[kwlug-disc] Linux Conference

[B. S.]

----- Original Message -----
> From: Nick Guenther <nguenthe at uwaterloo.ca>
> To: KWLUG discussion <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Saturday, June 6, 2015 4:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Linux Conference
> 
> 
> ... . The more content we create (computer or otherwise) the 
> more fractured we become.

Hadn't thought of it that way, but that's a very interesting and salient point.

> ... I prefer 

> workshops and hackathons to presentations and advocacy; at least with those you 
> can come home with a new toy. Colin, could you incorporate that into your plan?
> 
> I wish there was OkC for programming collaborations.

There's some resonance there I hadn't thought of in this thread - workshops. Which, I think, has been oft asked for, in essence. I believe within kwlug, but also in the wider community / area, as well. If a workshop delivers 'a solution', it may well be OS agnostic as well, interesting to a wider audience.

I'm not talking installfests, although that isn't precluded. I'm minded of the SFD (Software Freedom Day) seminars on photography (computer post-processing / management, etc.) which seem to be well attended. (But inevitably get bogged down in the early stages.) I could easily see the same for Raspberry Pi's, although that may intrude upon kwartzlab. (But I doubt they'd mind / would be interested in partnership.) I'm not suggesting this is Colin's bent, but the general idea seems germane.

Clearly costs can't be too much - Bob Day, IIRC, tried this having purchased a number of laptops and offering seminars. I don't believe it lasted all that long. I assume due to cost and to the difficulty of gathering that many (kernel development?) interested attendees within this geographical area, given the cost.

Even without such costs, I'd guess Khalid could comment upon such workshop viability, given the Drupal ones regularly held around here.

But if a series of workshops were well attended and collected together ... do you not have the beginnings of a larger event? Which could grow over time, as Digimer suggests?