[Ubuntu-be] Ubuntu life in Belgium

Fri May 2 18:47:04 UTC 2014

I just skimmed through this thread so sorry if I mist a couple of things,
but here are my 2 cents:

First of, it felt a little strange at FOSDEM this year that there wasn't an
ubuntu booth. But the response it triggered with me was: where the hack is
canonical in this story? Every single distro at FOSDEM has some kind of
backing, but in the 3 years I was at FOSDEM with Ubuntu-be (in cooperation
with Ubuntu-Fr) we've never got anything more than a few lanyards and a
tablecloth or two. To me it feels that Canonical has neglected the LoCo
teams the last 5 years or so.

Another big point for me is that Ubuntu-be has never become the "not for
profit" that I wish it had become. I made a point from this for over 2
years but the idea never generated any traction. To me it seems that any
endeavor like this cannot (or at least can't easily) overcome some major
hurdles without a legal system supporting it. The two main reasons for
this: you don't get taken seriously by anyone if you're "just a group of
people". And secondly in an NPO it's fairly impossible to lose control over
a bank-account for over 2.5 years. In my experience any project that does
better than "ok", has a preset plan that is used to measure all actions
against it. This is something we as Ubuntu-be missed the last couple of
years.

Just as Jurgen my path with Ubuntu-be has come pretty much to an end, but I
keep walking along. Nevertheless if there is a real physical meeting, I'd
love to join!

Kind regards

Wouter

2014-05-02 17:00 GMT+02:00 Jurgen Gaeremyn <jurgen.gaeremyn op pandora.be>:

