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Multi-national free software conference
March 21st, 2006
A while ago I came up with the idea of doing a multi-national conference here.
‘Here’ means southern Austria which would probably be a good place to do such a conference. Both the Italian and Slovenian borders are just a few minutes of driving away from here making this place a perfect location for something like a multi-national conference. As Stefano Mafulli does also have contact to the Croatian community they should be asked whether they want to contribute aswell – and I would gladly appreciate that.
The idea behind it is well known to regional organisations. There are quite a few events involving all three countries so why shouldn’t there be something like a free software conference involving free software people from all three countries?
On the third Austrian fellowship meeting last week in Vienna I presented this idea to both Karin Kosina and Reinhard Mueller and both seemed to like it and asked me to inform the Italian team about it.
So I sent an email to Stefano Mafulli and after talking to him I realized that the idea seems to be quite good.
This shouldn’t be a ‘normal’ meeting like the local fellowship meetings but is rather meant to be something ‘bigger’. I can even imagine having a full-blown conference including workshops and seminars.
The most important reason for doing this conference is bringing together the ‘neighbours’ (geographically), have them meet up, discuss and maybe even start new projects together – we are one fellowship and all interested in one topic in particular, aren’t we?
If the first conference is a success I can also imagine doing follow-up conferences in the other countries involved.
There is nothing like a ‘big plan’ for doing an event like this one yet, but it should be discussed on discussion@fsfeurope.org to get to know who is intersted in such an event and what those people can contribute (this includes constructive critism).
I hope I didn’t forget anything and am waiting for your contribution.
*UPDATE*
With full blown I’m more referring to having workshops and seminars. This imho does already make sense with about 20 people participating. Just to avoid misunderstandings.
Austrian free software and GNU/Linux users have to unite
March 4th, 2006
There is a free software (and GNU/Linux) community here in Austria, but there is still one main problem with that community: There is no organization.
A few user groups exist, but not everywhere. For example, in the state I’m living, Carinthia, there is no ‘real’ GNU/Linux user group. There does however exist a message board, but it is only used by a few people and I’m quite sure there are more GNU/Linux users around here. Everything looks pretty unorganised.
Having a look at the nation-wide organisation I also have to admit that it is rather non-existant. There is no main-entity uniting all users and usergroups. In my opinion something like that would make sense. The bigger the group is, the easier it is to get heard by the public and the chances that someone else in that group can help you with a specific problem is also higher.
In my opinion the sadest thing is, that when I asked for other Carinthian Linux users on a mailing list belonging to the "Linux User Group Austria", which should probably rather be called "Linux User Group Vienna", I got only one answer. And that within two days.
There is need for organisation here – there is need to get the users and usergroups united. But how to get them united if you don’t even know, but still hope, that people with similar views and interests exist near you?
So if you are reading this, are living somewhere in Carinthia/Austria and feel like helping to form a usergroup here or help uniting Austrian users, give me a shout via email: sp at fsfe dot org