second Stellenbosch Saturday Ubuntu Hour

Holiday for some but not others. again a good turn out especially since I could almost not make it. Not everyone is on the photos. It means there would have been an ubuntu hour even if I wasn't there. We had our laptops there but we ended up talking about release party possibilities and irc client preferences.

UGJ Aug 2010 part 2

hello -c "hello superfly"

Cape Town GlobalJam Aug 2010

There is more but one pic is a start. We jammed even though many of the regulars were running between the Jam and helping rooms full of kids to learn Python. Thanks to all who made it and helped out. The cooker of fly-lead spaghetti with socks proxy sauce especially.

By popular demand, Ubuntu Hour on a Saturday

It looks like we will move the Stellenbosch Ubuntu Hour to a Saturday at eleven for the time being. This is due to the larger attendance we had today, 7 Aug, at the Java cafe. Maybe it's just left over excitement spilling over from the re-approval success of last Tuesday. We discussed T-shirts and things to do at the GlobalJam, how to get free CDs to distribute at the begining of student registration and a few other things (Hilton in a penguin suit? tin-foil hats?) while we waited and waited and waited for coffee. Yes another venue next time is a good idea. Watch the mailing list, irc or website for details.

Time flies, another GlobalJam coming soon

The GlobalJam in Cape Town will be held 27 Aug 14:00 - 18:00 at the Shuttleworth Lab. More on what will be on the program as soon as I know. Hopefully there will be Jams elsewhere in the country.

Just some handy hints on how to find out what is happening in the ubuntu-za community:

You can go to the loco team page and find the handy links next to Upcoming events. There is an rss feed and an official ical feed which you can add to your favourite rss feed reader or calendar utility.

You can also subscribe to the mailing list or talk to us on IRC or ask in the forum. Then there is the ubuntu-za.org website which will have info on the home page. Then sometimes people twitter and identi.ca and there is another more detailed ical feed as well.

Almost any style of web communication is supported, so no more excuses. To paraphrase Dr Suess in his classic work, Marvin K. Mooney will you Please go now?

You can go on stilts.
You can go by fish.

You can go in a Crunk car if you wish.

Ubuntu Hour Feedback

At the beginning of the year I decided to connect to more people and that it was ok to end up knowing more humans than computers. I wanted to do something about which I was passionate. I wanted to do something which I could sustain so that it wasn't just a transient blip. Ubuntu Hour was perfect.
Instructions from the website :

• Head out to a public space like a coffee shop. (ok I already do that on some Fridays to hang out and read and surf)
• Wear something with the Ubuntu logo or have a visible Ubuntu sticker on your laptop (if you bring one). (ok)
• When/if you show up, you agree to the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. (ok already done that)
• Anyone can start an Ubuntu Hour, anywhere, anytime. (ok that includes me, and you for that matter)
• Remember this is a social event, be approachable! (Hmmm supress inner geek a bit, but being social was the point for starting this)

What has happened

Since the first event on 5 Feb there has been a total of 5 Ubuntu Hours. Only once did I not have company but that was good too because I had a long chat with the owner of the coffee shop. I have made great new friends in the Ubuntu Community and sortof got myself involved in a bit more than I thought I would be when I started.

Reflection

My inner geek wants to take over and optimise the activity, asking questions like:

1. How many people who didn't know about ubuntu before did I actually speak to? [insert pie chart here] 
2. Wouldn't it be more efficient if I got a larger group at a time and more entertaining flashy activities? [insert a list of tasks with estimates here]

The short answer to this is it doesn't matter and no.

It's about doing something, anything, but committing to it and doing it regularly. If it were larger&/flashier, I'd have to carry around a projector an ask permission and become nervous about it and give up. That's not to say your Ubuntu Hour doesn't have to have projectors and permissions. For me though Ubuntu Hour isn't a substitute for having entertaining talks and get togethers, it has a different function. We can do all of that too, at a different forum eg Global Jam or Software Freedom day.

Notes to myself

• There can definitely be, in fact should be, more than one. So if the time/place doesn't fit, make another one.
• It was a good idea to pick something which I do already so it doesn't become a drag.
• It is actually ok if no-one comes because perhaps I end up talking to a complete stranger about Ubuntu and if nothing else I can blog or update a page on Ubuntu-za.org or hang out in #ubuntu-za.
• Since it's about talking to people, a laptop isn't essential.
• Be flexible and keep it simple.

A big thank you to drubin who has been a consistent, albeit sometimes bleary-eyed, face so far.

Double Ubuntu Hour (4 June and 2 July)

On 4 June we met at Java Cafe. Best turnout ever, even though the breakfast and the coffee wasn't necessarily the best. Various discussion on the closed sourceness and general monopoly of Deep Net academic texts and the new home of the Freedom Toaster. You can guess who took the pic on his android phone (it's the one who isn't in the photo). Can you tell it was freezing in Stellenbosch.

On 2 July we tried Vida e Cafe. Better coffee but breakfast was uhm simple as in plain croissant and muffin. I managed to hook up to the free hipzone webaccess. This time Cheese took the pic so no-one could be shy. We discussed long plans on how to setup a repository cache system to optimise the bandwidth usage of all the pc's who get ubuntu installs. I now have a todo list of instructions and a cool script to try. More about this later, once I have got it going and it's all tested and working.