>  Hey Luc,
>
> Ubuntu-be is nooit een support forum geweest - hiervoor hebben we altijd
> doorverwezen naar NL of FR.
>
> Zo staat het op de website al sinds jaar en dag:
>
> Ubuntu-be is het Belgische Ubuntu "LoCo Team", een groep enthousiaste
> gebruikers wiens doel het is om Ubuntu in België te promoten. Onze taken
> bestaan hoofdzakelijk uit het aanbieden van informatie en het
> vertegenwoordigen van Ubuntu in België. Voor ondersteuning verwijzen we
> naar het gemeenschappelijke Nederlandstalige forum en de documentatie die
> beschikbaar is op ubuntu-nl.org <http://www.ubuntu-nl.org>. Indien je
> vragen hebt, aarzel niet om ons te contacteren.
>
> Er zijn veel Belgische Ubuntero's aanwezig op resp. NL en FR Ubuntu LoCo
> site...
> Er is ook geen Franstalige of Nederlandstalige kant van Ubuntu-be.org.
>
> Die ouwe Acer...  kun je (in een aparte mail - kwestie van deze discussie
> niet van haar oorspronkelijke onderwerp te laten afdwalen) eens de
> specificaties geven? Ofwel het exacte model (eventueel met een website met
> de details), ofwel: soort processor, soort grafische kaart, hoeveelheid
> geheugen, welke specifieke hardware heb je zeker nodig van op het toestel?
>
> Groetjes,
> Jurgen.
>
>
>
> On 02-05-14 14:26, Luc Rulkin wrote:
>
>  Goede middag .
>
>  Een klein vraagje , van iemand die een paar jaar terug al een vraag
> stelde op t forum , zonder antwoord ..
> zeggen jullie nu : "wij zijn op stervens na dood ... ga naar Ubuntu.nl of
> Ubuntu.fr ?".
>  Is er een franstalige kant van ubuntu.be ?  Anders ga ik daar eens
> vragen wat ik kan doen.
> (oude acer met Vista Profess. zou ik willen proberen op Ubuntu)(ik ben
> geen It'er en heb wat aanwijzingen nodig)
>
>  C'est tout !!
>
>  MIVG Luc R
>
> Luc Rulkin
> Bergstraat 6
> B 9630  St Marie Latem (Zwalm)
>
> There is nothing worse than being talked about, that is not being talked
> about.
> (O Wilde)
>    On Friday, 2 May 2014, 12:25, tom verlinden <tom.verlinden op gmail.com><tom.verlinden op gmail.com>wrote:
>
>   Bill's proposal looks mighty fine to me. I'll get my thinking cap on
> and see what i  an come up with. Anybody having a problem with bill's
> proposal?
> Op 2 mei 2014 06:36 schreef "Jurgen Gaeremyn" <jurgen.gaeremyn op pandora.be
> >:
>
>  I think any of the hackerspaces will be willing to accomodate... people
> living near train stations on our group might too...
>
> Possibly I can't be available myself (wife is pregnant and due for June
> 4th) but I'm pretty sure Hackerspace Brussels (hackerspace.be) would be
> glad to offer you a chair in the space or the garden...
>
> Grtz,
> Jurgen.
>
> On 01-05-14 23:08, Jan Bongaerts wrote:
>
>   Real life meeting should still take preference over virtual meeting, if
> you ask me.
>  It's not all that hard to organise. Jurgen did it, I did it. They were
> all successful.
>  Just get to somewhere easily accessible by public transport.
>  Brussels is the best.
> Antwerp or Ghent might be a good option.
>
>
>
> On 1 May 2014 22:51, Merlijn Sebrechts <merlijn.sebrechts op gmail.com>wrote:
>
>   aa) I can help with the website. I now a tiny bit of Drupal. If
> somebody can give me the right credentials, I could take a look at it next
> week. Mike Morraye knows more about the website, I think.
>  cc) same as aa)
>  ee) I think Google Hangouts is the best free option. If somebody has a
> sip server, we could also use a sip client like jitsi.org, which has
> excellent Ubuntu support.
>
>
>
>  Thanks for doing this wake-up call, kawabill!
>
>
>
>
>  2014-05-01 21:40 GMT+02:00 kawabill <kawabill op telenet.be>:
>
>  Hey I'm not alone on the island....! :)
>
> Tom, you're right I think and I agree. It is not somebody we need, it is
> us. Also Juergen's proposal for having Ubuntu-be.org and setting clear
> expectations I agree with, this way we can prevent disappointment from and
> by others. Carrying Ubuntu-be to the funeral I would think is just a bit
> too early. From the reactions, at least 5-10 people are actively involved
> and able to help.
>
> Using IRC is maybe just a little too much written words and I've got no
> clue how to get it to work reliably, I think we need to get together or at
> least get visual. For getting together there is the hacker space, the
> facilities in Houthalen an hack - even an old school room in Bree. Is there
> an open source alternative to Skype, allowing for a virtual meeting maybe
> (I saw Apache's Open Meeting)? Or what if we organise a chat/video
> conference from the 'local' events; Houthalen in Limburg, Hackerspace,
> Brugge - can we organize it maybe in such a way that it's all in sync; ie.
> every last Wednesday of the month (convenient for LImburg, as this is the
> gathering date already)?
>
>
> 1) Do you want to help set up a booth at fosdem 2015? YES, if we can plan
> ahead I would think we can get the right and motivated people involved
> including this chap
>  2) Do you still use the website? If so, how? YES, but let's indeed make
> it such that people see activity - starting with filling the agenda showing
> the local activities for example
>  3) What information would you want to see on the new website? Haven't
> really given it a thought, but one thing for sure I would like to see and
> that is UP TO DATE information
>
> Let's keep the ideas coming, I think getting around the bank account
> quickly is indeed opening a new one, and make it one that we can access and
> at least have some kind of redundancy. This as not to get stuck again.
>
> I have to read and negotiate contracts all day, it would really be good if
> we could talk to each other, preferably face to face. This way we iterate
> in seconds rather than weeks.
>
> Finally; let's get the link into Canonical established and strengthened. I
> work for a large company and quite a large bunch is starting to use Ubuntu
> also on the desktop. Ubuntu Phone is a great idea and has huge potential,
> especially for cost savings. I checked how I could get our purchasing in
> contact easily, but believe me, Canonical is not going to sell the idea if
> they stick to how they have approached this up to now. I would think,
> certainly in Europe, they have a  wide enough network of enthusiasts and
> could easily bundle the network to get aggressive into offering savings to
