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

Sun May 10 17:31:36 EDT 2015

+1 more for me.

Stephen R. Blevins
stephen.r.blevins at gmail.com

On 05/10/2015 01:31 PM, 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
> <mailto:Mark at markulmer.com>" <mark at markulmer.com
> <mailto: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
>     <mailto:jkinney at jimkinney.us>> wrote:
> 
>>     So you will get this before the daily digest.
>>
>>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>     *From:* Jim Kinney <jkinney at jimkinney.us
>>     <mailto:jkinney at jimkinney.us>>
>>     *Sent:* May 10, 2015 9:05:55 AM EDT
>>     *To:* Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org <mailto: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
>>     <mailto: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 <http://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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