[buug] BUUG (partial) history - blast from the past! ... and ... future!

Michael Paoli Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu
Sat Jan 15 01:29:36 PST 2022


BUUG (partial) history - blast from the past! ... and ... future!

HISTORY ...

Ah, bit of blast from the past.

So ... I first started attending BUUG in 2003.
I recall hearing that once-upon-a-time BUUG met weekly every Thursday.
I think that may be covered or at least partly covered in the list
archives.
http://buug.org/pipermail/buug/
Don't think I'd earlier (at least that I'd particularly recalled)
found or stumbled upon earlier (archived versions of) web page that
covered that, but ... not too long ago, did stumble across what
seemed to approximately be that:
http://buug.www4.50megs.com/
And that covers around 2000-08-30 - as far as I can tell BUUG
started 2000-01 - guestimating first meeting was 2000-01-13,
http://buug.org/pipermail/buug/2000-January/000001.html
but not sure.
Peeking over the old list archives a bit, as far as I can tell
that site
http://buug.www4.50megs.com/
wasn't so much "official" web page, but functioned more as a
staging site, to then be loaded into the earliest official page(s) -
but I may not have that fully correct - haven't exactly read through
all the available history (and it may not even cover that in full
detail).  Some other site(s) / may have referenced
http://buug.www4.50megs.com/
And as far as I'm aware, earliest (more?) "official" was started on:
http://weak.org/buug/
e.g.:
https://web.archive.org/web/20020124150616id_/http://weak.org/buug/
But I'm guestimating it was already active much earlier in 2000,
but archive.org hadn't picked it up until around 2002, and the
list predated any more general web content at
http://weak.org/buug/
at least as far as I'm aware.

And somewhere between 2000 and 2002 meetings changed from
every Thursday, with 4th Thursdays at
Transbay/UC Computers 2569 Telegraph Ave. with BAFUG
https://web.archive.org/web/20030206204919id_/http://www.bafug.org/
and other Thursdays at Au Coquelet Cafe, 2000 University Ave.
to, by not later than sometime in 2001, twice monthly,
on 1st & 3rd Thursdays.
And hence it pretty much remained ...

'till COVID-19 shelter-in-place.
And haven't done physical or virtual since,
and Au Coquelet Cafe also hasn't survived COVID-19.
And, while (not unlike many other LUG groups and the like)
earlier meetings, e.g. around 2000 to 2003 may have typically had
6 to 12 or more attendees, last decade or so meetings have typically
been 1 to 5 people, and occasionally up to about 8 or more.
So ... perhaps small enough anyway to consider reducing meeting
frequency?

FUTURE!(?)

So ... have had some discussions with some BerkeleyLUG.com folks.
Of course folks are always welcome to join, and meetings are
fairly active, and notably both local (Berkeley) - and also (at least
so far since fairly early in our current pandemic) also been available
virtually on-line.

Merge...ish?  I don't think there's any need or reason to do something
as radical as merge web sites or lists - both
BUUG.org and BerkeleyLUG.com each very much have their own histories,
memberships, past list communications, etc. - so I see no particular
need or reason to try and shove those together into some one unified
thing and possibly compromise or lose the individual identity of either.

Meetings however ... perhaps do something like was done with the
Berkeley Ubuntu Hour - as that became less active and lost most
activity of the persons that had been driving that.  Basically set
up a dedicated time within BerkeleyLUG.com meetings specifically
to encourage and invite folks from Berkeley Ubuntu Hour,
and that, as for meetings of "Berkeley Ubuntu Hour" going forward,
that would be it - meet along with BerkeleyLUG.com - with
specifically designated days/times within BerkeleyLUG.com's meetings.

BerkeleyLUG.com, however, doesn't have Thursday evening meetings,
or any Thursday meeting.  Perhaps that might change at some point,
but presently the meetings are on Sundays ... but not all
Sundays.  There are 3 meetings per month of BerkeleyLUG.com,
2nd & 4th Sundays are BerkeleyLUG.com, and 3rd Sundays are
Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com - a SIG of BerkeleyLUG.com.
Perhaps a time (e.g. 2 hrs. thereof, as BUUG has been, as far as
I'm aware, always had 2 hr. meetings) within ... or maybe the
whole meeting (as BUUG has thus far had 2 scheduled meetings per
month).  But attendance of BUUG having been rather to quite
light in more recent years or so, maybe 2 hrs./month is quite
sufficient ... and it's not like we'd be tossing BUUG folks out
at the end of the 2nd hour.  Anyway, just thinking perhaps
the Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com SIG meetings might be a slightly
better fit for BUUG folks?  As Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com, though
mostly Linux, isn't exclusively Linux (rather quite like BUUG in that
regard).  Whereas the main BerkeleyLUG.com meetings are more
specifically Linux.  Maybe Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com could be the meetings for
other local Linux-ish meeting refugees ... such as
Berkeley Ubuntu Hour (though it has a different slot presently)
and perhaps too, BUUG.

Anyway ... thoughts?
Feel free to also talk about it at any of the
BerkeleyLUG.com or Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com meetings or on the
BerkeleyLUG.com list (Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com doesn't have a
separate list - convention is to include the string Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com
in the Subject: header for list postings that are more specifically
relevant to Pi.BerkeleyLUG.com),
and of course on BUUG's list.

https://berkeleylug.com/
https://berkeleylug.com/meetings/
https://pi.berkeleylug.com/
https://berkeleylug.com/googlegroup/




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