Re: How to open Gnome Malaysia Usergroup

[Frederic Muller <fredm gnome org>]

On 01/26/2011 11:02 AM, Mohd Fazli Azran wrote:
[...]
> Yep. We know in not good for us if the community keep having war but now
> community are on sleep mode. I need to poke them all and create hype to
> wake of all them.
[...]
> Yes, we need GNOME, GNU, FSF or other related organisation to help us to
> build good communication and keep the relationship. Although your word
> some of it sound like indonesian :). Thank to you all

Dear Mohd (hope that's the right way to address you),

I'm just reacting to those 2 statements of yours within the context of 
that long exchange we've had.

I have been running and involved in user groups for quite some time and 
here is what I can offer as an advice:

1. you need to inspire your community, not create hype

2. getting businesses seems to be a major focus of yours, however 
businesses compete, they do not collaborate well in general. Inspired 
people on the contrary share ideology and do things beyond money and 
companies interests, because they believe it's the right thing to do and 
they have fun doing it. This is why it's called a user group, and not a 
business group.

3. you do not need GNOME, GNU, FSF: you can chose to be part of those 
communities and do what you believe should be done. A community is a 
flat organization where everyone is at the same level. We all do what we 
can at our level, and I would recommend you to do the same. This is the 
best way to strengthen the GNOME community. At this stage I wonder what 
else you need?

4. Getting involved in building a user group is easy (almost), you 
already have all the needed pointers: now you should lay out a plan and 
act upon it. From my experience a user group tends to cost time and 
money to its organizers, which seems to be what you lack of.

5. Having so many FOSS projects under one umbrella might not be the best 
way to attract volunteers and contributors: I would personally doubt 
about the focus of such an organization and be afraid to come to learn 
about GNOME and be told about ...Drupal.

6. What I've learned in my years as a contributor in the Free Software 
communities: when you want something to happen you need to start 
yourself and show the way, rather than expect people to do the work for 
you. People will usually have a different perspective and other opinions 
on how to execute. As a community leader your role is often to start and 
help combine all those energies towards a good direction for the project 
(not necessarily what you initially envisioned).

Those comments are really based on what I have learned and I hope they 
will benefit you and help you to get started. I have participated, lead 
and contributed to my local GNU/Linux User Group for years and I'd say 
it has been a wonderful experience. I've met great people, had fun and 
did stuff that I felt mattered. I hope you can experience the same as I 
did, or even more!

Good luck and let us know when you're planning on your first meeting!

Kind regards,

Fred
ps: also do subscribe to the gugmasters-list@ which is where GNOME User 
Group issues are being discussed.