Mar 15
A bit late on notice, but if anyone’s interested, there are two Linux conferences coming up in the Northeast.
Saturday, the 17th, Northeast LinuxFest is in Worcester, MA. A one-day conference mostly about Linux, this year’s theme will be accessibility.
Next Weekend, Libreplanet will be in Boston, a two-day event more focused on Free Software.
I’m hoping to go to both, and hope to see some of you there. Please let us know if you do!
Software Freedom Day swag.
I’m back from Ohio Linux Fest, and I have brought back a whole lot of swag to give away for Software Freedom day. I have 20 Ubuntu discs, 22 Fedora and 28 SuSe based Gnome 3 trial discs. I also have a bunch of stickers from Gnome, the Free Software Foundation, and Fedora. I also have a stack of literature from the EFF. I also have an Ubuntu disc that I won from the Linux Link Tech show crew, and a Fedora book to give away. I also have a large number of Software Freedom Day and Fedora balloons that I have to look into getting helium inflated for Saturday.
I’m working on some copies to “The Open Disc” to give away, and I’m also going to make more copies of the Open Culture Disc that we discussed at the last meeting.
I’m going to head out today to put up some flyers around Montclair. I put some up in Boonton last week, and they are all now gone. I’ll try again, and see how they do.
Anyone else having luck with preparations?
Edit: Here is the link to our page on the Software Freedom Day site: Any suggestions on updates would be welcome.
Jul 24
I just got back from Fosscon last night, it was a great small conference. Very approachable, and a lot of fun.
I’ve also been thinking, Software Freedom Day is approaching fast! We only have two meetings before September 17th. If everyone can put some thought to a location that we can use for a SFD demonstration, we really need to discuss and take action on this FAST!
I started to register, but did not have a location to put in yet.
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org
The two locations that I presented a few months ago turn out to be very expensive, and the deadlines have passed already.
I hope to hear from some of you this Wednesday.
Well, it’s a day later that I was shooting for, but here’s a draft of the flyer for Software Freedom Day. I’d really like to hear some feedback on the flyer, as well as proposed demonstrations and/or presentations that folks would like to do, so that I can include them. So please let me know what you think.sfd_flyer-1
I was not able to upload the original Scribus desktop publishing file, probably because it looks like straight XML. If anyone wants it to remix and/or make corrections, just let me know.
Addition: I’ve gotten a ton of great suggestions from an Amiga mailing list that I’m a part of, and have the following revision to the flyer: sfd_flyer-3
I personally think that it’s a little information dense, a little too wordy. I welcome suggestions to improve it.
Addition2: Thanks to Zak for some layout suggestions for an alternate, cleaner layout: sfd_flyer-4
Aug 5
For those of you that are interested, please get back to me quickly, waiting until the next meeting, on August 25th would seem to be too late. We need for volunteers to find and get detailed information on a venue to hold SFD. A place with a lot of foot traffic that may at least have some interest in technology would be good. We will need power, and prefereably internet access. (this is not essntial) The date is for Septermber 18th, so we need to get moving now if we are to get some publicity for the event. http://softwarefreedomday.org/
UPDATE: Sam has done some great work and found out that we can reserve the meeting room (while it’s still available) up until the 18th of August. We’ll have the room from 1-4:45. So, we have a meeting place, in the Morris County Library, if we have the support of the members to go ahead. So, who is game? We will need people to promote the event, so that we have some traffic this year. Last year we were there, but the public didn’t know about us. Can anyone step forward with some good ideas and action to make Software Freedom Day a success?
Jun 17
Had a great time at Southeast Linux Fest last weekend. Short week of work, and off to Fosscon this coming weekend. I’ll talk a little about the two conventions at the upcoming meeting.
The NJ Linux user’s group would like to announce a brief presentation
of “An Introduction to Free and Open Source Software”
It will be held at the Boonton Holmes Library at 6:30 on Tuesday the 20th.
We’ll spend an hour going through the following: A quick
demonstration of some Free applications for Windows, OpenOffice.org,
and The GNU Image Manipulation Program. Then we’ll take a look at
Linux, a free operating system, as well as a quick overview of some
applications available for Linux. This will be followed by a question
and answer session. Updates and more details can be found at
http://njlinux.org and email questions can be addressed to
linux @ murph.info.
Edit: I’ve included the flyer that I’ve been distributing here: open-3
Edit2: Here are the slides that I’m planning on showing. Suggestions welcome. pres1
Apr 2
This past Wednesday was our screening of “Revolution OS.” To be honest, I was a little worried. I wasn’t getting a whole lot of feedback, and was concerned that I’d be a lonely geek watching a movie (that I already own) in a rented theatre by myself. Turns out my worries were unfounded. Our user’s group, and the local community came out in droves! We had about 4 dozen people in the Darress theatre, with only one walk out. Considering the depth of the movie, I’d say that was a great success. Many people stuck around to ask questions, which I did my best to answer. We then went over to the Boonton Avenue Grille for good food and more good conversation. Overall, it was a great night, a great opportunity to share information about GNU, Linux, Free and Open Source Software.
I have many people to thank,
We raised enough to cover the cost of the theatre, with $101 left over, which will go to the Free Software Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Stay tuned to the blog, some of the members took pictures, and we’ll update for upcoming events and meetings.
Also, I’ll be running an “Introduction to Free software and Linux” at the Boonton library at 6:30 on April 20th, for anyone who is local and interested. I’ll be showing some current software, and some explanation of what it does, and how you can use it. Details will be posted here soon.
Again, thanks to all of you, and please let me know what was good, what was bad, and if you’d be interested in more events like this, or if you’d be interested in joining us at the North Jersey Linux User’s Group at njlinux.org. I can be reached at linux @ murph.info.
Mar 15
If anyone is going to be the Meadowlands area (I cannot, if was able to make it, I wouldn’t post.) this coming weekend, maybe you can drop off a bunch of flyers. If you’re interested in going, I have a dollar off coupon that I can email to you. Let me know.
Thanks,
–Bob