Re: [gugmasters] Local User Group

[Brian Cameron <brian cameron oracle com>]

Steven:

> I realize that what I'm proposing is somewhat different from the
> standard User Group creation. I am proposing that I build and maintain
> an Online community that would help organize and foster groups within
> the United States. I believe that this community will do best by
> focusing on users, rather than developers... getting people interested
> in sharing their desktop customizations and GNOME configurations.

This does sound like an exciting idea.  Right now, there is a lot of
work being done by people like Allan Day and Andreas Nilsson to improve
the GNOME website to reflect the recent GNOME 3 launch.

We need help creating a better framework for integrating GNOME Users
and GNOME User Groups into the community.  Better communication between
users and developers would be great.  Even something as simple as a
periodic survey to GNOME users could have a big impact.  Also, the
user-facing "Friends of GNOME" website seems broken:

  http://www.gnome.org/friends

So, there is clearly plenty of work people could help with.

However, most people who do work on the GNOME website all interact on
the GNOME Marketing list.  Improving the GNOME User Group web presence
has marketing implications.  So, you would probably find more people
who could help you get involved with updating the GNOME websites if you
started a discussion about this on the GNOME marketing-list.

  http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list

> I would like to officially propose that I build gnome-usa.org
> <http://gnome-usa.org> into a community that helps market the
> documentation and features that make GNOME a great open source desktop
> option while at the same time providing a community for users to discuss
> their GNOME usage.

This sounds like a good idea, but some discussion is probably needed
before picking a domain name.  Should we use http://gnome-usa.org or
http://user.gnome.org/usa/?  Should User Groups websites just live on
the GNOME User Group Wiki where they might be easier to maintain?

  http://live.gnome.org/UserGroups

I am not fully clear how you want to get involved.  Perhaps your desire 
to get involved could be fulfilled by just getting involved and helping
to maintain this Wiki, or a USA specific sub-page?

> My process for building this community would be to design the site and
> post screenshots of the proposed design to this mailing list for
> approval. I am very familiar with open source project management and
> would definitely organize my process to take note of the GNOME
> community's opinions and advice.

As next steps, I think you should work with the GNOME Marketing Team
and figure out how your process fits into their existing processes.  We
need to make sure that any marketing implications are discussed.

Getting involved with a free software community can require a bit of
effort and persistence.  But, as it seems you already know, is well
worth the effort.  So, I encourage you to get involved.  People like
Allan and Andreas are great to work with, and I am sure they would
appreciate help if you were interested in helping with things like
fixing the "Friends of GNOME" page, improving GNOME User Group web
presence, or otherwise improving the user and community facing parts of
the GNOME website.

Brian Cameron
GNOME Foundation Secretary