Group: Manchester/2008-07-14/Minutes

Manchester Free Software Minutes

19:00, Monday 14th July 2008

Attendance: Simon, Dave, Lucy, Michael, Matt M,
Apologies: Paul, Tim, Jonathan

Last Meeting

The minutes of the last meeting on 9th June 2008 were read and approved.

Announcements

Tim has posted an article on Indymedia publicizing our upcoming talk with Ian Forrester of the BBC. The article is under the Manchester, Liverpool and technology sections and can be found at: http://indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/manchester/2008/07/403636.html

Speakers

Dave announced that Mick from Manchester Free Space (at the Zion centre) will be giving us a talk at August's meeting about their work so far and their aims for the future. This means that we now have confirmed talks for July, August and September.

From the previous meeting's actions: Lucy had contacted Ben Green of Bristol Wireless but has had no reply. Dave had contacted all of the speakers on his list, except John Pugh Simon also contacted all the speakers on his list. Has had no firm response so far from Howard Welte or Tim Fletcher.

Tim was not present so was unable to give a response.

ACTION: Dave to contact Ben G, MJ Ray and someone from gNewSense about speaking
ACTION: Simon to chase up Harold and to contact Jono Bacon
ACTION: Tim to get back to us about who he's contacted.

For the last few speakers we have not be able to record the talks. We agreed that this should change in future.
ACTION: Dave to buy a high capacity SD card for his camera and to speak to Mick about obtaining a video camera for his talk.
ACTION: Simon to speak to the MDDA about the possibility of borrowing a video camera for future talks.

Carried from the last meeting:
ACTION: Tim agreed to a wiki page with a list of places to promote talks regularly. This will include mailing lists, Indymedia and other local groups.
ACTION: Tim to get Manchester Free Software listed on the Free Software Foundation website as a free software group.

MDDA

Simon confirmed that the MDDA has now been booked until the end of the year, although there was a problem with the October date, which will need to be moved (probably to the fourth week).

There was some discussion about booking for the first sixth months of 2009, however it was agreed that this decision should be postponed until the next meeting.

ACTION: Dave to raise the promotion of Manchester Free Software on the mailing list for suggestions.
ACTION: Dave (and others!) to see the NO2ID minutes for suggestions of (free) places to advertise Manchester Free Software. Additional suggestions included The Green Room.

“Free Space”

Manchester Free Space is a brand new initiative based at the Zion Centre in Hulme, which aims to setup a LTSP computing cluster for local children to use. It also has a longer term aim of providing an audio and video editing suite for the community.

Last Saturday was the first meetup for the group, and in total there were 5-6 volunteers, with a mix of technical and non-technical people. At the meeting a plan was formed to use 5 desktop machines, one server and one 16 port switch to create a working LTSP computing cluster, using Debian Etch, to be completed this Saturday!

ACTION: Matt to investigate the possibility of gaining council funding in future.

Software Freedom Day

Since last month, when the potential plan for SFD was announced, Dave has created a wiki page[1] and registered Manchester as an official SFD group[2], making us eligible for free promotional materials.

A backup plan of using the Zion centre instead of the library for SFD was mentioned as a possibility.

[1] http://groups.fsf.org/index.php/Free_The_Library_2008
[2] http://softwarefreedomday.org/teams/europe/uk/Manchester

ACTION: Matt to resend Dave the contact details for Manchester library
ACTION: Dave to contact someone at Manchester library to make arrangements for SFD.

LugRadio Live

A number of people from Manchester Free Software are planning to attend LugRadio Live, although we will have no official presence.

It was suggested that it would be a good idea to print some promotional leaflets and put them on the FSF stall, if possible. It was also suggested that having a business card (or similar) for the group would be useful to give to potential speakers.

ACTION: Dave to print approx 200 leaflets for LRL
ACTION: Dave to speak to Matt Lee about whether help is required on the FSF stall.

Mission Statement

The changes proposed on the mailing list after a review of the mission statement were accepted by the committee.

ACTION: Dave to add the mission statement to the 'About Us' section of the website.

Any Other Business

It was brought to our attention by Simon that the group was formed on 13th Nov last year, which will make the meeting on 18th November 2008 the group's first birthday.

It was mentioned that the Gnash developers are very close to getting potlatch (the OpenStreetMap online flash editor) working.

Next Meeting

It was agreed that the next meeting should take place on Monday 11th August, 7pm at the Waterhouse.

Summary of Actions

ACTION: Dave to contact Ben G, MJ Ray and someone from gNewSense about speaking
ACTION: Simon to chase up Harold and to contact Jono Bacon
ACTION: Tim to get back to us about who he's contacted.
ACTION: Dave to buy a high capacity SD card for his camera and to speak to Mick about obtaining a video camera for his talk.
ACTION: Simon to speak to the MDDA about the possibility of borrowing a video camera for future talks.
ACTION: Tim agreed to a wiki page with a list of places to promote talks regularly. This will include mailing lists, Indymedia and other local groups.
ACTION: Tim to get Manchester Free Software listed on the Free Software Foundation website as a free software group.
ACTION: Dave to raise the promotion of Manchester Free Software on the mailing list for suggestions.
ACTION: Dave (and others!) to see the NO2ID minutes for suggestions of (free) places to advertise Manchester Free Software. Additional suggestions included The Green Room.
ACTION: Matt to investigate the possibility of gaining council funding in future.
ACTION: Matt to resend Dave the contact details for Manchester library
ACTION: Dave to contact someone at Manchester library to make arrangements for SFD.
ACTION: Dave to print approx 200 leaflets for LRL
ACTION: Dave to speak to Matt Lee about whether help is required on the FSF stall.
ACTION: Dave to add the mission statement to the 'About Us' section of the website.