Details from Jabalpur and Girish girish@apnajabalpur.com about a recent GNU/Linux event there. FN

herez the details, pardon me if Ive slipped in writing. We have taken a month's off from our regular weekly meets due to various reasons, however, the interactions continue informally.

The detailed report about the event is enclosed. We are yet to recieve the few photographs we took.

If you have any queries, please do write back,

Thanks for your encouragement and support, With best regards,

-Girish Shukla

Linux Users' Group Jabalpur Website: http://jbplug.sf.net Mail-list: http://yahoogroups.com/group/jbp-lug

The Event: The GNU-Linux awareness meet was held on 20th April, 2003 at premises of Dubey Chemistry Classes, Wright town, Jabalpur. The event was arranged at a short notice of less than a week.

The Objective: The event was first for jbp-lug marking one year of the lug here. The objective was to create awareness about software issues and importance and advantages of GNU-Linux beyond our weekly Sunday meetings. The event has opened new channels for larger events and activities of such nature.

How it went: 1.Event began around 15 minutes late at 4:45 pm with a brief introduction about the LUG, Linux and FLOSS. 2.Linux as a Desktop and server was demonstrated using RedHat8 and MDK9. 3.This was immediately followed by screening of The Code Linux movie. ~At intervals, explanation with examples was given in Hindi about what the movie is saying for those not comfortable with English medium.~ 4.A technical discussion session followed with discussions from Clusters to Sockets related to Linux. 5.The event concluded at around 8 pm with informal interactions and hands-on experience by newbies on Linux.

Most of the publicity was through 'tell your friend' i.e. word of mouth. The event had attendence of around 40-50 people and 10 active LUG members. No commercial sponserships were solicited for the event and no fee was charged to anyone. Only dampening factors being the extremely hot weather, and technical discussion stretching for longer than scheduled. The event was attended mostly by students. Engg. students from as far as, Bhopal had come. There were students from BCA, MCA, Science, Commerce and Engg.

Lessons learnt from the event: ======Light================ 1.Half baked Techies from MSN's Ovens must be kept in separate box from the general public. 2.Seminars Still cause headache. 3.Free chai is not always a good idea. Instead, Everyone has the Freedom to buy their own cut-ting. =======Sober=============== 4.Good orators, or even good techies can help promote GNU/Linux better. If few mentors, experts can visit smaller lugs once a while, it will help. 5.Mentors needed for small lugs. 6.Distro CDs and demos help a lot in creating awareness and are essential for LUG. Somehow, we should ensure that we get the latest distros here in time. [Presently, Karunakar has been of great help to us in contributing for the same]. 7.Large numbers may or may not necessarily be good and fruitful. It is essential that the message of FLOSS and Linux is effectively communicated. 8.A LUG works best as a Linux Fans' Club. It accomodates everyone and everyones' views and concerns in an open and sincere manner. 9.Events facilitate new ideas and new friends. 10.Localisation efforts are an important factor for growth of Linux.

Based on post event response, and the laudable efforts of members, despite the few glitches, the event objective was achieved but lot remains to be done.

From girish@apnajabalpur.com Wed May 14 09:46:14 2003

I must add,names of members[in no particular order]who made it possible:

Mr.Neependra Khare BE Comp. GRKIST Mr.Arnab Ganguly BE IT JEC Mr.Shubham Mishra BE Comp. JEC Mr.Sarvesh Rathore BE Comp. JEC Mr.Anurag Gautam & Mohit BCA JCC Also,Mr.Piyush Shukla BE JEC, Mr.Himanshu Ahirwar B.Com.GKC and many other people who contributed directly or indirectly. Thanks also due to Mr.Pradeep Dubey for providing us space and facility. -Girish