IRC20130618

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[19:30:22] <skellat> Okay, I call the clock as 7:30 PM

[19:30:31] <skellat> Are we ready for tonight's meeting?

[19:30:50] * drkokandy is present and ready

[19:30:58] <skellat> Raise your hand if you are attending tonight's meeting

[19:31:07] <skellat> o/

[19:31:21] <drkokandy> o/

[19:32:34] <skellat> Alrighty. Since there is no set requirement for quorum in Ubuntu Ohio we can begin and people can join in as they find they are able.

[19:32:42] <skellat> Good evening friends and welcome to the June 2013 business meeting for Ubuntu Ohio.

[19:32:49] <skellat> It will be very handy to have the slide deck either open or printed out so you can follow along in tonight's proceedings. You can reach the slides on slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/alpacaherder/ohio-lo-co-june-2013-business-meeting

[19:32:51] <jenni> [ Ubuntu Ohio June 2013 Business Meeting ] - http://j.mp/ZZ7nsy

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[19:32:58] <skellat> Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, was invited to tonight's proceedings but had to pass on the invitation. I note from the outset that I am adding an item under "Any Other Business" relative to the story today in Ars Technica concerning the new Carrier Advisory Group for Ubuntu Phone. SEE: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/ubuntu-phone-os-has-eight-carriers-signed-on-to-boost-development/

[19:32:59] <jenni> [ Ubuntu phone OS has eight carriers signed on to boost development | Ars Technica ] - http://j.mp/14IJAyw

[19:33:10] <skellat> Other items may be raised during "Any Other Business"

[19:33:45] <skellat> As we note from the second slide, not everything is covered in the slides and channel has to be watched too

[19:34:03] <skellat> For example, the Carrier Advisory Group matter only came up this morning.

[19:34:14] <skellat> Okay, we're moving to Item #1 -- Appointment of Deputy

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[19:34:32] <skellat> As noted in the slide, I cannot sign the contract for the table for Ohio Linux Fest 2013

[19:34:45] <skellat> Simply put I am coming up on the one year anniversary of starting unemployment

[19:35:02] <skellat> The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is taking an active hand now directing me to apply for jobs

[19:35:26] <skellat> Since I'm not exactly sure where I'll be in September...I'd feel more comfortable having somebody else sign the contract in my stead

[19:35:57] <skellat> Unless drkokandy wants to take this up, this may need to be bound over to the mailing list for further consideration

[19:36:24] <skellat> What discussion do we have for this?

[19:37:14] <drkokandy> I think it would be good to take this to the mailing list, because I'm not sure whether I'll be available for Ohio Linux Fest either, and I would prefer to look at the contract before anything

[19:37:28] <skellat> Yeah

[19:37:31] <drkokandy> is that something that can be shared with the group?

[19:37:54] <skellat> The call can be. The mailing list doesn't accept attachments. I could throw it in my Ubuntu One storage space, though.

[19:38:53] <skellat> Okay, the matter will be bound over to the mailing list for further action that may or may not occur

[19:38:54] <drkokandy> then that should work Smile :-) I'm hoping to be at Ohio Linux Fest, but before that I'd want to know what I'm agreeing to

[19:39:25] <paultag> OLF!

[19:39:29] <skellat> drkokandy: It works. I've got the contract text here. I'll throw it in my U1 space tonight and send an e-mail later.

[19:40:13] <skellat> Just got an e-mail from John Sullivan at FSF saying I wasn't selected for a position I applied for there...but I have had stuff like that happening for over 40 weeks now.

[19:40:45] <skellat> Okay, moving on to Item #2 -- Further Explanation of Membership Shepherding Program

[19:41:01] <skellat> The slides say a bit about this.

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[19:41:17] <skellat> In major part, Ohio has some fairly active members

[19:41:34] <skellat> After all, jrgifford undertakes leadership with AskUbuntu

[19:41:43] <skellat> Unit193 does great work helping with the work of IRC

[19:42:06] <skellat> jacob works on things for forums

[19:42:28] <skellat> The key thing we need to have is for that to grow

[19:43:09] <skellat> If we were able to hit 10+ Ubuntu Members, I would feel very comfortable then calling for elections for a new Council to replace me

[19:43:28] <paultag> have we ever hit 10+ Ubuntu members?

[19:43:35] <skellat> No

[19:43:41] <skellat> Not according to the script Unit193 made for me

[19:43:50] <Unit193> I didn't exactly make it.

[19:44:03] <skellat> Unit193: The one you sent me

[19:44:31] <Unit193> I know which one. :P

[19:44:39] <skellat> Right now, in terms of number of Ubuntu Members, we're on par with Michigan while most neighboring states have lower numbers or have none.

[19:45:14] <paultag> Ohio was one of the most Ubuntu member packed for a long time.

[19:45:22] <Unit193> So in fairly good standing.

[19:45:22] <paultag> Might have been #1 in the US for a while.

[19:45:34] <skellat> paultag: US-wide the score is a little over 150

[19:45:45] <paultag> So, not #1

[19:46:06] <skellat> No, that's the total number of Ubuntu Members who also are members of US Teams project

[19:47:14] <skellat> Planet-wide, Ubuntu Members holds at 769 members

[19:47:54] <skellat> The recently announced membership certificate is a new facet to the matter where Mark Shuttleworth will be signing and sending out certificates to new members.

[19:48:28] <jrgifford> skellat: indeed, I do.

[19:49:11] <skellat> For us in terms of members, we still hold at 6 with the biggest concentration on an arc running from Mansfield to Cleveland to Ashtabula.

[19:49:33] <jrgifford> Interesting on the arc

[19:49:40] <skellat> Yeah

[19:49:55] <paultag> sounds like that just matches population roughly

[19:50:01] <paultag> cbus has one, right?

[19:50:06] <paultag> (and chase left the state, right?)

[19:50:15] <skellat> Columbus has jacob

[19:50:18] <skellat> Chase is gone

[19:50:26] <paultag> and gilbert ?

[19:50:31] <paultag> Oh, he's not an Ubuntu'er.

[19:50:34] <paultag> Wat.

[19:50:36] <skellat> Exactly

[19:51:15] <skellat> If there is anybody you know who you would like to help move along to Membership, in any of its various forms, speak up and encourage them

[19:51:29] <skellat> Membership shows continuing participation within Ubuntu

[19:51:40] <Unit193> (In theory)

[19:51:47] <skellat> Unit193: Indeed

[19:52:03] <skellat> For boosting activity, it is one road we can try to go down

[19:52:37] <skellat> There were a few discussions at the last vUDS about boosting participation...this is the only idea out there and I'm the one trying it out

[19:52:51] * skellat can be blamed for making the proposal in the first place

[19:53:13] <skellat> This is mostly an advisory portion to keep in mind

[19:53:22] <skellat> Encourage others to get involved

[19:53:28] <skellat> Encouragement is hard to do

[19:53:34] <skellat> But we gotta try

[19:53:55] <skellat> Is there any further discussion for Item #2?

[19:54:12] <jrgifford> skellat: hence why I'm recommending those who installed Ubuntu at our lug meeting join the loco

[19:54:21] <skellat> \o/

[19:54:30] <Unit193> jrgifford: How's the LUG going?

[19:54:58] <jrgifford> Unit193: it's OK. I need to push it more, need another presenter than myself

[19:55:32] <skellat> jrgifford: If these gas prices come down a little I may be able to sneak down to Cuyahoga County in a couple weeks

[19:56:36] <jrgifford> skellat: let me know, I'll be around. Smile :)

[19:56:44] <skellat> Okay

[19:56:50] <skellat> Anything else for Item #2?

[19:57:23] <skellat> Okay, moving on to Item #3

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[19:57:30] <skellat> Communications

[19:57:33] <jrgifford> Anyway, my apologies for being late and slow, I've had a busy day in general.

[19:57:39] <jrgifford> Yay! Communicating!

[19:57:40] <skellat> jrgifford: It is okay

[19:58:02] <skellat> We've got a little under half of the LoCo actually receiving mailing list posts

[19:58:08] <skellat> The forum is pretty much dead

[19:58:21] <skellat> The test discourse instance isn't approaching production status yet

[19:58:25] <jrgifford> So, the thought is the mailing list is silent, and other than like, 4-5 of us + paultag, nobody on irc.

