Added #ldug to jaiku: http://jaiku.com/channel/ldug

Where is everybody? Especially those DFW users???

Texrat,
Hello! As you can see I am a newly registered user on these boards. As my user name suggests, though, I have been lurking for some months. I am a long-time casual Zaurus user, starting from the 5000d to the C3000. I've since moved on to a Sony UX, but am now awaiting an N810 to replace it. In case you are not already aware, oesf.org already has regional subforums for Zaurus user groups. With the exception of Europe, their groups never seemed to gain much ground. Still, it may be worth contacting their moderators to discuss what opportunities exist for collaboration.

I believe the greatest threat to the regional user group concept is the chicken-and-egg syndrome. If people do not see others signed up in their area, many will assume no other like minded users exist in their area or have any interest. Following this flawed logic makes it unlikely that the searching user will sign up for the regional group. And so the cycle continues.
Perhaps a solution would be to tweak the ITT forums profile "Where you live" field with a drop-down list of locales. Based on locale, and with the users' permission, "skeleton" regional user groups could then be formed. This may lead to users contacting each other and starting the process of forming the physical groups. I have no idea if the necessary features are even available with the vbulletin system, though.

And now I am seeing so many opportunities for geolocation tech that my head is spinning

Good idea-- post it in Reggie's suggestion area at the bottom! And thanks for the contact info.

I will keep nagging local users like rcadden to get onboard...

EDIT: actually, the oesf looks like it's designed to be EXACTLY (EDIT: oops, make that almost exactly) what ldug was, except that their scope is currently more limited. Maybe I'm unnecessarily reinventing the wheel. I need to definitely contact those guys.

Excellent idea Texrat. I very happy to see all the feedback and support you get on this challenge. I am very familiar with web servers and specially PHP/MySql. I own a N800, I am based in Europe and if I can be of any help I will be glad to participate.

Texrat,
Oooops.... I didn't mean to imply that you had free reign to change ITT . Of course the moderators would have to be involved in creating regional user group subforums. On second thought, though, perhaps that is not the best way to start this. A true mobile-Linux user group should be hosted on its own site, separate from but associated with existing device-specific forums such as OESF.org and ITT. Perhaps instead of its own forums, ldug.org could use community liaisons to coordinate meetings and events among all affiliated mobile-Linux enthusiast sites. LDUG could then be the portal where schedules and other relevant info would be posted.

Can I suggest you mention the FOX board? Its a neat little system board running linux with a 100MHz cpu and 100Tx and 2x USB1.1 ports. http://acmesystems.it/

I've been meaning to put my website on mine, but I keep getting distracted...

That's what I was thinking originally, LurkerN. Any forum on LDUG would be very, very limited in scope and not overlap with itT or any other except incidentally.

I think my ideas might had gotten a bit jumbled in my last post (3+ cups coffee). Feel free to run with these ideas, because that is what I am limited to at this point. I can't help much in any other way. I also feel that if you like the regional user group forums idea that you should contact Reggie. I think the idea would be better received coming from you.

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http://ldug.org/ does not currently redirect to http://www.ldug.org/, by the way.