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[LUG] Report on AFFS annual conference and AGM



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Hi,

by request a quick "what I did on my holiday" ;-)

 System Stuff

Drove up to Aston University Saturday 17th May, it is kind of easy to
get to as you drive up to the M6, and take the A38M into Aston (train is
also easy). Had a bit of a "senior moment" with the entrance barriers,
and made the mistake of not taking the lift, but was eventually met and
offered a coffee by Mark Ray, as Jason Clifford was just getting started
on "Running an ISP with Free Software".

Jason is a Linux veteran, and has set up at least three ISPs to my
knowledge, the talk was on ukfsn.org, from which profits will go to Free
Software (to be distributed by AFFS). Some interesting discussion on
choice of POP3 server, but other than that nothing Theo hadn't covered
in his speech at the University. Free software is cheap, flexible and
reliable, and you don't have to rely on vendors to send you security
patches to critical components.

Next in the "System" section ws a discussion of LVM2 module just going
into 2.5 kernel by Alasdair Kergon. All the features you'd expect from
modern LVM, including online reallocation of disk space to mounted
filesystems. Some useful tips on testing stuff on snapshots. Note the
command line will be greatly simplified and the format of command output
is more flexible, presumably to make it easier to author GUI's and
automatic management systems on top of the LVM2 module.

 Sound Stuff

Two speakers on Linux sound systems followed, Bob Ham described the new
Linux sound architecture, and how JACK will provide glue between many
audio applications in future, providing better support for professional
quality audio tools than OSS. Richard Brown was discussing the
Rosegarden software for sequencing, omposing, ad mixing music. Call me a
luddite, but I'd have prefered more sound and less "Star Impress". Still
it was interesting to hear <no pun intended> how they are supporting the
Rosegarten project. Both speakers seemed to see prebuilt Digital Sound
Workstations as the obvious way to market.

 Education Stuff

The Education session kicked of with Kevin Donnelly explaining how the
project to localise Linux into Welsh has used a web interface to allow
many non-Linux users who are keen Welsh promoters to join in the effort
to produce a computer system that works in their own tongue. He
expressed an interest in producing a Welsh Knoppix CD.

Next John Adams discussed Moodle, and how they chose it to develop
OSAL.ORG. Moodle is a course management system. John expressed

The rest of the sessions were under "community". Ian Lynch gave an
interesting talk on anticompetitive practices and how the Office of fair
trading assess and pursue claims. His company registered a complaint
over the Microsoft Schools Agreement.

On patents we were encouraged to visit ffii.org, and speak to our MEPs
before June 18th.

 The AGM was fairly short, not least lacking a quorum to vote on key
issues, it was suggested we use electronic voting to ensure we have a
quorum for decision making.

I went over the talk I gave on Freeduc at St Peter's in the break of the
education session, and the value of the event was as much in meeting
people and the discussions as the excellent talks.

Alas I had to get back to Norwich and couldn't join the post meeting
socialising to continue the discussion.

The meeting was in a University lecture theatre, and the focus on a few
individual speakers discussing in some depth, was a similar format to
the day I organised at Exeter University, possibly even less structured.
I'll certainly consider organising some local meetings in a similar low
key fashion. As always some speakers stand out as better than others,
but all were enthusiastic for their topic, and even those with less
skill at presentation still came over very well as a result. Perhaps a
lesson for all those who have something to say, but aren't sure about
public speaking.

 Simon
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