490 lines
22 KiB
XML
490 lines
22 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
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<chapter>
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<title>The Role of the Community</title>
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<section>
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>A very important asset of free software is the free software
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community. Just like with any technology or concept, free software has
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adepts that defend and promote free software to great extend. The free
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software community itself is very vivid and eager to help others in
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exploring the wonderful world of free software...</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Communities</title>
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<para>Free software communities are similar to real communities, but with
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the Internet as main communication channel. Hence, these communities
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aren't clustered in space like real life communities would, but are
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scattered throughout the world. Nevertheless, the Internet ensures that
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participants of a community, even when they are lightyears (figure of
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speech) apart, talk to each other the same way as neighbours do.</para>
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<para>The Internet is a great asset for these communities: you are not
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judged based on the color of your skin, your age or your looks. What
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matters is how you communicate with others, how you present yourself and
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how you react in discussions. Debates in a community can often become
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quite vivid, especially when the subject is one where facts aren't
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sufficient to provide good answers. And when these discussions change from
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debates into almost insulting fights, a flamewar<indexterm>
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<primary>flamewar</primary>
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</indexterm> is born.</para>
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<para>In flamewars, facts and reason are often far away. You should
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definitely try to avoid flamewars for discussions where decisions have to
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be made, but it is impossible to really prevent them as they are the
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result of people who have an active interest in a subject they are eager
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to defend, especially when there is no clear answer to the question that
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started the flamewar.</para>
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<para>Examples of such flamewars are ``What is the best Linux
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distribution?'' or ``What text editor should I choose?'' because these
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questions don't have clear answers: the best distribution for one person
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might be the worst for another, and there are many text editors around. In
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latin one would say ``de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum'' (one
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shouldn't argue about tastes and colors) and this is very true for these
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kind of questions.</para>
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<para>When you don't have a choice, flamewars don't exist: you cannot
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compare one product with itself. But in the free software world, choice is
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an important concept. You have the choice between many free operating
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systems (next to Linux you have many BSD flavors, Sun Solaris 10 and even
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less popular but promising operating systems like the GNU Hurd),
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distributions (there are over a hundred distributions around), graphical
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environments (not a single day goes by without battles about GNOME versus
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KDE), office suites, etc.</para>
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<para>An often debated subject is ``the best distribution'' and although
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this book might seem a bit biased on the subject the best answer I can
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give you is that there is no best distribution, at least not generally
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speaking. The meaning of the term ``best'' is judged by people who have
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personal preferences about their operating system. And many of these
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people defend their best distribution very vividly.</para>
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<para>Distribution communities are very active, mostly because they are
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quite large. The Gentoo community for instance is known for its
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responsiveness: the Gentoo chat channel is always alive (with more than
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800 participants at any time) as is its forum (with more than a thousand
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posts per day) and mailinglists. Of course, general flamewars on
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distributions are often on more neutral grounds, but heated discussions on
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other topics are a daily routine.</para>
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<para>For this reason, most communities have people who keep the
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discussions sane and prevent flamewars from growing too much. People who
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try to induce flamewars on the communication channels (called
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<emphasis>trolls</emphasis><indexterm>
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<primary>troll</primary>
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</indexterm>) are taken care of by these operators: channel operators
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can kick or even ban such people from the chat channel, mailinglist
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operators remove these people from the list and forum operators remove the
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profiles of these users. You can safely say these people are the police of
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the community.</para>
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<section>
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<title>Local Communities</title>
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<para>A specific type of community is one which is local in space. Such
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communities often organise meetings (conferences, talks, barbequeues,
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...) and offer help to people local to the location where the community
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is hosted.</para>
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<para>LUG<indexterm>
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<primary>LUG</primary>
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</indexterm>s (Linux User Group<indexterm>
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<primary>Linux User Group</primary>
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</indexterm>s) are succesful examples of such communities: these
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groups aggregate together, debating on the evolution in the Linux world
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and help others with Linux installations (Linux Install Fests<indexterm>
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<primary>Linux Install Fest</primary>
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</indexterm> are local meetings that offer help in deploying your
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favorite Linux distribution on your system). You might find a LUG very
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close by.</para>
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<para>Many LUGs offer various services to their users which is often
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unseen in communities for commercial software. Moreover, many LUGs offer
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these services free-of-charge:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>individual, on-site help with installation, configuration and
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maintenance of a Linux distribution or other free software</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>courses, talks and presentations offering you more insight in
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available Free Software</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>specific documentation tailored to the needs of its own
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users</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>If you have some time to spare, I really recommend to join a local
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LUG - even if you are not searching for help, you can still offer your
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own expertise to others and make connections (yes, social networking is
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important).</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Online Communities</title>
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<para>When people want to discuss a particular software topic or
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distribution, online communities are often formed. These communities do
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not (or to a less extend) organise meetings at a specific location
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(often called "in real life") but rather use the Internet as the meeting
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place ("online" meetings).</para>
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<para>Online communities have the advantage that its members can be
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anywhere in the world and just like LUGs, they still offer services to
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its users, also most of the time free-of-charge:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>online help with installation, configuration and maintenance
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of the software</para>
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<para>In particular cases, communities can even offer interactive
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help through technologies such as SSH<indexterm>
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<primary>SSH</primary>
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</indexterm> (Secure SHell - allows users to log on and work on
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another machine) and VNC<indexterm>
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<primary>VNC</primary>
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</indexterm> (Virtual Network Computing - allows users to
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graphically log on and work on another machine, or see read-only
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sessions).</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>courses and online presentations</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>documentation, more specialised to the software title but
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often also localised (translated)</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>This is possible thanks to the various technologies available on
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the Internet, including</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Wiki (online collaboration software for developing
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documentation) software has become quite popular for developing and
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releasing documentation. The use of wiki's allows users to edit
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existing documentation or author new documentation online (with a
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simple browser) and the results of their editing is immediately
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visible to others.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Online (web)forums, where people can participate in
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discussions by placing messages and reacting to other messages. The
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advantage of web forums is that they are accessible through your web
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browser (which most firewalls still allow), can be consulted after
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the discussion has long been closed and where messages can be
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extended with images, attachments and formatted text.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Mailinglists, which is similar (function-wise) to web forums,
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but then organised through e-mail. People subscribe to a mailinglist
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and then receive all mails sent to that mailinglist to their
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personal mailbox. Replies to these mails are sent back to the
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mailinglists where they are again distributed to all mailinglist
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participants. Mailinglists are quite popular in free software
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communities as they are easily moderated and can be filtered. