Amish...;)
On 2004.02.01 11:59 Amish Munshi wrote:
On Sunday 01 Feb 2004 11:45 am, you wrote:
You are invited for the seminar. Thanks for coming forward and sharing the knowledge.
[snip]
Needn't be so formal amish. We have been quite long here to warrant that!!!...:)
Trevor
On Sunday 01 Feb 2004 7:20 pm, Trevor Warren wrote:
You are invited for the seminar. Thanks for coming forward and sharing the knowledge.
Needn't be so formal amish. We have been quite long here to warrant that!!!...:)
Trevor
Hello,
I think I'm a little lost ... Not sure if I'm missing some mail, but do we have a LUG meeting this sunday? If yes, what's the venue? I'm a little lost...
Regards
Rishi
the next LUG meeting is on Feb 8. Venue not yet fixed
Regards Saswata
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rishi Gangoly" rishi@theargoncompany.com To: trevor.w@pvision.biz; "GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India" linuxers@mm.ilug-bom.org.in Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 8:47 AM Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Re: [Fwd: regards meeting and Redundant Clusters]
On Sunday 01 Feb 2004 7:20 pm, Trevor Warren wrote:
You are invited for the seminar. Thanks for coming forward and sharing the knowledge.
Needn't be so formal amish. We have been quite long here to warrant that!!!...:)
Trevor
Hello,
I think I'm a little lost ... Not sure if I'm missing some mail, but do we have a LUG meeting this sunday? If yes, what's the venue? I'm a little lost...
Regards
Rishi
The LUG meeting can be held at KReSIT, IIT on Sunday. Please fix the timings.
- Chetan
On Mon, Feb 02, 2004 at 10:08:14AM +0530, Saswata Banerjee & Associates wrote:
the next LUG meeting is on Feb 8. Venue not yet fixed
Regards Saswata
From: "Rishi Gangoly" rishi@theargoncompany.com To: trevor.w@pvision.biz; "GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India" linuxers@mm.ilug-bom.org.in Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 8:47 AM Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Re: [Fwd: regards meeting and Redundant Clusters]
On Sunday 01 Feb 2004 7:20 pm, Trevor Warren wrote:
You are invited for the seminar. Thanks for coming forward and sharing the knowledge.
Needn't be so formal amish. We have been quite long here to warrant that!!!...:)
Trevor
Hello,
I think I'm a little lost ... Not sure if I'm missing some mail, but do we have a LUG meeting this sunday? If yes, what's the venue? I'm a little lost...
Regards
Rishi
Greetings all,
The meeting location is KReSIT, IIT Mumbai. (http://www.it.iitb.ac.in) at 4:00pm, 8th February 2004.
Topics:
1. Enterprise Computing and how Gnu/Linux has made risen among the ranks Scalable computing for Enterprises - Trevor Warren. 2. Awaiting participants from GLUG members to present a seminar on any topic related to GNU/Linux.
Everyone interested in GNU/Linux is invited for the meeting. There are no charges and registration necessary for the meeting.
Regards.
On Wednesday 04 Feb 2004 8:52 pm, Chetan J Vaity wrote:
The LUG meeting can be held at KReSIT, IIT on Sunday. Please fix the timings.
- Chetan
On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Amish Munshi spake thusly:
Everyone interested in GNU/Linux is invited for the meeting. There are no charges and registration necessary for the meeting.
everyone brings their own refreshments ?
q u a s i said:
everyone brings their own refreshments ?
[snip]
How about their own beer too..:D
Trevor
-- quasi
Exact location: Room SIC-301, 3rd Floor, KReSIT
- Chetan
On Thu, Feb 05, 2004 at 12:26:58AM +0530, Amish Munshi wrote:
Greetings all,
The meeting location is KReSIT, IIT Mumbai. (http://www.it.iitb.ac.in) at 4:00pm, 8th February 2004.
Topics:
- Enterprise Computing and how Gnu/Linux has made risen among the ranks
Scalable computing for Enterprises - Trevor Warren. 2. Awaiting participants from GLUG members to present a seminar on any topic related to GNU/Linux.
Everyone interested in GNU/Linux is invited for the meeting. There are no charges and registration necessary for the meeting.
Regards.
On Wednesday 04 Feb 2004 8:52 pm, Chetan J Vaity wrote:
The LUG meeting can be held at KReSIT, IIT on Sunday. Please fix the timings.
- Chetan
On Thursday 05 Feb 2004 12:26 am, Amish Munshi wrote:
Greetings all,
- Enterprise Computing and how Gnu/Linux has made risen among the ranks
Scalable computing for Enterprises - Trevor Warren. 2. Awaiting participants from GLUG members to present a seminar on any topic related to GNU/Linux.
The other topic is on updates of Localisation - A comprehensive coverage on conversion of Legacy documentaion into Unicode compliant using Free software. Experince the process as they will be presented by Sonali and Sachin (indictrans team).
- Chetan
On Sat, 2004-02-07 at 07:57, Amish Munshi wrote:
On Thursday 05 Feb 2004 12:26 am, Amish Munshi wrote:
Greetings all,
- Enterprise Computing and how Gnu/Linux has made risen among the ranks
Scalable computing for Enterprises - Trevor Warren. 2. Awaiting participants from GLUG members to present a seminar on any topic related to GNU/Linux.
The other topic is on updates of Localisation - A comprehensive coverage on conversion of Legacy documentaion into Unicode compliant using Free software. Experince the process as they will be presented by Sonali and Sachin (indictrans team).
If I manage to come for the meeting, we can tell the success story at WSF, and the FSF India's and GLUG's involvement in it.
Second, we need to raise Rs.1500/- for domain renewal due this 24th Feb. We need to discuss whether we continue with that domain or change it to org domain, which are cheaper than org.in.
Also it is better that the domain reflects that we are a free software promoting group than merely GNU/Linux. Any ideas?
Nagarjuna
Sometime Today, Nagarjuna G. assembled some asciibets to say:
Second, we need to raise Rs.1500/- for domain renewal due this 24th Feb. We need to discuss whether we continue with that domain or change it to org domain, which are cheaper than org.in.
changing the domain - to anything - will break links that exist all around the web. Not all sites will update links, some out of policy. Mailing list archives (on many servers) also have links that point to our site.
Philip
Philip S Tellis said:
Sometime Today, Nagarjuna G. assembled some asciibets to say: changing the domain - to anything - will break links that exist all
around the web. Not all sites will update links, some out of policy. Mailing list archives (on many servers) also have links that point to our site.
[snip]
All need to sit together, take a call and decide whether its a new domain or the old given the facts we know. We could go for both and phase out the .org.in over a period of time.
Trevor
Philip
On Saturday 07 Feb 2004 2:24 pm, Trevor Warren wrote:
Philip S Tellis said:
Sometime Today, Nagarjuna G. assembled some asciibets to say: changing the domain - to anything - will break links that exist all
All need to sit together, take a call and decide whether its a new domain or the old given the facts we know. We could go for both and phase out the .org.in over a period of time.
I was also wondering if we should make the meetings a paid, we will get more serious people and we can also pay the speakers who are giving the seminars. Presently there is lots of problems to get anyone to give a seminar on anything. Not sure if FSF India can manage all the transactions. As I can see it there is going to be a very important meeting.
Sometime on Feb 7, Amish Munshi assembled some asciibets to say:
I was also wondering if we should make the meetings a paid, we will get more serious people and we can also pay the speakers who are
I don't think we should make it a pay per entry meeting. That in itself will dissuade people from coming - even if it is just Rs. 5. We can make it a pay for your own tea or something like that.
Regarding paying speakers, IMO, the purpose of giving a talk is to increase community awareness and participation. Achieving this should be reward enough.
Speakers should be paid only if the talk is for a commercial body like a workshop held for a company. In this case, the payment should be at minimum travel expenses.
Philip
On Sunday 08 Feb 2004 2:06 am, Philip S Tellis wrote:
Sometime on Feb 7, Amish Munshi assembled some asciibets to say: Speakers should be paid only if the talk is for a commercial body like a workshop held for a company. In this case, the payment should be at minimum travel expenses.
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
-- Do your part to help preserve life on Earth -- by trying to preserve your own.
On Sunday 08 Feb 2004 8:46 am, Amish Munshi wrote:
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
I have a doubt... please clarify...
My boss speaks very well about fundamentals in programming and I'm glad I'm working with him since I get to hear him all the time.
The fundas are simple and can be applied not just for writing software but towards anything and everything in life. He can speak at length on these issues.
Would this be of value at meets like this? Or is this not the appropriate forum?
He does not know any specific new technology nor does he care about knowing it, since there many others to figure that out.
Regards
Rishi
Afternoon rishi,
Rishi Gangoly said:
Would this be of value at meets like this? Or is this not the appropriate forum?
He does not know any specific new technology nor does he care about knowing it, since there many others to figure that out.
[snip]
Rishi, It would surely make sense to provide him a forum where we all come together and share our experiences/knowledge.
After all he would surely benefit commercially from the insight obtained on FSF/OS/Linux by sharing and learning with the community like we all do. We all are a community after all and should learn to give and take take as one.
Trevor
Regards
Rishi
On Sunday 08 Feb 2004 12:28 pm, Trevor Warren wrote:
Rishi, It would surely make sense to provide him a forum where we all come together and share our experiences/knowledge.
Great. I will let him know and get him for the next Forum. Although I wanted to come and attend this meet, I guess I'm going to be late. The wife already booked tickets for a movie and is not letting me off the hook. ;-)
See you guys at 6:30 - 7:00 .... if you are still around.
Regards
Rishi
On Sun, 2004-02-08 at 08:46, Amish Munshi wrote:
On Sunday 08 Feb 2004 2:06 am, Philip S Tellis wrote:
Sometime on Feb 7, Amish Munshi assembled some asciibets to say: Speakers should be paid only if the talk is for a commercial body like a workshop held for a company. In this case, the payment should be at minimum travel expenses.
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
Need not worry about the decreasing number, since actually the support for free software is increasing. Whenever we had speakers and topics announced prior to the meetings we always had good attendence.
Second reg the domain: Philips point of search engine returns is a serious one. What we could do is to keep for two more years the old domain ilug-bom.org.in, and during this one year take a decision to get the domain changed and keep this one operational. Both domains during this period work, but we will ask the community to use the new domain. Slowly over a period of two/three years the new domain could be put to complete use.
already promises for the domain donatiion had come: 100 + 400. So we need to collect only 1000/- more. and then we need somebody to make the draft and deposit with ncst.
Last, I wont be able to make it to today's meeting. I need to meet a deadline of sending a proposal by tonight, and prepare a few documents for FSF India by tonight.
Nagarjuna
Morning Amish,
Thanks for starting the thread since its imp everyone knows where we stand.
Amish Munshi said:
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
[snip]
On a realistic note amish, we haven't been able ourselves to create the aura surrounding each meet as it used to happen previously. There are various factors to the same least of which i wanna start debating now.
What we could do for a start is to have small events organised every fortnite, inviting participation from Industry and Academia. Such interaction would help us get moving towards a beautiful debate surrouding various Technical/Non-Technical issues. FSF/Ilug also serves as a forum for all of us to discuss and understand Commercial issues pertaining to OS/FSF.
Round table debates, etending industry specific invitations...etc are ways of ensuring interest and keep the passion brimming in the group. Sadly over a period of time all of us have come up with our own commitments making us go slow on the os/fsf part.
We should kick start some of these ideas above.
Trevor
Trevor Warren wrote:
Morning Amish,
Thanks for starting the thread since its imp everyone knows where we stand.
Amish Munshi said:
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
[snip]
On a realistic note amish, we haven't been able ourselves to create the aura surrounding each meet as it used to happen previously. There are various factors to the same least of which i wanna start debating now.
What we could do for a start is to have small events organised every fortnite, inviting participation from Industry and Academia. Such interaction would help us get moving towards a beautiful debate surrouding various Technical/Non-Technical issues. FSF/Ilug also serves as a forum for all of us to discuss and understand Commercial issues pertaining to OS/FSF.
I'm new to iLug so my apologies and please no flames.
The idea of fortnight event sounds good and everyone here will be willing to pay an entry fee as long as they are going to learn something from these events. The same money can be utilised for funding, rewarding fsf project or in which ever way it makes the community stronger and encourages to be more active.
Round table debates, etending industry specific invitations...etc are ways of ensuring interest and keep the passion brimming in the group. Sadly over a period of time all of us have come up with our own commitments making us go slow on the os/fsf part.
Yes this sound very good. Lets do this. Can we discuss what and how we want to execute this?
Suggestions:
* Wouldn't every one will be interested in knowing how each one of using linux? Where else we are using linux apart from those firewalls and what else we are running on linux if no ipchains/squid/qmail/sendmail.
* How academics like IIT and each department is using linux?
* At times there are problems, for example Rishi not able to find atmel chips or things like new LTSP kernel and PXE client, which I do not know about. Or the way I configure diskless servers/clients, cant all these be used for sharing knowledge and debates?
Just suggestion and question.
Lets all of us wake up. -krd
Hello
I have recently joined this group. And I am interested in attending such meets.
---Rupali
-----Original Message----- From: Krishna Dagli [mailto:kdagli@infofin.com] Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 1:00 PM To: GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] industry-academia participation at the fsf/ilug meets
Trevor Warren wrote:
Morning Amish,
Thanks for starting the thread since its imp everyone knows where we
stand.
Amish Munshi said:
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
[snip]
On a realistic note amish, we haven't been able ourselves to create the aura surrounding each meet as it used to happen previously. There are various factors to the same least of which i wanna start debating now.
What we could do for a start is to have small events organised every fortnite, inviting participation from Industry and Academia. Such interaction would help us get moving towards a beautiful debate surrouding various Technical/Non-Technical issues. FSF/Ilug also serves as a forum for all of us to discuss and understand Commercial issues pertaining to OS/FSF.
I'm new to iLug so my apologies and please no flames.
The idea of fortnight event sounds good and everyone here will be willing to pay an entry fee as long as they are going to learn something from these events. The same money can be utilised for funding, rewarding fsf project or in which ever way it makes the community stronger and encourages to be more active.
Round table debates, etending industry specific invitations...etc are ways of ensuring interest and keep the passion brimming in the group. Sadly over a period of time all of us have come up with our own commitments making us go slow on the os/fsf part.
Yes this sound very good. Lets do this. Can we discuss what and how we want to execute this?
Suggestions:
* Wouldn't every one will be interested in knowing how each one of using linux? Where else we are using linux apart from those firewalls and what else we are running on linux if no ipchains/squid/qmail/sendmail.
* How academics like IIT and each department is using linux?
* At times there are problems, for example Rishi not able to find atmel chips or things like new LTSP kernel and PXE client, which I do not know about. Or the way I configure diskless servers/clients, cant all these be used for sharing knowledge and debates?
Just suggestion and question.
Lets all of us wake up. -krd
On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Rupali Favade wrote:
I have recently joined this group.
Some things to note:
1. Trim original posts when replying, include only the portion that is relevant to your reply and delete all other parts.
2. Put your reply below or interleaved (like I've done for this mail) in the original mail. Top posting (putting the reply at the top) messes up continuity. Remember that mails do not necessarily reach the list in the same order that they were sent.
And I am interested in attending such meets.
3. Anyone can attend a lug meeting - even non-members. The linuxers mailing list and lug meetings are related only in the sense that most people who attend lug meetings are members of the mailing list. This is probably due to the fact that the mailing list is the only place where lug meets are announced.
On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, Trevor Warren spake thusly:
What we could do for a start is to have small events organised every fortnite, inviting participation from Industry and Academia. Such interaction would help us get moving towards a beautiful debate surrouding various Technical/Non-Technical issues. FSF/Ilug also serves as a forum for all of us to discuss and understand Commercial issues pertaining to OS/FSF.
I think we should have such events separate from LUG meets. The free software community has grown and survived on a spirit of kinship and sharing more than anything else I guess... We need to inculcate these things. Learning will come automatically. The primary purpose of the LUG should be to get Linuxers together - not to spoonfeed and teach people stuff they can learn from a hundred different sources.
bah, but what's the use ? We are steeped in bureaucracy...
Apologies for getting onto this thread so late,
Quasi, call it a Lug/FSLUG/GLUG or whatever acronym you are found of and passionate about. After all where i was coming from was more towards having those who are making a living out of Free Software and Open Source come down and showcase their efforts.
It may be in any sphere of life, right from a Technical Write doing Documentation on a $$ basis for a gpled project or a Commecial Enterpreneur scaling an Enterprise solution with some of the best minds in the country.
q u a s i said:
On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, Trevor Warren spake thusly:
bah, but what's the use ? We are steeped in bureaucracy...
[snip]
With respect to your mention of the hurdle above quasi....we all have to cross them to move ahead in life. Those who don't remain where they are.
Trevor
-- quasi
Utopia Unlimited!
Sometime Today, Amish Munshi assembled some asciibets to say:
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
That reflects on the state of the community. We've turned from enthusiasts to leeches.
On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, Amish Munshi spake thusly:
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
Let us look at reasons why someone would want to attend such a meet.
#1 Meet other GNU/Linux users #2 Learn something new #3 Have fun #4 #1 #5 #2 #6 #3 ...
Of which we have a minor success at #1. #2 and #3 remain unfulfilled. In the last few meet I have been to there have been a high percentage of newbies. But they dont turn up for the next meet. Shows that they do not get what they expected form the meet. Other like me go to meet folks I know. Spending half a day to meet some folks for a few minutes is expensive.
Why dont we have more informal meets with a lot more FUN in them? Order some food. Eat. Drink. Discuss stuff. People will come only if they can enjoy the experience. For me, I did NOT enjoy the last few meets which were extremely drab will all of us sitting done in some classroom trying not to nodd off. Instead of having seminars and talks we should aim at "informal discussions". Get rid of the protocol and the politics. If we collect some small amount for the food and drink I guess we could separate a small percentage of it for other LUG activities and expenses.
Bottomline is, GLUG meets are boring. And we need to seriously look at this issue.
just my two paise worth.
I agree. I attended a LUG meeting after a gap of almost 4 months, and somehow i felt I had missed nothing.
Either we need to have more fun / informal meeting session or we need hard core new leanring input / experiance
regards saswata
----- Original Message ----- From: "q u a s i" quasiabhi@softhome.net To: "GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India" linuxers@mm.ilug-bom.org.in Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 1:51 PM Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Meeting on 8th February. KReSIT - IIT Mumbai.
On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, Amish Munshi spake thusly:
My only problem is to get speakers to speak on something, today there is no one to speak on any technical topic and the number of people interested in coming for the meet is decreasing.
Let us look at reasons why someone would want to attend such a meet.
#1 Meet other GNU/Linux users #2 Learn something new #3 Have fun #4 #1 #5 #2 #6 #3 ...
Of which we have a minor success at #1. #2 and #3 remain unfulfilled. In the last few meet I have been to there have been a high percentage of newbies. But they dont turn up for the next meet. Shows that they do not get what they expected form the meet. Other like me go to meet folks I know. Spending half a day to meet some folks for a few minutes is expensive.
Why dont we have more informal meets with a lot more FUN in them? Order some food. Eat. Drink. Discuss stuff. People will come only if they can enjoy the experience. For me, I did NOT enjoy the last few meets which were extremely drab will all of us sitting done in some classroom trying not to nodd off. Instead of having seminars and talks we should aim at "informal discussions". Get rid of the protocol and the politics. If we collect some small amount for the food and drink I guess we could separate a small percentage of it for other LUG activities and expenses.
Bottomline is, GLUG meets are boring. And we need to seriously look at this issue.
just my two paise worth.
