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Jonathan Oxer | 1 Jul 2005 01:58
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Can Linux Australia survive?

Sorry about the sensationalist subject, but I needed to do *something*
to dress up a boring topic!

Just to make sure the relevant people (ie: you) see it, this is a story
I've just posted to my blog. Followup discussion welcome.

>From http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/65
============================================================
Can Linux Australia survive?

AJ has just emailed notes from the face to face Linux Australia
committee meeting held two weeks ago in Adelaide, and last week Stewart
posted some thoughts about the sustainability of the organisation.

I think it's an unfortunate confirmation of the problem that Stewart's
post didn't get much (any?) response.

Right now Linux Australia is at a difficult size - you could almost
think of it as being at the "teenager" stage of development. It has
grown well beyond a small organisation that exists solely to facilitate
a conference, but it's not yet big enough or well resourced enough to
support a paid executive to handle day to day chores. It's involved in
far more things than almost anyone outside the committee would be aware
of, but doesn't have staff to delegate chores to.

So it's doing lots of things, but the responsibility for making those
things happen falls on the (voluntary) committee.

That's dangerous. As Stewart said in his post, Michael Davies made the
astute comment that LA currently survives by burning people out and
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Jonathan Oxer | 1 Jul 2005 03:16
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Re: [LACTTE] [Submission] Linux Australia's Fair Use Submissions

Hi Rusty,

On behalf of the Committee I'd like to say a public "thankyou" for all
the time you've put into preparation of Linux Australia's Fair Use
submission.

Issues like this have the political overtones that make many people
deliberately look the other way, and it takes someone with a strong
sense of individual responsibility for collective rights to do the hard
work on behalf of the rest of us.

So: thanks!

Cheers   :-)

Jonathan Oxer
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Jeff Waugh | 1 Jul 2005 03:19
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Re: Can Linux Australia survive?

<quote who="Jonathan Oxer">

> Or the other extreme is to hire an executive, perhaps in the form of a CEO
> or a secretariat to undertake all the jobs it's hard to find volunteers
> for.

I have a bit of experience that might be useful to the committee about this,
but it's not appropriate for public consumption just yet. Let me know if you
want to hear more. It boils down to this -> I would only be happy with this
if details of the role and management process were tightly specified, public
knowledge, with frequent reporting. That's "Hard". :-)

> So where from here? Assuming we want to follow a middle-ground course,
> what should that be?

It may be worthwhile hiring a (very) part time administrator/bookkeeper to
make sure the organisation keeping up appearances in legal terms, and making
sure the committee is kept up to date with the administrative aspects of the
organisation without actually having to do it themselves (which can result
in burnout, information and tasks being dropped, etc).

- Jeff

--

-- 
GNOME Summit 2005: October 8th-10th         http://live.gnome.org/Boston2005

    "I've been thinking: I get way too many pieces of e-mail, about 60 a
                             day." - Microserfs
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Andrew Cowie | 1 Jul 2005 05:40
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Re: Can Linux Australia survive?

On Fri, 2005-01-07 at 09:58 +1000, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
> Can Linux Australia survive?

I'd just like to take a minute to compliment Jon on a masterful summary.
Capturing complex ideas with significant ramifications is challenging,
and Jon's message captures the situation (and the range of the
Committee's consideration on the topic) beautifully.

If you haven't read the email I'm talking about, scroll up and sink your
teeth into it. We really need input, and from more than just "the usual
offenders."

AfC
Sydney

--

-- 
Andrew Frederick Cowie

Technology strategy, managing change, establishing procedures,
and executing successful upgrades to mission critical business
infrastructure.

http://www.operationaldynamics.com/

Sydney   New York   Toronto   London
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Bret Busby | 1 Jul 2005 05:08
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Re: Can Linux Australia survive?

On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, Jonathan Oxer wrote:

> 
> Sorry about the sensationalist subject, but I needed to do *something*
> to dress up a boring topic!
>
> Just to make sure the relevant people (ie: you) see it, this is a story
> I've just posted to my blog. Followup discussion welcome.
>
>
>> From http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/65
> ============================================================
> Can Linux Australia survive?
>
> AJ has just emailed notes from the face to face Linux Australia
> committee meeting held two weeks ago in Adelaide, and last week Stewart
> posted some thoughts about the sustainability of the organisation.
>
> I think it's an unfortunate confirmation of the problem that Stewart's
> post didn't get much (any?) response.
>

I appear to have not received that post.

However, given that Linux Australia has apparently spent $12,000 on 
having a linux conference overseas, apparently for Linux Australia 
committee members to travel overseas, the direction of Linux Australia, 
and what it is really about, needs to come into question.

There are the different aspects of this issue, the first being the
(Continue reading)

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Jeff Waugh | 1 Jul 2005 06:22
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Re: Can Linux Australia survive?

<quote who="Bret Busby">

> Until Linux Australia can itself, become mature and start to act with some
> professionalism (and dignity), I contend that the hiring of staff should
> be out of the question.

