KatteKrab

Voting is open to elect the new committee of Linux Users of Victoria.

Members may vote online at http://members.luv.asn.au/

This is the 2nd post in my Elections series.

[The first, was about my voting intention in the recent federal election. A week after the election we still don't have a government. The Australian Labor Party continues to govern in caretaker mode despite losing the majority it won at the last election. The hung parliament now consists of 4 independents and one representative from the Greens.

Seems my vote 'counted' more than it has before, as Melbourne is now officially a marginal seat, and the outcome was decided on preferences. It is no longer one of the safest seats in the country.  Does this mean we might finally get some attention? A bit like Denison, Melbourne has suffered from a lack of attention. Whilst we do have more than our fair share of hospitals, we also have a tv / telecommunications blackspot in North and West Melbourne, but not being 'Rural' it was pretty hard to get anyone to notice. Maybe that will change. ]

Anyway enough of #ausvotes - it's now time for some #luv election drama.

The Candidates

Office Bearers
 President: No candidate
 Vice President: Daniel Jitnah
 Treasurer: Wen Lin
 Secretary: Jiri Baum
Ordinary Committee members:
 Donald Douwsma
 Daniel Jitnah
 Kathy Reid
 Ben Sturmfels
 Hamish Taylor

I did not accept re-nomination for President. Unfortunately, neither did the other nominees, Ben Sturmfels and Ben Dechrau. This means we can nominate someone from the floor at the AGM, or the committee can elect a chair to be President from amongst themselves. Constitutionally, I'm not sure which is required, but perhaps someone can advise on the night.

The Annual General Meeting takes place at 7pm on Tuesday 7th September, at the Evan Burge Lecture Theatre at Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville. For full details, including a map, see http://luv.asn.au/2010/09/07

President's Report v0.1

For the record, I first became involved with Linux Users Victoria in 2005 when I heard they were bidding for linux.conf.au to come to Melbourne. I volunteered to help, but in the end, the winner was Sydney. I'd vaguely heard of LUV before that, but never been to a meeting. At LCA2006 in Dunedin I spoke to a few people and 'took over' organising a bid to win LCA for Melbourne. There was no resistance. The rest is history. We went on to win LCA for Melbourne, and in 2008 staged one of the most successful conferences in the event's history. Later that year, I was nominated for the Presidency of LUV, and elected unopposed and was re-elected last year. I'm sorry and disheartened I have failed to enthuse anyone enough to take my place in 2010.

Beginners Workshops

But I am deeply satisfied by our efforts to bring about the LUV beginners workshops. They are not perfect, and there is more that could be done to make them better.  Nevertheless, it's a fun place to go on the third Saturday of the month to help out, to learn something, to share what you know or just hang out with others interested in open source software. Many come seeking more structured activity - so setting up a computer lab, with hands on tutorials could be something to look at for the future. Scheduled introductory talks aimed at beginners,  have been well attended.

Library of LUV

Major Keary has continued doing book reviews, and these are now regularly posted to http://luv.asn.au. We have turned this bonanza into a distributed Library of LUV by encouraging people to return the books that have been gifted to us by publishers for review.  This may need to be streamlined in future as the 'auction' is now getting quite long. Major Keary has indicated he won't be able to continue reviewing books, and the publishers have indicated they'll be providing more e-books and less hard copies in the future. Volunteers interested in receiving free e-books for review should contact the committee.

Mailing Lists

I had hoped to see our mailing lists migrated from drstrange to our new server, tainted. However this still has not happened. The hardware is aging, and this needs to be given priority by the new committee. We also intended to migrate from Sympa to Mailman, because those now willing to invest time moderating and managing the lists were more familiar with mailman. This becomes an issue for the new committee to decide.

My failure to improve the culture of the mailing lists is personally disappointing. I do acknowledge there were more who felt no need for change, than there were those who did. In this case, my resistance was futile.

What's wrong with the lists? The quality of the lists for technical assistance and opinion is highly valued, or so I'm told. However it is the culture of superiority, and belittling those who write imperfectly, or do not follow the 'rules' and established list etiquette that I find offensive. In some cases the topics themselves have left me wondering why I'm involved in a community that tolerates and sometimes even encourages that kind of discourse. Recent threads in luv-talk reinforced my decision not to continue as president.

I do not wish to participate in the LUV mailing lists. I turn elsewhere for help with linux and other free software I use.

