[FreeGeek] free geek chicago

[ifny]

but i thought the whole point of FG-V was to overwhelm the public with
aptgetanarchy? damn...well iʻll try to self-censor then, til the
revolution at least ;)

if people havenʻt done so lately, they should take a boo at
http://freegeekvancouver.org
couple new surprises (including davidʻs report from the PDX trenches!).

scott, david, i hear your points. yes, we need a place to be with each
other, communications-wise & also keeping up to date, especially for
those who are busy but want to stay involved, or those who are just
coming on board.

however to my mind itʻs essential that we continually keep engagement
in mind, our public face. the more buzz we get, the more volunteers we
get, & the more connections & resources, donations will come our way.
very soon weʻre going to need people, hey, we already do! the more the
merrier, & i think itʻs never to early to attract ʻem.

iʻve been kind of pondering how to make the site multipurpose. i donʻt
wanna speak for scott, but my own focus on the site has been FG-V
news/community oriented, as well as giving a sense of momentum,
encouraging people to participate, giving them ways to find info & get
up to speed. oh, & making it slick, making the formatting consistent.
now thereʻs enough there to pull people into communications loops,
FG-V infrastructure.

kirsten, i very much appreciate what you said about chicago. not
because i agree with you (which i of course do), but because you have
a fresh perspective, & thatʻs really helpful at this point. we need to
be user-friendly in all aspects, at all times, starting now. iʻd be
interested to hear what you think of the freegeekvancouver site, &
everyone else too. scottʻs put a wishlist up on the wiki if anyone has
suggestions:

http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Vancouver%2C_BC%2C_Canada

so for example, a splash page, or initial simple directory could be a
way to be welcoming. (please note: i can fiddle my way through drupal
but i canʻt write html or code anything else for that matter, so if we
end up deciding to pursue this, perhaps someone can volunteer to help
develop it? if no one has the time/ability combo, iʻm sure we will
attract that person soon enough.).

iʻm comfortable enough with the siteʻs content to direct media/govt
there. weʻre almost there i think, esp since we are able to generate a
lot of our own buzz. in fact itʻs already happening -- david came on
my biker radio show last week, just to say hi. there was call-in
interest & the station tech guy emailed me later wanting to volunteer
-- iʻve never met him btw.

all sorts of people are trickling into the site & that will increase
over the next several months, from prospective landlords, to
donors/corporations, to reporters, to nonprofits with charitable tax
status we may want to partner with, to city bureaucrats...you get my
drift. sorry to lay it on so thick! :P

iʻd like to see us coordinating outreach with our other activities.
having a regular weekly meet-up, as scott suggested on irc, is a great
idea. it will give us a way to get business done, as well as allowing
the public to come down & ʻmeet the creature.ʻ maybe we can find a
night of the week that is good for everyone?

also, though, having a regular weekly build/tutorial/teach-in night
where people can come to a place & learn, or peer-teach, or learn how
to teach, could start immediately. cutting our teeth as it were,
refining our process, troubleshooting. & those early learners will
become strong volunteers when we need them! if you look at what
happened to FGPDX, they got to a certain level where adoptions took
off & they couldnʻt keep up. that will be us. we need to plant seeds
with volunteers *now*.

space is available should we want it for a teach-in night at the
purple thistle http://purplethistle.ca (clark & venables). we could
probably keep a couple linux machines there permanently. it would be
neat to combine that with the weekly bike teach-ins they have. nice
crossover.

we donʻt have to wait to have our own space to be free geek. we
already are free geek! the sooner we start unleashing unicorns &
rainbows on the world the better.

one of the strengths of full transparency is that we donʻt have to
present a polished face. we just have to be strategic, resourceful,
ernest. & get on with business. the things we undertake, we should try
to do well. i see time refining the public website & a teach-in night
as an investment in FGʻs future.

as a side note, i understand that others are perhaps not as confident
in transparency (read: going off half-cocked) as i am :) iʻm a person
who flies by the seat of her pants naturally...

...but one thing i would argue in the capitol: how immensely
transparency empowers, how immediately.  and how powerfully its
harbinger draws people in. it makes people bold to see that perfection
is not expected, that everyoneʻs doing the best they can, workin shizz
out.

thatʻs my $220. sorry to be so wordy!


ifny







On 11/14/06, agent humble <humble at resist.ca> wrote:
> Good call - I agree. However I see an evolution to a site like Chicago's
> coinciding with getting more in place and that would see our current site
> become more of an internal site (FreeGeekHQ?). Right now it's our face to the
> public but the public hasn't heard of us so it's really just our face to
> ourselves and is about generating excitement and helping keep us all with the
> program.
>
> When we go to launch our depot and storefront we will want to move to
> something like Chicago's site so that the public, just hearing about us for
> the first time and coming to check us out, doesn't get overwhelmed with
> definition's of open source and aptgetanarchy feeds, etc. ;-).
>
> ~s
>
> On Tuesday 14 November 2006 8:41 am, Kristen Miedema wrote:
> > for someone who is not terrible familiar with free geek (yet... i have been
> > doing a lot of reading)
> > i found the chicago web site great!  Easy to get around, full of
> > information, yet to the point.
> >
> > kristen.
> _______________________________________________
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> 'Helping the needy get nerdy since the beginning of the 3rd millennium'
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>