Your continuing protestation at hosting linux.conf.au in New Zealand may be
slightly amusing, albeit irritating, but this is absolutely offensive. The
current and previous two committees have made enormous progress, making the
organisation infinitely more relevant and productive. I'd put it to you very
strongly that you are both wrong and terribly ungrateful to boot.

> It must be remembered, that due to the nature of the postings to the Linux
> Australia list, which have included offensive postings, and irrelevant
> postings, some members of Linux Australia, have stayed away from the list,
> as the list has appeared to them, to be more rubbish than anything of
> value.

*cough*

- Jeff

--

-- 
OSCON 2005: August 1st-5th         http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2005/

     "Funny, I have no trouble distinguishing my mobile phone from the
       others because it's in my _own fucking pocket_!" - Mobile Rage
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Mary Gardiner | 1 Jul 2005 06:25
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Re: Can Linux Australia survive?

On Fri, Jul 01, 2005, Bret Busby wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
> >I think it's an unfortunate confirmation of the problem that Stewart's
> >post didn't get much (any?) response.
> >
> 
> I appear to have not received that post.

On the blog entry Jonathan made, the text "Stewart posted some thoughts
about the sustainability of the organisation" contains an actual link. I
don't think there was ever a mailing list post: Jonathan's text dump to
this list just lost the link to Stewart's blog post.

Anyway, Stewart's post is here: http://www.flamingspork.com/blog/?p=422

-Mary
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Leon Brooks | 1 Jul 2005 06:27
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One for Rusty, from Latin America


    http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1327/Viva_Software_Libre

    [...]

    North American corporations have relied on the World Information
    Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO)
    to promote treaties which favor corporate exploitation. The WIPO is
    often used to promote treaties and laws which export both
    pharmaceutical and software patenting to developing nations.
    Private corporations then using these same treaties to enforce
    existing North American patent monopolies, preventing the
*** development of competitive local industry. In addition, the  ***
*** "Free Trade Area of The Americas" (FTAA) treaty contains an  ***
*** IP rights chapter which similarly benefits North American    ***
*** software giants.                                             ***

    One way Latin American countries have responded to WIPO, and other
    patent bearing treaties, has been to band together with other
    nations to promote a specific development agenda as ratified last
    October (2004) by the WIPO general assembly. Yet powerful American
    and European commercial interests have chosen to use the WIPO
    chair to explicitly bar NGO’s representing the interests of
    developing nations from attending or participating in WIPO
    discussions on this development agenda, even those organizations
    already duly certified and recognized with observer status.

    Last century, several Latin American nations were invaded by US
    marines in the so-called banana wars to prop up the interests of
    North American corporations like United Fruit. While last
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James Purser | 1 Jul 2005 06:36

Re: Can Linux Australia survive?

I must say that your post is dangerously close to an accusation of fraud
by the committee members.

As to the rest of the post, in the short time I have been on this list,
I have not noticed any general sense of unpleasantness or childishness,
so I cannot comment on that, however I can say that I do have issues
with posts turning up hours, sometimes days later.

I will conclude by saying that your post seems to be full of complaints
but very little in the way of real solutions. This not meant as an
attack but more of a subtle hint, if you have any ideas to fix the
problems you perceive, let us know what they are.

On Fri, 2005-07-01 at 13:08, Bret Busby wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Sorry about the sensationalist subject, but I needed to do *something*
> > to dress up a boring topic!
> >
> > Just to make sure the relevant people (ie: you) see it, this is a story
> > I've just posted to my blog. Followup discussion welcome.
> >
> >
> >> From http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/65
> > ============================================================
> > Can Linux Australia survive?
> >
> > AJ has just emailed notes from the face to face Linux Australia
> > committee meeting held two weeks ago in Adelaide, and last week Stewart
(Continue reading)

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James Purser | 1 Jul 2005 06:41

Re: Can Linux Australia survive?

I have just read through Stewarts post and he has some good points. I
really do agree with his point about the length of Board position terms,
annual is nice but too short, current board members would really just be
getting into their stride when the next elections roll around. Two years
would probably be a good number, long enough to let committee members
really get into the swing of things but not so long that dedicated
people would be put off by the commitment required.

On the issue of a CEO or CFO, I think what the organisation needs is
more of an Administrator. Someone to take care of the day to day
operations including accounts and basic legal requirements of any
organisation. Without knowing exact numbers re budgets and other
details, I am not sure whether this should be full time or if it could
be done by a part-time person.

On Fri, 2005-07-01 at 09:58, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
> Sorry about the sensationalist subject, but I needed to do *something*
> to dress up a boring topic!
> 
> Just to make sure the relevant people (ie: you) see it, this is a story
> I've just posted to my blog. Followup discussion welcome.
> 
> 
> >From http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/65
> ============================================================
> Can Linux Australia survive?
> 
> AJ has just emailed notes from the face to face Linux Australia
> committee meeting held two weeks ago in Adelaide, and last week Stewart
> posted some thoughts about the sustainability of the organisation.
(Continue reading)

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Gmane