Software Freedom Day

Linux Users of Victoria has participated in Software Freedom Day from it's very beginning. In 2004, former president Andrew Chalmers co-ordinated CD burning and orchestrated a walk through Melbourne's streets handing out Free Software on Software Freedom Day. The walk continued into 2008.  We've been involved with events at ComputerBank, the East Melbourne Unitarian Church, twice at Melbourne's Town Hall, the Docklands community hub, and last year at the Melbourne PC club rooms at Chadstone Shopping Centre.

This year, in just a couple of weeks time on Saturday 18th September we'll be celebrating Software Freedom Day at the State Library, in the heart of Melbourne's CBD. This looks like being our biggest, most successful event to date. We have a great program of talks, workshops and short sessions lined up, as well as our Market hall bazaar of community groups sharing their schtick with each other and the public.

We need volunteers to help out on the day. http://www.sfd.org.au/melbourne/

Contact sfd_melb at identi.ca or twitter, or leave a comment here :)

So long, farewell.

I hope to redirect some of the energy I've invested in LUV over the past 5 years or so towards Drupal Melbourne and ComputerBank, and be able to join the LinuxChix at pre-luv meetups without having to worry if the projector is working or the speakers have turned up. You'll still find me on the LUV beginners list, but I'll be unsubscribing from LUV-talk and LUV-main after the AGM.

Linux Users of Victoria needs to address the fact that open source has won. It needs to find a way to meet the needs of it's long time members who've been with Linux since the beginning, but also help new users who are not also developers or sysadmins. We need to find a way to help them contribute to the community too.  Our meetings are well attended, our mailing lists are busy - our identi.ca group is small, and we have a few followers on twitter. New ways to grow our membership, and facilitate communication amongst our members is something else for the new committee to consider.

I hope I leave LUV a little better than I found it, and wish the new committee all the best as it continues to serve the association into the future.

• kattekrab's blog

There's an election on.  Actually there's three elections on.

1. Federal election.
2. State election.
3. Linux Users of Victoria Committee election.

But this post is about the first one.

Four issues in the federal election mean I'll be voting for The Greens this time. It's not the first time I've voted for the Greens, but it's the first time I've been so 100% sure about it, and so deeply disappointed with the Australian Labor Party.

When Ms Gillard was crowned queen of the parliamentary labor party I was euphoric.  I'd wanted her to lead the party back when they chose Latham. But my euphoria slammed into a brick wall of revolting reality.

Climate Change

The science is clear on climate change.  The impact in the environment is now evident, not in computer models, but in real events in the real world. Rising sea levels, melting glaciers, crashing ice sheets, increased severe weather events... and so on.  Consensus Julia? Stop listening to the vested interests and start listening to the rest of us.  We've passed peak oil now, the time to act on renewable energy, a price on carbon, reducing energy wastage, promoting walking and cycling, and local food production is here now. Can we just get on with it please?

Marriage Equality

I've got friends in long term relationships who'd like to participate in that ritual called Marriage. They can't. For them, in Australia it's illegal, unsupported and unrecognised. Gillard's govt has decided to retain a Howard govt practice of even refusing to allow gay couples to get a certificate which proves they are of marriageable age, and single, so that they may marry overseas in a nation that takes equality and human rights seriously.  The Netherlands, bless their cotton socks, have introduced special legislation for Australians and Zimbabweans waiving their requirement to have this certificate. 

There is NO justification for continuing this discriminatory policy. None. Do you have a reason?  Know someone who has a reason? I'd be keen to hear it.  What people do in their bedrooms is none of my business, it's none of the governments business, it's none of your business. But they have as much of a right to celebrate their relationship, and enter into a partnership recognised by the state as I do.

Internet Censorship

The Internet reflects humanity. It was created by human beings, for human beings, and it has empowered those who can access it to participate in the richest flow and exchange of ideas humanity has ever seen. Those who can access it freely, with speed, and with a constant electricity supply have a huge advantage over those who can not.   It is through the exchange of ideas that we learn from each other, that we learn from our history, and that we create new things. Can we ignore for a moment the nature of the content to be filtered? I think that's a massive red herring. It's the act of censoring it at all which is abhorrent to me.  A blacklist with no accountability can all too easily be abused. Once we give a government that power, it will be abused. That's the nature of power.

