Why aren't you organizing your local user group? | Hacker News Reader

Why aren't you organizing your local user group?

ryanbrunner.github.com

7 pointsryanbrunner12 comments

An anecdote I didn't include in this post - not only did I have to follow Yehuda Katz during the lightning talks, but my mic died just as I started. A bad combination for the first time talking in front of that large a group of people.

One selfish reason I wrote this is to have more participation in the Toronto Ruby Brigade. If you're from Toronto, and want to help, let me know at @ryanbrunner. We'd love a hand.

If I'm answering the question from my perspective, it's because I'm 17, I have no income and I can't drive

It doesn't matter what your age is. What matters is what you do and how you do it.

Not being able to drive needn't stop you. You might be able to get a ride from someone else (family, friends) or take public transport. Not to mention the possibility of learning to drive.

As for income, you don't need it to organize a user's group. And if you did need it, you could try to get a job to earn some. Participating in and organizing users' groups is a good way to make contacts which might lead to job opportunities, by the way.

Oh no, the income is for paying for public transports to get me there

At the moment, I have a terrible, terrible portfolio/resume, so getting a job isn't on the horizon yet, but if I do I'll be learning to drive pretty sharp-ish

At this precise time in my life, one of the most important things in my life is getting code written for a portfolio

The driving may be an issue depending on how far you are from a city centre, but I wouldn't let the fact that you're 17 get in the way. The biggest applause during the lightning talks at RailsConf was from a high school senior who came up and presented.

I am so jealous of him :<

I'm in the middle of the sticks at the moment, but hopefully to a town with a train link to London, which would be amazing if I could pay for trips to London for meetups :D

Honestly, ask your parents. I can't imagine that decent parents would have an issue with their kid needing a bit of extra money to spend some time learning an extremely valuable skill.

What subjects are you talking about there? What is it's format?

The hack nights I run are intentionally very free form. As I mentioned, 25% of the people attending are new to Rails, so there's usually a few people doing tutorials or code katas or something like that.

I don't like the way this is framed - but to answer the question: because I did this sort of thing with a LUG and organizing community events when I was much younger (it helped me get into college and get my first job) and quite frankly I've been there and done that.

It gets extremely repetitive after 5+ years of giving. This open source thing has been happening for quite a long time now. Like decades.

Also, it feels as though the battle has been 'won' now. Everybody uses Linux and open source; it is accepted in industry alongside commercial software. Others may disagree of course.

Fair enough. I don't think it's necessarily for everyone. But in some cities, and for some people, it can be extremely valuable. A lot of cities do need help with their user groups, and it's a great way to get to know people in your community.

There's a huge variety of things you could be doing if you're tired of the typical "hack night / pub night / talk night" format. Consider setting up a free tutorial to university students, or a teaching event for non-programmers.

"it feels as though the battle has been 'won' now. Everybody uses Linux and open source; it is accepted in industry alongside commercial software"

Linux is definitely a mainstream OS on the server side. It still has a long way to go to making a dent on the desktop, however. And it's made some powerful enemies (like Microsoft), which want to see it wiped out -- and may still do so, using things like "trusted computing" (DRM) and UEFI, not to mention possible patent or copyright threats ala SCO (though that particular threat seems to have been abated, for now).

The war is far from won, though some battles have been won. And it probably never will be won, even if free/open source software ever becomes dominant on the desktop -- because it could always lose that dominance. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

That said, Linux users groups aren't really about fighting this war. They're mainly just about getting people who are already interested in Linux together to talk about interesting aspects of the OS and interesting software, and to help each other.

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