Would it hurt to get more participation in FOSS.in? Would it kill if
we gave PNATAUs (people not as technical as "us", which doesn't
include *me*) the idea that the FOSS/FLOSS movement has space for them
too?

I've been attending (and organising) LUG meetings almost religiously
in Goa for six years now. Yet, each time I visit Bangalore, I would
(in between picking up interesting stories) love to be able to tune
into a track where I could learn something at my level, rather than
just feel like someone suffering a mental handicap because technology
per se isn't my cup of tea.

Is it our assumption that *the community* needs to be made up *only*
of uber-geeks? What is the message that might be going out,
unwittingly? Can't others contribute too? And won't today's newbie in
any case become tomorrow's geek (except in a few cases of people who
don't want to, or can't become ... like me!)

Is it a question of logistics, such as lack of space or costs? In
which case it is somewhat understandable. Otherwise, I really feel we
are losing out on a crucial audience. My own belief is: don't exclude
anyone, you never quite know what they're capable of tomorrow!

If someone had to tell me that I would be writing on FLOSS/FOSS when I
first visited Linux Bangalore in 1999 or 2001 or whatever, I wouldn't
have believed them myself! But then, life happens....FN

--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
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