Group Goals

Draft Requirements for Redeveloping the Website. http://saclinux.org/cgi-bin/innerwiki.cgi?Requirements

prototype websites for SacLUG

Linus put together the following that separates content from presentation using Cocoon http://cocoon.apache.org/ Right now, he has it so that you have to manually edit the XML.

http://saclug.fullsack.com http://saclug.fullsack.com/docs/ http://saclug.fullsack.com/style/

He is working on an editor.

http://saclug.fullsack.com/slug/html/editor.html

Ed's Thoughts

Sorry folks, this is a long winded e-mail. Bear with me, the conversation has morphed, but in a very important direction, and with a new year before us, this is the perfect time (IMHO) to address it...

One thing I'd like to ask is what do folks feel is the current "Mission Statement" or objective, of SACLUG?

Obviously at one time the objective focused on the challenges of installing linux, getting various drivers to work, getting servers, firewalls, routers, and NAS boxes built...however currently, with refined distros, and linux appliances being commodities to be had for a couple hundred bucks, folks are not spending as much time focusing on this.

So, what does the group want to do? I've never felt the group was afraid to branch out and discuss various technologies, but if that is the case, maybe that word needs to be spread. And then, how much branching out should the group do when we can hit up a Meetup group or alternate UG for PHP, webdevelopment, Java, Ruby/Rails, etc. etc.

For a while I was thinking that perhaps we needed to use alternate media (like Meetup etc) to get the word out about the group, but I've come to think that is not the issue...instead I think we need to;

 
1. decide what the group's mission statement/objective is.(and get it on
   the website)  
2. Identify areas that we'd all like to learn more about ourselves. (and
   get it on the website ...maybe add polling functionality to vote for upcoming meetings as a way to measure interest.)  
3. based on that, try to get an agenda of possible talks well into the
   future to allow people to work on things they might want to present on, but need the time to develop (lugod has a list well into the future).(and get it on the website...yes broken record)

I'm starting to feel like Kevin Costner in "A field of dreams" .....build it (a better website and meeting agenda) and they will come....

So to get the ball rolling, I'm going to list some things I'd be interested in at my "knowledge level" and time level. Sometimes, I don't have the time to dig into these things as much as I'd like. Many of you guys know this stuff inside and out, and many of these things have been presented in the past, but here goes....

System Administration (Basic and beyond):

 
• I saw an article on Ubuntu stating that it has many security
  vulnerabilites. If so, what are they and can I make it safe for a home/company server?  
• I've seen that Ubuntu doesn't use the old (SystemV) etc/init.d and
  run levels, but some new alternate and also handles devices in a new way. So how do I add my xyz as a service etc.  
• I spent a lot of time getting a cronjob set up that would dump my
  wiki mysql and wordpress databases and archive them to a NAS drive. So basic system backups and archiving and homebuild and opensource systems to do this are of interest to me.  
• Kernal building 101 for non-system programmers ; ) I saw Gary
  mention this.  
• Certification: What is covered...who should get it, traiing etc.
  

Network Admininstration:

 
• Basic home network security. I recently saw that my Windows XP
  firewall is dropping requests from an outside IP....how does traffic get to my PC when I have a stateful packet inspection firewall? I've also set up multiple router/firewalls in a relative's home to alleviate their concern about wireless traffic getting to their work pc on their home system. How are folks meeting some of these challenges.  
  
   
  • Basic Intrusion Detection. How do I monitor network traffic (via
    logs etc) to see who's getting where in my system. Does anyone have scripts to query their router to see if new (too many) IPs have been given out? Is there a better way to determine if an unauthorized system is on your network?  
  
   
• Home Media Systems: I use Beyond TV, and many use Myth TV. Beyond
  works great, and having this setup allows me to watch my netflix on the TV, etc. but Windows isn't stable and I'd appreciate hearing what others are doing to handle music, hdtv, pictures, etc.  
  
   
  • Remote Administration tools for non-linux boxes.
     
  
  

Web Development:

 
• Programming; The local groups for Java and Ruby on Rails are
  great, but they are professional developers, and I'm a newbie. Who is doing what in Java, Ruby, other languages. I could do some Newbie Rails stuff.  
  
   
  • Web 2.0: I've just discovered Jquery and would be willing to give
    an overview from a non-webdeveloper/beginner perspective.  
  • Databases. With Oracle possibly acquiring SUN what does this mean
    for MySQL. Is anyone doing advanced MySQL or Postgres, of have new alternatives they like. How about database maintenance, backups, replication, etc. How do the open source systems fair for growing businesses.  
  
   
• Mobile Development: What's required to develop for an Iphone or
  Android (Linus...?)  
• Content Management Systems: Our ongoing discussion about the
  SACLUG website illustrates this. I'm using Wordpress as a basic CMS. Who's doing what with Drupal, Liferay, etc. etc.

If you got this far...thanks.

Ed

Gary's Thoughts

Right now, every page is a wiki and I used to sync the list with the wiki access so that everyone on the list could update any page except the home page and archives. But I can't pull a list of list members anymore. I'll gladly give any list member this kind of access if they ask. It's only if you want to change the framework code that we'll have to talk.)

Yes, it (changing the framework code) has been mentioned in the past. But, no one ever has gotten in touch with me. I like the wiki idea myself, but I'll go with the flow, if someone else does the maintenance.

Yes, if you absolutly can't set up a server on your laptop or don't have access to a server to demo the new page, I'll get you a work space on the existing server (this can also make collaboration easier), but I'll have to have a little time to set up some security, since I use the server for other things. Again, just let me know and I'll give this activity more priority.

If you have a better page, and the group likes it, all we have to do is point the DNS to your server (or make a minor change to the current server). I don't think coordination is a big issue.

The issue we had the last time we moved the site was that I was asked to move the existing site between two servers that I didn't have all the access to that I would have liked. We were moving from a Sun server to a Linux server. Some things just didn't move and I didn't know how to deal with it at the time. I didn't have time to learn all of the different technologies the site was using, so I picked a subset, perl, and used that. The group didn't like my plans for the list, so the list moved to a separate server at that time.

But, if you are doing a new site, and the list is a separate issue, things are pretty straightforward.

By the way, dealing with the site and coordinating the meetings has been an excellent way to learn things. Don't feel like you have to be an expert in everything, there is help available if you want to put in the effort.

-Gary

Revision: 1.12. Last modified: 2010/01/03 07:16:54.
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