[19:58:32] <jenni> oh baby

[19:58:42] <skellat> This is the most I've seen idling in IRC for a while

[19:58:42] <jrgifford> skellat: but I know jcastro, he's pushing it.

[19:59:16] <jrgifford> Nathan Osman is also pushing forward in the discourse stuff, as is marcoceppi. They'll have it running soon. Smile :)

[19:59:22] <skellat> Yeah

[19:59:57] <jrgifford> In some respects, shoving it down people's throats. Wink ;)

[20:00:15] * paultag o.O

[20:00:23] <skellat> The thing to ponder as we continue June is reaching out to others who may be out of reach or who we might not have heard from recently such as jandrusk

[20:01:37] <skellat> Folks who have cut all electronic communications ties should still be made welcome and should be encouraged to re-engage

[20:02:09] <skellat> Though I do seem to trigger plenty of deactivations every time I send a "Contact Team" e-mail :-\

[20:02:38] <Unit193> Yeah, that one is a bit more annoying than something on the mailing list.

[20:02:57] <skellat> Yeah

[20:03:30] <skellat> Somehow we have 420+ members and that's the only way to reach all of them

[20:03:50] <skellat> From my end in Ashtabula all I can do is cajole, suggest, prod, and ask to welcome others around the state and ask why they've disengaged

[20:04:05] <skellat> I'm not prepared to go as far as Jono Bacon and post my cell phone number openly for people to call to talk to

[20:04:16] <skellat> But

[20:04:21] <skellat> I am fairly reachable

[20:04:55] <skellat> And if you need second-tier/back-end help reaching out to others I'll do what I can

[20:05:05] <skellat> Do we have any other discussion for Item #3

[20:05:06] <skellat> ?

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[20:06:29] <skellat> Nothing being heard, we move on to Item #4 -- Any Other Business where we start off with that phone call I had with Jono Bacon earlier today

[20:06:58] <skellat> Jono and I talked about the Ars Technica article I linked at the beginning of the meeting where the Carrier Advisory Group was announced for the Ubuntu Phone project

[20:07:11] <skellat> Some folks noted on Google Plus that US carriers were conspicuously absent

[20:07:32] <skellat> For the time being, nothing is blocking them from joining if they choose on their own initiative

[20:08:30] <skellat> At this stage in the development of Ubuntu Phone, it looks like what will be ready by October will class more as a "Feature Phone" instead of a "Smartphone" in terms of what will ship. This is akin to having something ship with Symbian S40 instead of iOS.

[20:09:03] <skellat> The approach being taken is to pursue "emerging markets" in lieu of trying to start in the United States.

[20:09:26] <skellat> From a business perspective, it makes far more sense to pursue markets other than the United States and Canada first.

[20:09:54] <skellat> Essentially, based upon my experience selling wireless devices, it should be remembered that nobody else on this planet we share sells cell phones the way we do in the United States and Canada

[20:10:50] <skellat> The way we do it is a distinctly minority business model compared to the planet at-large. Heck, GSM is the dominant global standard while CDMA is something peculiar to the US & Canada as well as 31 smaller jurisdictions.

[20:11:17] <skellat> So, at the macro level...the time has not come yet for us to see consumer-level roll out of Ubuntu Phone in the US

[20:11:24] <skellat> It is coming

[20:11:31] <skellat> But it isn't our time yet

[20:11:54] <skellat> Okay, that sums up my discussion with Jono. What do you all think?

[20:13:53] <skellat> Going once...

[20:13:59] <drkokandy> not surprising that it's not coming to the US first

[20:15:05] <jrgifford> skellat: unrelated note going back to the previous item: if you want a SIP line that acts like a phone, I can get you one easily enough.

[20:15:14] <skellat> jrgifford: Not yet

[20:15:31] <jrgifford> skellat: its like, $5/month. Just let me know. Smile :)

[20:16:06] <skellat> As I said to Mr. Bacon when we talked earlier, I'm willing to wait to pay for a phone. If a GSM version is ready for the US market I may just bypass a subsidy contract and try to buy one outright.

[20:17:27] <skellat> Okay. Is there any other discussion on the Ubuntu Phone item? Is there any other business to come before the meeting tonight?

