[wplug-plan] random GUMmage

[Mark Dalrymple]

Hey Gang,

Redtoade (who I invited to join -plan) had some good ideas relating to
GUMs.  Here's a paraphrase:

* it'd be nice to have kind of an introduction at the beginning (what is
  wplug etc), and also recap what happened last time.  "We had a great NFS
  talk and MarkDude over there talked about backup tapes.  And now this month
  we'll be showing you...", and maybe acknowledge the folks that were
  there last time.  To give some continuity to the whole thing.

* It's nice to get outsiders to give talks, but ideally the bread and
  butter can/should come from inside the group.  That way we're not at
  the mercy of folks who agree to do something, them bail out at the
  last minute like those SAGE folks did to us.  There are lots of
  knowledgable folks in the group whould could talk about their area
  of expertese (and due to the website troubles, there's no history of
  presentations that have already been made.  I know some folks who have
  something they can share, but don't know if it's been done before and
  are reluctant to come forward) 

  One idea was to have a list of topics folks want to hear about, and
  a list of folks interested in talking.  If we don't have a talk for
  a particular month, whomever's at the top of the list grab a topic
  and whip something up.

  Even if it turns into "I knew nothing about OpenGL last week, here's
  what I learned," it could still be interesting. Also having local
  folks involved can give us flexibility if there is someone we want
  to bring in.  "I know you're planning on talking about Samba this
  month.  We have a chance to bring in the Hitachi evangelist.  Ya
  wanna do Samba next month?"

And in that spirit, I'm volunteering to do a DocBook talk the next GUM
a speaker is needed (except April 5, I'm out of town).

++Mark Dalrymple, markd at badgertronics.com.  http://badgertronics.com
  "I think pineapple will be the master and the other fruit will be
   the slave, is that ok?"
   -- BlueKanary