Asylum Seekers

My grandparents were refugees. They came to Australia on a boat. They were fleeing Nazi Germany. So yeah, I guess I'm biased on this one. 

Can we please stop demonising these people? Stop the politics. Get the facts. We have a tiny tiny number of people arriving on boats and requesting asylum. More come on aeroplanes on tourist visas... and the numbers who come are so small compared with those in other countries it's laughable.  If you have 'concerns' and 'anxiety' about boat people, have you stopped to ask yourself why? Why are you afraid? How are you threatened?

There was a gorgeous advertisement produced by the UN High commission for refugees in 2001. It had famous US refugee success stories dancing to Aretha Franklin's R.E.S.P.E.C.T.  And thanks to YouTube being the library of our collective memory, I can share it here.

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tssFEUQd7IY

Embedded:

• kattekrab's blog

Can't quite remember who originally posted the bharti ad, but I've had it open in a tab in my web browser for a week or so now.

And this times ad was youtube's suggestion of related content...

These two ads pack an emotional double whammy.

Indeed - Imagine what a Billion Indians could do if they worked together. Imagine what any of us could do if we worked together.

It makes me think about a couple of competing organisations I've been involved with. For a long time I've believed they have much in common, and by working together could increase their reach and effectiveness. But honest rivalry, politics and historical grievances have prevented them from forming a truly effective bond to forge something new.

The enmity has made me uncomfortable.

The open source world is filled with competing interests, but we work together and strive side by side toward the same goals - as athletes do. We all win, we all have a personal best when we are inspired to achieve more than before. This is not the kind of competition where losers are lost and ignored. It is the kind that looks towards the next challenge, the next opportunity, the next problem to solve. It is the kind of competition where the winners acknowledge the critical support and inspiration of their peers, and the runners up see what's possible.

These videos proclaiming an Indian identity that is proud of working together and happy to follow a leader to achieve a goal, inspire me to put my shoulder to the wheel.

Sometimes we just need a little bit of a push.

Software Freedom Day, Saturday 18 September is an opportunity to work together toward a goal of sharing the power of the Open Source Software community with the world.

• kattekrab's blog

@crazyjane13's tweet struck a chord.  I keep thinking about it. It makes me smile.

No.1 daughter: 'Can a woman be PM?' Me: 'Let me explain a little thing called feminism, honey.' #spill

I don't know why, but I feel this _is_ somehow more important, deep down, than it seems. If a young girl can still ask that question, then yes, this is significant. And if young girls everywhere are now more likely to believe they can do anything, then yes, this means something.

I don't quite know what that something is. But it's there. I can feel it.

• kattekrab's blog

I've been slack lately.  My editor, Michelle Lowman, found me at DrupalCon and kicked me up the proverbial to get my act together and FINISH THE DAMN BOOK. Which book? Beginning Inkscape.  An intro level guide to using Inkscape. There are a few books out there now, which means we can direct our focus to beginners, to non-designers.  I believe Inkscape is an incredibly accessible tool for those new to drawing with a computer. And even for those new to drawing at all. 

So I've submitted a talk to the Libre Graphics Meeting in Brussels next month.

update: I won't be giving this talk - Andy Fitzsimon will!!
Andy's session is now available as video
http://river-valley.tv/media/conferences/lgm2010/0302-Andy-Fitzsimon/

This is my abstract:

Inkscape's popularity is growing day by day. How do we help new users master the tool? How do we resource these users and welcome them to participate in the community and contribute their art, their bug reports and their ideas to help us innovate? This talk briefly summarises the available resources out there from online tutorials, screencasts, channels & forums to the offline books, magazines, courses, classes and user groups. We'll then explore ideas on how we draw from this rich resource bank and build something special which helps us not only grow the userbase for Inkscape, but welcome and nurture new contributors to the Libre Graphics community, as artists and developers. Half talk, half debate, this session aims to set the scene for a discussion on the issues of supporting new users, and explore ways to do it better by sharing ideas and working together.

Very excited that Wacom Australia have sent me an Intuous 4 Tablet to experiment with Inkscape on Linux.  I'm very much looking forward to spending serious time on using this new tool, and sending constructive feedback back to the inkscape development team.

So - Michelle - Yes, with no conferences to organise for a while, Beginning Inkscape will now be getting some serious attention!

• kattekrab's blog