Ohio LinuxFest 2004 Announced

william_lorenz writes "Photos and highlights from the Ohio LinuxFest are finally online! The next event will be coming up soon, and people interested in speaking are asked to answer the Call for Presentations before May 15, 2004. The event will be hosted in October of 2004 this year, and there's even a T-shirt design contest for all the artists out there. More than 10 Linux users groups from Ohio alone were involved this past year, and people came from all over the Mid-West."

And now for the next step.....regional meetings

[DesScorp]

Two years ago, we here down in Dixie established the Alabama Lugfest [alabamalugfest.org], with the intent that it become an annual tradition and meeting for all the statewide Linux user groups. We're now into planning our 3'rd year. I'm glad that Ohio and other states are now doing the same, and hope it spreads all across the country.

One thing we talked about two years ago was some kind of way to tie lugs together regionally, or even perhaps nationally. The idea is that perhaps once every few years, a Super Lugfest could be held (like perhaps in Atlanta or New Orleans or Nashville for the South). And while some people say that big annual events like LinuxWorld should be enough, not everyone can make it to those events. A regional event is somewhat easier to attend. The Alabama Lugfest was specifically created because, after the death of the Atlanta Linux Showcase, we were depressed that we had to go all the way to San Francisco for any kind of large Linux gathering. So we "rolled our own". We helped influence another regional event in Nashville, the Southeastern Technology Enthusiasts Conference [setec.us] in Nashville, which is also Open Source focused (hello, Mary!). They're into their second year of planning now.

Bottom line, if you can't get to the Bay Area every year, and you want Linux to flourish, organize a festival/expo in your own state. Start by getting in touch with the other lugs in your state, and see about creating a website or mailing list for all lugs to coordinate. Our Lugfest is now moving beyond just doing annual gatherings, and is now trying to organize in order to do things like help schools with open source projects, and influence the state legislature in relation to linux and open source subjects. So unite, organize, and achieve. You'll be surprised what you can do.

Re:And now for the next step.....regional meetings

[clymere]

Thats a really good point. I'm excited that the OhioLUG is close enough i can drive in just a few hours! Things like this tend to be a little less expensive to attend as well.

Cost of Attending (Yes, It's a Free Event)

[william_lorenz]

For what it's worth, the event was entirely free last year, and we're planning the same for this year, too. I guess that travel expenses can be a bit costly sometimes, but that's what organized carpools are for! ;)

Re:Cost of Attending (Yes, It's a Free Event)

[runfaster]

Thanks, I appreciate the work you guys are doing to keep it that way.

Re:And now for the next step.....regional meetings

[bhtooefr]

I might go to this this year, seeing as OSU is only 30-45 minutes away (damn, that's closer than Central Ohio Technical College, and I go there every Monday and Wednesday!)

Re:And now for the next step.....regional meetings

[harshy]

Awesome! I look forward to meeting more linux fans this year. I am happy to see good support here in ohio and surrounding states. I will be at penguincon next month hosting a few panels and look forward to having some of those people come down to our event.

Re:And now for the next step.....regional meetings

[The Snowman]

Hi, my name is John Gaughan and you may remember me from such Linux Groups as MALU [malu.org] :-)

I was not able to make it to the Alabama Lugfest, unfortunately, but I hear it went well for the second year in a row. I second DesScorp's suggestion about trying to link together LUGs around the country. The Internet and the FS/OSS movements are all about democratizing software and communication -- and remember, democracy cannot work without involvement from the people. Make a difference -- join a LUG, get active, be no

Re:Photos'

[meffie]

Hey I took some of those photos! You can come this year and do better :)

A healthy LUG that meets monthly...

[tcopeland]

...is NOVALUG [tux.org].

You can find many presentations and such-like from past meetings here [tux.org].

Well that's nice

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, and it was so widely publicised that even though I live in Ohio, I find out about the 2003 event 5 months after happened.

Well, I went to the site, and it's great that you have a date for this year's event and all, but is it going to take place at OSU again this year? The site is not specific on location, it just mentions that last year's event happened at OSU.

Event Location for the 2004 Season

[william_lorenz]

We are planning to host the event in Columbus again this year, although the specific location within Columbus is TBA -- we'll announce more details to those who are registered for the event, in part to make sure we don't have any overcrowding. :) We're you able to sign-up for future announcements?

Re:Well that's nice

[kundor]

I concur -- I live in what's probably the geekiest place in Ohio (Case Western Reserve University) and I didn't hear about it til now. I would have gone.

Ah well, I'll just remember to go to this one.

News...

[Brandybuck]

News of Nerds, Stuff that only matters if you live in Ohio...

Hey editors! I just stumbled on a great way to keep your headline queue full. Just report on every local Linux event around the world. You could get two or three Linux articles for every day of the year!

p.s. My apologies to all you fine people in Ohio, and very fine people you are. But is this really newsworthy to those of us outside of your regional nexus of midwest geeks?

What is it with Ohio?

[Myself]

That's funny, Notacon [notacon.org] is also taking place in Ohio next month, and for some reason, it got stuck on developers [slashdot.org] instead of the front page.

Does Slashdot need a section for this stuff?

finally

[hyperstation]

something within driving distance from west virginia....i'll be there!