[oclug] Selling out?

[Dave O'Neill]

On Fri, May 07, 2004 at 01:47:28PM +0100, Mark Harrison wrote:
> I would be shocked if a LUG was seen as anti-business. 

I don't think a LUG should be either anti- or pro-business.  A LUG
should definitely be anti-salespitch, though.

> Certainly our local LUG (Sussex, England) regularly has speakers from
> for-profit companies talking. I spoke there last week... OK, I was
> primarily talking about the OpenSource products that we had released,
> rather than asking people to buy our consultancy services, but I
> certainly WAS allowed a 2-minute "promo talk" to explain how we as a
> company made money out of Open Source.

This is exactly how it should (and does, in most cases) work at OCLUG
meetings.  For example, I'd never consider giving OCLUG a talk about the
product I work on, but I would definitely be interested in giving one
about its Open Source underpinnings.

> Likewise, our LUG is seen as a forum where business can come to find
> out about Linux - it isn't for home users only, and frankly,
> businesses like to talk to businesses, as potential suppliers /
> consultants / service providers. (Even if those suppliers /
> consultants / services providers are one-person companies operating
> out of the founder's spare bedroom.)

Exactly, but those sort of networking conversations are quite different
from a typical 'sit down, shut up, and listen' vendor presentation.  

Cheers,
Dave