a college 50th class reunion in Virginia, the
Fourth of July with my grandson in Denver, and the wedding of a close
family friend in Tacoma the end of August, Pat and I are somewhat
booked. :)

Oh, and we will be doing all of that hauling a 110 square feet of travel
trailer from hither, to thither, to yon -- and back again.

Beginning in September, I can commit to making at least six of the next
eight meetings.  Best I  can do.

Sean

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On Sun, 2015-05-10 at 13:31 -0400, Jim Kinney wrote:
> 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
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> > --
> > 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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> >
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