An article on open source has been submitted to UL Today that's made the front page of the web site! The article is entitled Open Source: What It Is and Why You Should Care and is aimed primarily at those involved in academia. This is a great plug for open source in the local community, so be sure to check it out!
You may have noticed that there's now a new Slides section in the navigation at the top of the web site. We'll be requesting that speakers using slides for their presentations at meetings either post them online or provide them in electronic format so that they can be linked to from the Slides section of the web site for members to view and download.
Also, we're holding a contest to come up with a logo for the Acadiana Open Source Group. We're actively seeking suggestions for concepts or actual electronic images. You can find more information and further discuss the contest in this forum thread.
All Acadiana residents with an interest in open source technologies are
invited to attend the May 2008 meeting of the Acadiana Open Source Group on Thursday, May 29 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in conference room 101 of the Advanced Computer Technology and Research building on UL campus thanks to arrangements made by faculty of the Computer Science Department for us to use their facilities. Attendees may park in Zone 13. See this map for locations of both areas.
Frank Ducrest and Ryan Farnell will be doing a joint presentation on programming basics with the Alice and Ruby programming languages. Experienced programmers and those with no programming experience are encouraged to attend. Please remember to help to spread the word about the meeting to family, friends, classmates, and colleagues!
The April 2008 meeting of the Acadiana Open Source Group was a huge success! We filled the seats with a great crowd, everyone from high school students to retirees, newbies to seasoned developers and administrators. Several people were able to introduce projects in the works. A good time was had by all socializing with familiar faces and as well as new ones. Thanks to all who came out and to those that helped to organize the meeting and make it happen.
Anyone interested in having a particular topic presented or speaking on a particular topic are asked to post in the forums with their name, topic description, and availability so we can coordinate a speaker schedule. Please use the forums to advertise projects in which you are involved that are or use open source software. For contributing general information on open source software, please use the wiki.
The next meeting is likely to take place sometime during the last week of May. Please post any preference as to days or times of day to the forums. It has also been suggested that an event be held where individuals with experience installing various open source operating systems can bring laptops and perform installations for the benefit of other attendees. Suggestions on a date and venue for this are also welcome.
We look forward to seeing you all again at our next event!
UL Today, an unofficial web site for all news related to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has posted a full-length press release on the Acadiana Open Source User Group to spread the word to students, faculty, and alumni. Thanks go out to their staff for the incredible show of support. We look forward to seeing the university represented at the first Acadiana Open Source Group meeting.