[kwlug-disc] What would people like to do, under the auspices of kwlug?

[Darcy Casselman]

On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 12:21 AM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
> I long ago lost faith in 'build it and they will come.'
>
> If the effort is larger than I, then I'm not prepared to 'build it and see
> if they come'. Put another way, if I have an idea, I'd like (multiple) 3rd
> party confirmation that what I'm thinking has resonance with others
> sufficient well to have a subset of kwlug say "Let's build this together -
> we collectively believe it to be worthwhile, and we're committing to see it
> done." The collaboration inevitably producing a higher quality product, gone
> about in a more effective manner.

There's a technique to things like this.

In my experiences, being open-ended about projects don't work.  If you
think and speak in terms of "It'd be great if we all did..." or
"wouldn't it be great if we...?", expect that nothing will ever be
accomplished.

If you want something done, you have to set out to do it yourself.
If the effort is larger than you, you have to take the initiative to
approach people you might think could help individually and ask them
directly.  Blanket "Hey, guys, does anybody want to...?" requests on
mailing lists are most often doomed to failure.  Do it.  Get some
people on board and get it done.

Start thinking instead of terms like "I am going to..." and "Can you
help me do..."

> I started by saying there is probably more <stuff> that could be done that
> requires more than one person and less than the entire membership, than
> <stuff> that can be completely masticated by a single person, or the entire
> membership.
>
> What <stuff> might people like to do as a group collaborative effort?

That sounds like the wrong question to me.

Bill's already said he'd like to do a newsletter.  Great!  He should
do it.  Hopefully he can get some people to help.  If anybody else has
any ideas, they should come forward to do them.

I think a better question would be "How can KWLUG make it easier for
people to do things that build and promote Linux and Free Software?"
Building some infrastructure might help.  I think it's more of a
cultural thing.  Make it explicitly acceptable for people to go off
and do their own thing, ask people for help and promote the finished
product.  Do that, and we'll start seeing things get done.

Darcy.