[H-GEN] Brisbane LUGs

[Robert Brockway]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
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On Fri, 30 Aug 2002, Tony Nugent wrote:

> A lug here on the Gold Coast???  Wow!  Great!  Tell me more!
>
> Unfortunately glug.org.au does not appear to have any presence in
> the DNS, neither has gclug.org.au (in case it was a typo).
>
> Is there any other way to get in touch with someone invoved with
> this group?  Please, call me.

Hi Tony.  The active group I referred to earlier can be found at:
http://www.goldcoastlinux.org/

> > USQLUG Linux Users Group, University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba
> > http://www.sci.usq.edu.au/lug/
>
> I am not confident that this is a real entity any longer.  Nor is
> there mention of another one that I am aware of.
>
> Herein lies a story...
>
>   For a time I was heavily involved with USQlug, as I was employed
>   at usq as a (linux) support officer (my first IT-related position)
>   and defacto involvement with usqlug came with the job.  Lack of
>   interest was its main problem (both students and staff), it
>   definitely had had its hay-day well before I came along.  In my
>   time, it had only a few meetings (some of which were _excellent_),
>   but they were generally very poorly attended.

This comes back to the critial mass idea.  The ratio of unix/Linux users
to the general population is increasing so eventually smaller cities like
Toowoomba will be able to support a LUG in the long term.  I congratulate
your efforts to keep it running though.

>   But it never really happened like that.  The "old crew" had became
>   post-grads (and in some cases, staff), new blood (and new

This happened to Humbug but we did get the new blood (Brisbane benig big
enough for this).

>   "talent") was just not happening, and others were coming along to
>   meetings (and welcomed!) who were not directly involved with the
>   uni itself.

Humbug has always been independent of the uni - we just happen to meet
there.  This gives us broader appeal I guess.

>   It was decided (around mid'99) to try to broaden the group's
>   appeal (and to allow it to survive)... so a new group was formed -
>   THUUG (Toowoomba Home Unix Users Group).  It started off with a

Ah yes, I remember THUUG.  A truly inspired name :)  It needs to be
restarted for the name alone :)

>   quiet bang (pop?), and in the end some of the more active people
>   in the usqlug/thuug group (including myself) ended up working for
>   GrowZone when it was first being set up and deployed as an
>   all-linux ISP over southern inland Qld (funded by an NTN grant).
>   (Heh, growzone is another story, perhaps over a quiet beer someday :)

I'd love to hear how it went as I.  I don't drink beer but will enjoy a
coffee while you quaff your favourite hops based beverage.

>   But once again, it was always very difficult getting people
>   motivated to actually organise things and to be there at the
>   meetings (always left to the few unthanked regulars who sometimes
>   filled both roles).  Meetings continued to be poorly attended and
>   interest in organising them wained as a result.  So, so sad... it
>   had such great potential.

Indeed it did have great potential.

>   Since I left Twmba early last year, the situation has not
>   improved... the main legacy is a mailing list (that I set up for
>   it at growzone) -- the occasional message comes through, so it
>   still has an audience and perhaps a germ of life for the future.
>   Someone else did a nice web page, but I haven't checked it lately,
>   http://www.thuug.org.au (oh my, I see that am still listed as the
>   admin/tech contact for the domain:)   So far I have seen no

Better fix that or people will call you when it breaks :)

>   evidence that anyone at USQ is doing anything with usqlug (or has
>   been since well before mid'99), and unfortunately thuug is
>   currently little more than that mailing list.
>
> This experience with LUGs is quite sobering... I don't think many
> people here really appreciate how wonderful it is to see all the
> busy bustling that goes on at a humbug meeting!  It is quite unique
> and special, it is so good to see it florish like it is doing.

It really does have a life of its own :)

> Without people committed to being involved (if only to come along to
> meetings as much as they can), such interest groups can fade so
> easily into insignificance.  The idea is to pass on the skills,
> learn from each other, to promote the benefits of this off-beat (as
> in, "non-mainstream") but wonderfully powerful unix/linux operating
> system, to spread the good word about open-source software, to
> satisfy the passion to see and do some really cool new things with
> computers.

Hell yeah! :)

Cheers,
	-Rob

-- Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org  ICQ: 104781119
   Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org)
   "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah


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