[H-GEN] Room Bookings Update

[Arjen Lentz]

Hi Sarah

On 14/01/2009, at 2:40 PM, Sarah Walters wrote:
> It's the Home Unix Machine Brisbane User Group. There is NOTHING in  
> that name that says anything about open source software. HUMBUG was  
> historically a user group for people who use a Unix variant at home.  
> If the majority feels that it should be about open source software  
> instead then fine, change the name. But while I agree that welcoming  
> new members is important, running Firefox on Windows is not what  
> HUMBUG is about.

As I described in an earlier email (using intro of computers, modems,  
Internet as example), the world has fundamentally changed over the  
last 3 decades that I've been using computers, and also since HUMBUG's  
inception. Clutching on to what the acronym HUMBUG originally stood  
for, or the original objectives, is IMHO a recipe for making oneself  
obsolete. We've seen a brilliant example of this over recent years in  
AUUG.

Running Firefox on Windows is a small step that many users will take.  
So it's a good first step. If HUMBUG does not wish to deal with that  
step, then the steps that can follow won't happen either for those  
many users. Lost opportunity, very wasteful. And for what purpose??


> If you want to make HUMBUG more welcoming to newbies, then running  
> less technical talks, along the lines of "Linux for Windows users"  
> would be very advantageous.


If you are fundamentally not attracting those people as a group, you  
won't get them for that one talk either. You won't have any existing  
connection with them, they won't see any mail or website announcement.  
Marketing wise, this just doesn't jive.


Cheers,
Arjen.
-- 
Arjen Lentz, Director @ Open Query (http://openquery.com.au)
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