[ug-discuss] Monthly Project Status and News Updates

[Ben Rockwood]

Alan DuBoff wrote:

>On Thursday 15 December 2005 12:43 am, Ben Rockwood wrote:
>  
>
>>  I was curious if we should start each meeting by doing a quick
>>overview of OpenSolaris news prior to each meeting.  Nothing grand or
>>anything, but mention new releases, major topics of the month, big
>>changes or projects that are in the works, etc.  You could do it or I
>>could.  It might be useful for new people or those who aren't paying
>>much attention.
>>    
>>
>
>I try to offer any news I know about, and everyone is certainly welcome to 
>chime in, yourself included. Don't be shy! I try to encourage audience 
>participation as much as I can, but feel free to pipe in.
>  
>
I guess its a diffrence in style.

For instance, BayLISA tends to do announcements similar to the way we do 
at SVOSUG, where if there is something of note its mentioned, and 
generally an offer is made for anyone with news to speak up.  Brief and 
simple.

On the other hand, SVLUG tends to have a more formal sort of methodical 
schedual.  With a formal welcoming, outline, upcoming events, recent 
activity reports, and things like that. 

The kind of news and such that I'm talking about would be more in the 
vien of SVLUG, probly with news that may or may not interest people.  
"B28 was release, some of the new features include...", "The X community 
has posted a proposal on XYZ and is looking for...", "Such and such had 
a great blog about..."  You get the idea.  I like this idea of a monthly 
review, but it could quickly get out of hand simply because so much is 
going on.  On the upside it could increase awareness, but frankly if 
they bother to look at the blogs they should already know all this stuff 
anyway.

>>  In addition, pointing out any persons of interest that are present at
>>the meeting to assist attendees in locating people might be useful too.
>>Maybe just doing the introductions around the room again might be a good
>>idea.  The only problem with introductions generally seems to be that we
>>have enough people that straggle in during the first 30 minutes that not
>>everyone is there.
>>    
>>
>
>This is typically a waste of time to do all the time. Best to utilize the 
>networking time that we do have to find out who those folks are yourself, 
>IMO. This is true of most every user group.
>  
>
I agree.  Basically its just a way for shy people like myself to find 
out who people are without going up and asking them.  For instance, if 
Stephen Hahn has ever been at SVOSUG I'm unaware of it, and if he came 
this month, I probly wouldn't notice him.  Another example was 2 months 
ago when the leader of the Docs community came to the meeting but I 
didn't know what she looked like, so I had to go around the room to all 
the women and try to politly ask if they were with the docs community.  
So, this is a shelfish request on the outside but I imagine others might 
be the same boat.

On a related note, the panels you did before were kool.  They seem like 
a bit much to do every month but it might be a good idea to schedual 
them quarterly or something.

>> What are your feelings?  I'm following your lead and CC'ing to
>>ug-discuss.  Anyone is welcome to comment on these topics or other
>>"meeting flow" type suggestions.
>>    
>>
>
>I think that's what it's for, but don't think there are many folks from the 
>community on it. It seems we should use our own private list possibly, and 
>encourage others in the area to sign up for it.
>  
>
I'm CC'ing to our list.  Although, SVOSUG is the UG that sets the 
standard and is leading the pack, so I'd view our issues as being of 
interest to others as well.  If someone disagrees we'll take it to the 
SVOSUG list exclusively.

benr.