[20:17:39] <Unit193> I'm not interested in it at all, I don't have an electric slave driver right now, but Android or Mozilla look more interesting right now anyway.

[20:17:55] <jrgifford> I've played with the phone preview on my nexus 7.

[20:18:09] <jrgifford> Haven't tried on the phone, I rely on it too much.

[20:18:19] <jrgifford> Overall, it needs work, but its not bad.

[20:18:54] <jrgifford> Battery life is much better, at least on the tablet

[20:19:09] <skellat> I had an HTC Thunderbolt for 30 days and dumped Android plus the phone as I just got annoyed with it. The touch screen really annoyed me. My aunt's iPhone has an easier touch screen to use.

[20:19:31] <jrgifford> Probably because it doesn't have push notifications yet.

[20:20:21] <skellat> Perhaps

[20:20:38] <skellat> Is there any other business to come before the meeting tonight?

[20:20:42] <jrgifford> Anyway, that's what I've got on the subject.

[20:21:02] <jrgifford> None here

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[20:21:34] <skellat> Item #5 -- Fix The Date For The Next Meeting. What is our pleasure for a date in July to hold our next meeting?

[20:23:03] <skellat> My calendar remains clear since I remain unemployed and one layer or another of the Department of Job & Family Services has blocked my attempt at going back to school. I could have started in a master's program with Ashland but that is blocked at this time.

[20:24:06] <skellat> Four weeks from today will put us at July 16th

[20:24:19] <jrgifford> I've got the third week of July booked period, but other than that I can do what ever

[20:24:32] <jrgifford> The 16th looks good

[20:24:43] <skellat> Unit193, drkokandy: How say you?

[20:25:32] <drkokandy> I might be a little distracted, but I can be here

[20:25:46] <skellat> Okay

[20:25:48] <Unit193> We'll see.

[20:26:08] <skellat> I'll mark it as tentative and send out a Doodle poll when we get closer.

[20:26:17] <skellat> Item #6 -- Potpourri

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[20:26:25] <skellat> Bad weather happens at this time of year

[20:26:40] <skellat> Cleveland-area television went wall-to-wall with tornado coverage not that long ago

[20:27:06] <skellat> If you're interested in watching Ohio weather warnings and alerts you can join ##weather-us-oh to see such on IRC

[20:27:25] <skellat> NOAA Weather Radio is a nice non-Internet way to keep track of such too: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/

[20:27:27] <jenni> [ NOAA Weather Radio ] - http://j.mp/12TYwfw

[20:27:45] <skellat> And there is a FAQ about that taxpayer-paid service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/faq.htm

[20:27:46] <jenni> [ NOAA Weather Radio ] - http://j.mp/12TYxjD

[20:28:07] <skellat> FEMA has a guide up with disaster assistance materials specifically for Ohio: http://www.fema.gov/states/ohio

[20:28:08] <jenni> [ Ohio | FEMA.gov ] - http://j.mp/12TYB2O

[20:28:38] <skellat> There is the citizen's awareness to disaster assistance course that you can pursue at your own pace: http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/courseOverview.aspx?code=IS-7

[20:28:40] <jenni> [ IS-7: A Citizen's Guide to Disaster Assistance | FEMA - Emergency Management Institute (EMI) Course ] - http://j.mp/12TYCUl

[20:29:09] <skellat> And we're looking at Lightning Awareness Week coming up next week here in the state of Ohio: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/severeweather/severewxcal.shtml

[20:29:10] <jenni> [ Severe Weather Events Calendar ] - http://j.mp/12TYEf4

[20:29:23] <skellat> Ars Technica had a recent story about one of their editors being struck by lightning

[20:29:27] <skellat> It did bad things to him

[20:29:33] <skellat> Imagine what it can do to your computer

[20:29:40] <skellat> And remember, lightning damage is OS-agnostic

[20:29:54] <Unit193> That's why I took mine off the roof!

[20:29:58] <skellat> Smile :-)

[20:30:13] <paultag> skellat: twice, actually!

[20:30:32] <skellat> Thank you for attending the June 2013 Business Meeting. The log will be posted later tonight to the wiki and announced not only on the mailing list but also Planet Ubuntu.

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OhioTeam/Meetings/IRC20130618 (last edited 2014-08-17 23:24:08 by belkinsa)