[ale] potential new home for ALE website, philosophy, and a proposal

[Keith Miller]

James,

Let me just thank you and all the others who have provided us a place to
gather and a forum for our voice.

William

James P. Kinney III wrote:
> I have been requested to provide hosting for the ALE website and mailing
> list.
> 
> I have also been requested to reconsider my abrupt disassociation with
> ALE as well by more people than I have responded to. My apologies to
> those I have yet to answer.
> 
> I have pasted the central home page text from ale.org below:
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (ALE) are a growing group of people in the
> Atlanta metropolitan area who all share an interest in Linux. 
> 
> Founded in December 1994, we have hosted a plethora of monthly meetings
> with talk topics ranging from "How to Configure PPP" to "How to Write
> Device Drivers". We usually have around 40 - 100 people at each meeting.
> 
> The ALE group is loosely organized, with a few people acting as contact
> points and no charter to bog things down. Anyone is welcome to come to
> the meetings; there is no membership, fees or any other formalities. To
> become a member, just show up. Our primary interest is in getting
> information about Linux to members of the Atlanta community.
> 
> ALE has three monthly meetings to accomodate the growing Linux
> Enthusiast population of the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Central
> meeting is held at Emory University on the second Thursday of the month.
> The ALE NorthEast meeting is held at Edeltacom Data Center on the first
> Thursday of the month. The ALE NorthWest meets the third Thursday at the
> Weather Channel. Directions are on the left sidebar.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I would like to point out that this body of text does not contain the
> words "professional" or "sysadmin". Nor does it insinuate that the only
> thing discussed is Linux. It does say quite clearly in the first
> sentence that ALE is a group of people. The point of commonality that
> defines this group is everyone possesses an interest in Linux. The
> degree of that interest is not defined. It does not indicate any degree
> of personal or professional involvement in Linux. Bill Gates and Steve
> Balmer would qualify for "membership" in ALE. 
> 
> I don't think they would last long :)
> 
> But then again, we might be able to turn them to the light side. 
> <cue impressive music>
> 
> The second paragraph is quite clear about the lack of formalities and
> charter. While the primary interest is in getting Linux information to
> members of the Atlanta community, it is not the only interest.
> 
> I am discussing this in the full group forum in the hopes of smoothing
> ruffled feathers (my own included) and to also put the divisiveness in
> the past. 
> 
> A long time ago, in a very local land, members of this group managed to
> pull off what is still regarded as THE BEST Linux show event anywhere in
> the United States. They managed to do this with no controls on the group
> discussions. 
> 
> For many reasons, The Atlanta Linux Showcase can not be revived. For
> other reasons it should not be revived. 
> 
> As much fun as talking about Linux is, it is nothing compared watching a
> newbie "get it!". There is not much I enjoy more than seeing that
> cartoon light bulb turn on as a face lights up when they understand the
> solution to a problem.
> 
> ALE members have been involved in many install-fests. The feedback has
> always been good. Maybe it's time to consider an effort to do an install
> fest of a sort but on a bigger scale.
> 
> As anyone who has children in public schools in the Metro-Atlanta area
> knows, Microsoft is pretty much the law of the land. Daniel Howard and
> William Fragakis lit a fire under Atlanta Public Schools by converting
> one elementary school to Linux thin clients using K12LTSP.
> 
> I am currently (battling bureaucracy) involved on the next step of this
> transition for Atlanta Public Schools by designing and implementing
> (with some excellent assistance from Aaron Ruschetta and Jeff Hubbs) the
> process to go "enterprise class" for a total of 7 schools, 33 servers,
> 2189 thin clients and 4378 students (plus a mess of cables, gigabit
> switches and laser printers).
> 
> Cool, huh! (yes, there will be an ALE presentation)
> 
> There is a Georgia Educational Technology Conference in November in
> Atlanta. But the vendors that will be there are, with 2 exceptions,
> hawking the same old closed-source, per-seat license software that has
> put the schools in the mess they are in now.
> 
> The two outliers in that vendor list are a Linux firewall support group
> (stupid, busted java page only works on IE from the show site so I can't
> pull up the name -sorry) and Local Net Solutions (we got a booth as
> close to Apple as we could get!)
> 
> What the SouthEast needs is a big, loud, raucous, flashy, whiz-bang
> open-source expo geared toward the techs in education and non-profit
> organizations. They are the ones who have to work on the broken systems.
> They are the ones who will be working on the new Linux stuff once the
> penguinistas take over the world (sorry - out loud voice again). They
> will need exposure, training and a ready source of data to help steer
> things away from the mess they are stuck using now.
> 
> Danial, William and I put our heads together are realized that a 501(c)3
> organization was needed to tackle the upper management level of getting
> schools (and many other types of traditionally underfunded
> organizations) to look at the benefits of using Linux and Linux thin
> clients in particular to provide a common desktop platform for large
> numbers of staff and students. Thus was formed the Georgia Open Source
> Education Foundation. www.gosef.org
> 
> GOSEF is tackling to top of the management food chain. But the _real_
> work is done by the techs. If they can say to the CIO "Oh, yeah. We know
> about that Linux stuff. It works real well and we have experience on it
> because of that conference last year", ALE can accomplish that last line
> in paragraph 2 of the text block from _way_ above in a BIG way!
> 
> Betcha though I was rambling off topic again :)
> 
> When the techs start asking for Linux stuff and the teachers are asking
> for Linux stuff and GOSEF is passing out thousands of live Linux CDs,
> kids start getting working technology that the teachers can rely on so
> the it gets used. Then a new generation of Linux friendly geeks
> graduates and the world changes. 
> 
> Besides, isn't that the _real_ goal of Linux - taking over the world ;}
> 
> So, yes, I will host the ALE website and mailing list. I will even be
> happy to setup an ale-tech list that someone (not me) can moderate.
> 
> Yes, I have been persuaded to reaffiliate myself with ALE.
> 
> And yes, I have been bitten with the bug for a new Linux show (we
> haven't had diddly-squat since ALS left in the South).
> 
> Hey! My ALS t-shirts are getting really thin and ratty. I need some new
> schwag! Look on the bright side, it already has one corporate sponsor.
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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