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

Wed May 13 16:29:28 EDT 2015

I can do June, but we are on vacation in the week of the 18th.

Thanks!
-Mike

> On May 10, 2015, at 5:31 PM, Stephen R. Blevins <stephen.r.blevins at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> +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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>> 
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