Group: Manchester/2008-10-13/Minutes
Contents
Manchester Free Software Minutes
19:00, Monday 13th October 2008
Attendance: Simon, Dave, Tim, Steffi, Lucy, Michael, Matt M
Apologies: None
Last Meeting
The minutes of the last meeting on 8th September 2008 were read and approved.
Announcements
None
Speakers
October's speakers were confirmed as Michael, Tim and Enrico talking about the new OpenMoko phone. It was also suggested that Simon give a review of the Manchester OSM mapping party.
It was announced that November's talk will be given by Elmar Geese, CEO of tarent.de, a free software company based in Germany.
No talk has been planned for December and it was agreed that we should use the opportunity to have a social event and celebrate our first birthday.
It was announced that Ian Lynch has agreed to give a talk for January's meeting.
A discussion was held about whether we should continue to hold monthly talks or whether we should use some meetings for more informal and more social events. The general feeling was that we should reduce the number of speakers, particularly due to the time required for organising such events. It was agreed to continue the discussion on the mailing list.
Lucy mentioned that she updated the wiki with the list of contacted speakers and a whole list of new potential speakers to contact. She also added a publicity page, linked to from the main page, bringing together a number of resources containing materials, groups to contact etc.
From last month's actions:
Lucy contacted John Pinner, (Mr) Ben Thorpe, Ian Lynch, Axiom Tech.
Simon forgot to contact Harald Welte.
Dave spoke to someone else from Bristol Wireless who was interested in giving a talk at a future date.
ACTION: Dave to make cupcakes for the November meeting to celebrate MFS first birthday, as a precursor to the party in December.
ACTION: Dave to email the list to find out how people feel about having fewer talks and more social events in future.
ACTION: Tim to contact a primary school that runs LTSP and a co-op (plings?) for potential speakers.
Books
Lucy emailed Matt Lee asking for clarification and providing information about who can look after them but had no reply.
Lucy looked into creating a community group account with the co-op to store this money (and any other money from selling badges, etc). The account provides free day-to-day banking and requires a minimum of two named account holders (plus additional signatories if required), who are over 18. It was agreed that the account should NOT have a debit card with it and that any two signatures should be required to withdraw money. Matt agreed to take on some of the treasurer responsibilities.
ACTION: Lucy to contact Matt Lee/FSF again.
ACTION: Lucy to speak to Paul about setting up a request tracker (i.e trac or RT) on the web server.
ACTION: Matt to look into creating a business plan and constitution for the banking application.
Software Freedom Day Review
MFS successfully invaded the Marbella Cafe [1], Newton St on Saturday 20th September to celebrate SFD. The full details were sent to the list.
Things we could have done differently:
Better, earlier planning, particularly with regards the venue. This would have also improved the publicity, allowing us to advertise the event earlier.
Printing also needed to be arranged further in advance. It was pointed out that single sided printing could be photocopied instead if we get stuck.
ACTION: Dave to contact the central library to discuss why the event couldn't take place there and to find out if it could in future.
ACTION: Dave to update the software freedom day website with a write up.
Linux World Expo
Simon contacted the FSF, asking if they were planning to have a stall, but received no reply.
It was found that no one present at the meeting is able to go to Linux World Expo.
ACTION: Simon to chase up the FSF.
ACTION: Dave to organise getting some leaflets to the Expo, if Simon finds that the FSF will allow us to put some leaflets on their stall.
Any other business
Dave suggested trying to raise awareness with students, by contacting the Campaigns Collective and the Open Media Society (both at University of Manchester SU). Possible events could include the screening of RevolutionOS.
ACTION: Dave to contact Robbie Gillet and Andy Bowman, from the Campaigns Collective/Open Media Society.
ACTION: Lucy to contact the University of Manchester Computer Users' Society (if it still exists).
ACTION: Matt to set up a facebook group to promote Manchester Free Software
Next Meeting
It was agreed that the next meeting should take place at the Marbella Cafe again, on Monday 10th November, 7pm.
Marbella Cafe Tech Meeting Minutes
20:30, Monday 13th October 2008
Attendance: Simon, Dave, Tim, Steffi, Lucy, Michael, Matt M, Janey
Apologies: None
Janey brought up the need for extra signage promoting free internet access, with free software, at the cafe.
ACTION: Lucy to provide wording for a poster promoting free software to visitors of the Cafe.
It was agreed to better promote the project at the Cafe (and other projects) by creating a projects page on the MFS website.
ACTION: Dave to create a projects page on manchester.fsuk.org
Dave suggested increasing publicity by submitting an article to some local free papers/magazines
ACTION: Dave to write an article and submit to local magazines.
Janey mentioned she would like to improve the branding on the client machines, by improving the wallpaper and default home page.
ACTION: Janey to organise some wallpaper and images for a default home page.
ACTION: Lucy to create a home page from Janey's images.
Dave mentioned the need to create a standard operating procedures manual and improving knowledge of the current system, so that others can admin and take care of the day to day running of the system.
ACTION: Dave to create a procedures manual and share knowledge of the system setup.
It was mentioned that the usage limits/tariffs of the Cafe's ISP was not known.
ACTION: Janey to contact the ISP to find out the current usage limits.
It was agreed to meet up on Sunday at 3pm to reinstall the current system, to start writing the procedures manual and to make other improvements.
ACTION: Sunday: remove the broken HDDs from client machines.
ACTION: Sunday: setup external ssh access for remote admin.
Summary of Actions
ACTION: Tim to contact a primary school that runs LTSP and a co-op (plings?) for potential speakers.
ACTION: Simon to chase up the FSF.
ACTION: Matt to look into creating a business plan and constitution for the banking application.
ACTION: Matt to set up a facebook group to promote Manchester Free Software
ACTION: Lucy to contact Matt Lee/FSF again.
ACTION: Lucy to speak to Paul about setting up a request tracker (i.e trac or RT) on the web server.
ACTION: Lucy to contact the University of Manchester Computer Users' Society (if it still exists).
ACTION: Lucy to provide wording for a poster promoting free software to visitors of the Cafe.
ACTION: Lucy to create a home page from Janey's images.
ACTION: Dave to contact the central library to discuss why the event couldn't take place there and to find out if it could in future.
ACTION: Dave to update the software freedom day website with a write up.
ACTION: Dave to make cupcakes for the November meeting to celebrate MFS first birthday, as a precursor to the party in December.
ACTION: Dave to email the list to find out how people feel about having fewer talks and more social events in future.
ACTION: Dave to organise getting some leaflets to the Expo, if Simon finds that the FSF will allow us to put some leaflets on their stall.
ACTION: Dave to contact Robbie Gillet and Andy Bowman, from the Campaigns Collective/Open Media Society.
ACTION: Dave to create a projects page on manchester.fsuk.org
ACTION: Dave to write an article and submit to local magazines.
ACTION: Dave to create a procedures manual and share knowledge of the system setup.
ACTION: Janey to organise some wallpaper and images for a default home page.
ACTION: Janey to contact the ISP to find out the current usage limits.