-- quasi
Utopia Unlimited!
Hi All,
Adding few lines from my side also
Either we need to have more fun / informal meeting session or we need hard core new leanring input / experiance
Actually we need both.Few bits of fun and few bytes of hard core new learning concepts. If we can decide, what to do before the meet and post it on the list,will help everybody to come with a preset of mind.
Thanks Rajeev
q u a s i wrote: [snip]
Of which we have a minor success at #1. #2 and #3 remain unfulfilled. In the last few meet I have been to there have been a high percentage of newbies. But they dont turn up for the next meet. Shows that they do not get what they expected form the meet. Other like me go to meet folks I know. Spending half a day to meet some folks for a few minutes is expensive.
I agree with quasi, er.. q u a s i, here. This was my first ILUG-Bom meet, and to be frank I was bored... More so after being through the fun that we have in ILUG-Delhi meets (http://www.linux-delhi.org/). I hope that this was not the way the average ILUG-Bom meeting goes.
Why dont we have more informal meets with a lot more FUN in them? Order some food. Eat. Drink. Discuss stuff. People will come only if they can enjoy the experience. For me, I did NOT enjoy the last few meets which were extremely drab will all of us sitting done in some classroom trying not to nodd off. Instead of having seminars and talks we should aim at "informal discussions". Get rid of the protocol and the politics. If we collect some small amount for the food and drink I guess we could separate a small percentage of it for other LUG activities and expenses.
I mentioned this at the meet as well: the pizzas, fruit beer, chai, coffee, snakes (snacks, for the uninitiated) have been the mainstay, if I may say so, of the ILUG-Delhi meets. I know that is Delhi and this is Mumbai, different city, different people, but that is no reason to not have fun ;-)
Bottomline is, GLUG meets are boring. And we need to seriously look at this issue.
The point is: the difference between interacting through a mailing list and interacting in person is the amount of fun we can have. Informal gup-shup, exchanging war-stories, vi-emacs holy wars, and such are some of the things that can make a meeting a success. Some of the most enjoyable meets in Delhi have been at Dilli Haat--No computers, just people.
Of course we should have a healthy mix of talks, seminars, presentations as well, but my 2paisa says that this alone is not enough to make a /Meet/ successful.
Even the presentations and talks themselves can be made to be much more enjoyable and less sleep inducing, with a little effort from the speakers. Think of it as chatting with friends about your pet-project over a cup of chai, rather than giving a formal presentation in a corporate boardroom...
Just my 2p++ ;-)
Nice to be a part of ILUG-Bom!
What does KReSIT stand for? How do i get there once inside the IIT campus?
regards GK
Sorry, if this comes too late.
Get down at the IIT main gate and keep walking along the main road. After about 7-8 minutes, you should find KReSIT on the right.
Some more help: http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/visit/?id=1
- Chetan
On Sun, Feb 08, 2004 at 09:50:55AM +0530, Sachin GK wrote:
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 09:50:55 +0530 From: Sachin GK sachin@deepthought.armory.com To: "GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India" linuxers@mm.ilug-bom.org.in Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Meeting on 8th February. KReSIT - IIT Mumbai.
What does KReSIT stand for? How do i get there once inside the IIT campus?
regards GK
On Sunday 08 Feb 2004 2:06 am, Philip S Tellis wrote:
I don't think we should make it a pay per entry meeting. That in itself will dissuade people from coming - even if it is just Rs. 5. We can make it a pay for your own tea or something like that.
Or another thought. Those who would like to pay can pay. I don't mind coughing up 50 bucks personally. If 50% is going towards FSF, then I'd be happy to cough up 100 bucks.
Another way to view this is at these meets a voluntee could sell copies of free software CDs, GNU & Linux stickers, T-Shirts, Mugs or books and a percent of the profit on those items could be used towards paying for the speaker's travel fare...
Regarding paying speakers, IMO, the purpose of giving a talk is to increase community awareness and participation. Achieving this should be reward enough.
Good point. Again if this is an FSF driven thing (is it), then I'm all for paying.
Regards
Rishi