🚀 go-pugleaf

In <chris.700705144@suite.sw.oz.au> chris@suite.sw.oz.au (Chris Maltby) writes:

>In <1992Mar13.040211.11451@DIALix.oz.au> abcc@DIALix.oz.au (Adrian Booth Computing Consultants) writes:

>>What you *should* do is print it out and snail mail it. If the committee
>>is acting responsibly there is no way it can ignore a physical letter

>You would be wrong to believe that the AUUG committee doesn't know
>about these concerns or that it is deliberately ignoring them.

I wasn't trying to imply that the committee was *not* acting responsibly.
All I meant was that - as has been pointed out to me by another AUUG
committee member - the committee is under no "real" obligation to
read network news, respond to it, or include it in its discussions
at committee meetings. If someone wants to be sure that their specific
concerns (or slurs) reach the whole committee, they should send a letter.

>That doesn't mean you can't be nostalgic about the great old
>conferences where Robert Elz talked about tty drivers, but UNIX is
>now so mainstream (read boring) that these papers are being presented
>somewhere else. Also remember that in those days there was real
>development work for UNIX going on in Australia; how many Universities
>in OZ are working on operating systems now? Where is our Mach,
>Andrew, bsd4.4 etc etc? USENIX holds intensely technical conferences
>still (they're great to attend) and people from Berkeley, CMU, MIT etc
>and the vendors give these sort of papers - clever country?

Let me get this straight. AUUG can't provide decent technical information
because their isn't any decent technical work being done in Australia.
If I want technical information, I should be a member of USENIX.
OK, I am a member of USENIX. I wish I could afford to buy all of their
conference proceedings. But my point has been - if I have to join USENIX
to get interesting technical information, *why should I (re)join AUUG*?

>So, returning to the point of the posting above (and ignoring the
>usual slurs), AUUG finds itself in a difficult position. It isn't a
>large organisation (though it is large enough to split :-(), and it's
>not too remote from its members. The committee doesn't ignore members
>who have suggestions and the energy to do something with them.

If my "slurs" are "usual" (and no slur was intended), maybe AUUG should
be trying to correct the "usual" perception of AUUG that leads to them.

>The committee has been trying for a long time (with mixed success)
>to retain a strong technical flavour and at the same time encourage
>the commercial people.  We are hampered in this by almost complete
>apathy from the membership - the most motivated are the commercial
...
>As always, occasional bursts of cheap criticism
>and long periods of drowzy silence.

Interpreting your comments as "you only get out what you put in", I agree
entirely. Unfortunately, without many technical or management skills,
the only way I can think of for me to directly contribute is to write
semi-technical articles for AUUGN. (I already write much of WAUG's
newsletter (YAUN)). Until now, however, AUUGN has been too much of a joke
to really justify the effort that would go into writing for it.
I now intend (and intended far before these discussions) to write several 
articles for each AUUGN (probably reprints of those I write for YAUN). 
Perhaps my comments won't seem "cheap" after I do start contributing 
something in this fashion.

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 | Adrian Booth					|	                  |
 | Adrian Booth Computing Consultants		|	Ph: (09) 385 1003 |
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 | AUSTRALIA                                    |                         |
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