The Ohio LinuxFest has received meager promotional attention from the audience that it serves: the Open Source community.
Lately, the term “community” keeps getting thrown out there as a marketing ploy. People have become very skeptical in this day in age. Even the simple favor of asking someone to let their local user group know about the Ohio LinuxFest is pushed to the waste-side.
Why? There are quite a few misconceptions that we need to clear up right now.
1. The Ohio LinuxFest is an all volunteer non-profit event that is meant to be the uber Linux user group meeting for anybody who can make the trip. Smaller lugs should feel espesically welcome in that they might not have *any* activities the whole year besides a few cars going out the Ohio LinuxFest. That’s who we are for the past 7 years and that’s who we will always be.
2. The Ohio LinuxFest offers free admission. Why? Chances are you user group meeting does not charge to see the great talks, miggle with some folks with common interests, and share their experiences. While everyone has something to contribute, even if it is your ideas on how to make open source better.
3. The Ohio LinuxFest is a corporately sponsored event. That doesn’t make us an info-merical. Nor does that make us a suitfest. We welcome our sponsors as part of the expo because they are part of the community too. The sponsors tend to bring they’re A-Game engineers and community advocates to the show because that’s who in their company enjoys the Ohio LinuxFest most. Some events will exclude people who are under 18 from the show floor, give a few FOSS and nonprofits poor show floor position, and offer “free” exhibit only passes to people who hold purchase making authority. We thank our sponsors for making a true free admission possible and treat our fellow nonprofits with respect. Check out the expo for yourself.
So, why all the urgency of a 5-alarm fire? In order to make this a great show, people do need to register and attend the Ohio LinuxFest. This week is your very last chance to sign-up. Things were concerningly slow in the Labor day week which historically gets about 50% of the registrations that week alone. Time is running out folks.
4. There isn’t all the time in the world to register for the Ohio LinuxFest. That is in two weekends. Ten days. September 25-27. Take a look at the schedule and there’s bound to be something of interest. Want to come in for only one day? Cool. Be there for what interests you most.
5. It is not expensive to travel to the Ohio LinuxFest. Many of the US Midwest cities who have been hit the hardest by the economy are about one gas tank away. Just load up one car and see that you too can attend for less than 20 bucks. Even if you stay the night, the hotel rooms are much cheaper in Ohio than the west coast. Unemployed? I’ve heard they’re still hiring in Columbus. We are in central Ohio to be accessible being within 500 miles of 50% of the North Ameican population.
6. We do not have a marketing budget. The Ohio LinuxFest has depended on you, the community to help us get the word out. This isn’t spam. It is helpping your neighborhood all-volunteer nonprofit with outreach. Even if you can’t attend our event, please help us spread the word. Please post our banners. Pass on our press releases with your favorite social networking site.
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It seems you maybe upset by low bookings/interest? Maybe people are planning to turn up without pre-organisation. Most people are very business in this day and age, so if they know they can turn up with plans, they will do this. It’s sounds like a great fest, and I’d turn up if I lived in America. Not sure if I’d book though if I were a resident.
Listened to TLLS radio, episode 315. Having a separate seminar for diverse users, makes it seem THEY have a problem, when the issue is that Geeks maybe freaking others out or just unfriendly. Naming is very important. Could you name it to make it more accessible by using topics like targeting business, crafts, religious studies, home-budget people, genealogy, etc. There are women and people that aren’t geeks that want to use computers to say make sewing machine patterns, or cooking, or doing a home or small club budget, to even making a Youtube clip, that all can be done on open source software.
Just my two cents. Beth you seem to be a great mover and shaker for Linux!!! Keep up the good work.
Do you encourage people to bring their laptops? Do you have tables for attendees to hash things out together at the fest? Do you offer geeks to assist/help new users to remedy their computer woes? Like free installation and repairs, or general help. Is there power access for attendees? Is there programmers seminars?
It would be good if there is a show of the latest hardware running linux, like portable devices.
Giving freebies for those that check in it a very attractive thing. Like t-shirts from Google.
The list of speakers is impressive! people should check out http://www.ohiolinux.org/speakers.html
“Most people are very business in this day and age” was supposed to be “Most people are very busy in this day and age” !!!
There is a hackathon on Saturday for people to get together and “hash things out” as you put it, hack, make icons…whatever. Yes, laptops are welcome, however for electricity…the venue is not very nice about that. For “figure out your hardware drivers”…why not sign up for a BoF?
It’s not about diverse geeks. It’s diversity, period. So all those categories of users you named? Great!