Another busy session this week, mostly taken up with two consecutive meetings to review the proposed communications plan, and the hackspace initiative respectively.
However, I did learn some interesting geek facts before the formal part of the session kicked-off, such as the physical difference between PCI, PCI-E and AGP edge connectors, and that VGA is an analogue video signal, so the session wasn't completely wasted! ;-)
Anyhoo, suitably reinforced with generous amounts of coffee and chocolate biscuits, the meeting(s) commenced.
Comms Plan:Action Points:
1. Writing of blog posts to be shared by Les, Jon, Aran and Tony (Les has admin rights for the LUG). We would all like to thank Mike for the sterling work he has done in updating the blog over the years
2. The LUG's Twitter alias is @towerlug and Les will add the Twitter feed to the blog. Twitter admins are Jon, Arran, Tony and Les.
3. The move of the website (and the 'library') to a Bytemark host was discussed, and the decision was not to proceed with this, due to the cost the LUG members would start to incur after 6 months.
4. Simon offered space on his virtual server, but the consensus was that we look for something hosted by a 3rd party. Les is to look into free / cheap VPS or Physical server options. 28/01
5. On that basis, it was proposed that Arran to stop activity on preparing a LUG server at Bytemark. 21/01
5. To simplify other online services, Mike will move existing wiki content to the blog, and close Drupal site.
7. The Facebook page will be retained, and a @towerlug twitter feed added.
8. The issue of storage for the library was not resolved, and at present is still located on DropBox (which is at the limit for most people). This needs to be moved as soon as possible. TBA
9. It was proposed that we have an IRC chatroom running during meetings (Les to reserve blackpoollug IRC channel), so that LUG/mailing list members who are not present can also be part of the meetings
Hackerspace 1. Simon already has elicited email from people who would be interested in using a hackerspace of some type.
2. We decided that it was probably too early yet to established a break-away group until such time as the level of interest has been proven by people turning up.
3. It was agreed that, to be as flexible to interested parties, the LUG activities would expanded to included some level of non-Linux activities, including Arduino, Android, Raspberry Pi and others to be reviewed on a case-by-base basis (potentially, by Mike as the proprietor of the TowerLUG venue? - discuss further)
4. For the time being, these activities will continue under BLUG, and (subject to the previous point), people are welcome to do these as part of the normal 10-12 session until such time that it is deemed to worth extending the run time (and subject to availability of the venue).
5. Les will amend the top blog post to reflect the expanded set of activities.
Meeting closed at 1pm (bit of a mammoth session - but then there were a few dinosaurs present) ;-).
Other (geekier) business:cubox
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/cubox-is-a-sexy-ice-cube-sized-arm-computer-20111221/
Fritzing
Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers, artists, researchers and hobbyists to work creatively with interactive electronics.
http://fritzing.org/I expect to get back to a more normal session next week, but with the extra 'hackerspace' activities - lots of hands-on software and hardware stuff, interesting factoids, jolly banter (yes, I am looking at you Mr H!) and general helpfulness, plus the usual biccies and coffee!
Have a great week!