> large and medium size companies. As far as I'm concerned I use the software
> that they have ubuntu-ed, it is this creation that binds us - the reason
> why I spend my time locally to help people is for ubuntu, and also as a
> kind of payback to Canonical because they have created a magnificent piece
> of software. Not only them, but they are for me one of the main forces
> behind humanizing Linux! Credit to Mark Shuttleworth for all that. Taking
> Ubuntu-be to the graveyard doesn't seem the best way to help and show a
> kind of gratitude.
>
> Too many words written already, and hail to he/she who came to this point.
> How to go forward? Let's use 8D methodology and get this going.
> 1) Plan - revive Ubuntu-be and prevent it from going quiet again
> 2) The core-team members proposed, let me know who disagrees or cannot
> pick up;
>     a) kawabill
>     b) nero
>     c) Frank Neirynck
>     d) Tom Verlinden
>     e) Jan Bongaerts
>     f) Merlijn Sebrechts
>     g) Alain Daudrez
> 3) The problem; Ubuntu-be is dying
> 4) Temporary fix;
>     aa) website is not upto date (whom can take action and when?)
>     bb) bank account needs to be corrected (to open a new one I can pick
> up the action and can have it done within two weeks, with regards to the
> old one whom can get the responsible person to help organize it such that
> we have multiple Ubuntu-ers to get access and when?)
>     cc) support point map - remove ghost accounts and update or allow for
> updated information (whom can take action and when?)
>     dd) Limburg event box - Wouter, please drop me an e-mail where I can
> come and pick it up and get it into my storage garage)
>     ee) Setup a web-meeting last Wednesday of May (May 28th), we can use
> Skype, Google hangout or maybe someone can help build Open Meeting for
> Ubuntu (I don't mind planning and coordinating, whom can help setup the
> technical side of it all, Nero???)
>
> Let's get this going before we start root-cause analysis, and when need
> please team up where you can. Myself I'm not really good at using Drupal,
> I've build my own in HTML, but I sure could help cleaning up and updating.
>
> Your comments please?
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> On 01-05-14 12:39, tom verlinden wrote:
>
> Thanks for your info on this. I've always thought that this certain
> "somebody" should comprise out of more than one person. One person can't
> take this on his or her shoulders. There's too much, from what i'm reading,
> for one person to do and be succesfull about it. There should be a team of
> somebodies, all doing somewhat the same, but in different locations. (Does
> that make sense?) Is there a need for a central organ? To me that makes it
> too complicated already, and might create expectations, that cannot be
> fullfilled. Anyway, there's need, i guess to promote ubuntu, as Bill said.
> Now we have to figure out how to do this in a fun way, i guess.
> Op 1 mei 2014 12:27 schreef "Jurgen Gaeremyn" <jurgen.gaeremyn op pandora.be
> >:
>
>  Tom,
>
> the strongest periods of Ubuntu-be were when one single person actually
> kept his shoulders under the project. In the past we had a few of these
> people. Thing is: ubuntu-be.org should set clear expectations: what (not)
> to expect: a spokesman, the official stance of Ubuntu on whatever Belgian
> activity, guaranteed support, etc...
>
> If someone stands up and is prepared to take leadership, you will quickly
> have a core team of somewhere between 5 and 10 or even more if you do a
> great job. If you're willing to take up this commitment, you'll be doing
> Ubuntu-be a big favour. Problem is, apparently this mythical figure called
> "somebody" we're all talking about and who'll do all the practical stuff
> like maintain the website, organise event booths, create content, etc...
> isn't on this list anymore. Not sure if he ever was.
>
> Please, do give it a chance. First things first - canonical approval is
> not a problem if you can prove you're active. I'm assuming someone here
> will be able to tell you more details on this.
>
> Grtz,
> Jurgen.
>
> On 01-05-14 12:11, tom verlinden wrote:
>
> I don't know about organizing a funeral just yet. Maybe ubuntu.be could
> be a commonplace for those using and or discovering ubuntu but more in a
> fun sort of way. Don't know if i'm saying this right, but i think you get
> the picture. There doesn't need to be a central person or spokesman imho.
> Makes it far too official. The first goal should be, in my humble opinion,
> to get people to discover ubuntu. Maybe by promoting this list we could get
> more people discovering the os. As far as i'm concerned, i use ubuntu, talk
> about it and show it to whoever i think might be interrested, give support
> where i can and drop leaflets in our library. (They're also on ubuntu.
> Woot!!)
> I think that if we do our part any wich way we can, on our little
> "islands", and use the net, list as our "glue", who knows what can happen
> in the future? Is there still a connection with canonical? How does that
> work? Hell, typing this gets me all fired up to give this a chance. What do
> you guys think? Give it some kind of try, or just leave, and do something
> on our own? (I think we could achieve more together, but i'd like to hear
> your opinion). My 2 cents....
> Op 30 apr. 2014 07:30 schreef "kawabill" <kawabill op telenet.be>:
>
> What triggered me was a mail I got from someone in the community, stating
> that he rather spent his time otherwise, declining an invitation I had sent
> him. No problem of course, but it took me to the following page;
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BelgianTeam/IrcMeetings
>
> No activities are visible for me the visitor, going over the pages it
> seems that the latest info dates from 2012. I know activities are still
> going on, organized by enthusiasts on a very local scale, but for me it is
> not visible whether all of this is coordinated.
>
> I find it a pity, that in the period where MS end of lifes XP I don't see
> any coordinated activity to get people over into the Ubuntu/Mint/Linux camp.
>
> Can anyone please comment and give feedback or let me know I'm wrong and I
> seem to live life on a desolate space outside of the Ubuntu community?
>
> Have a nice day.
> Bill
>
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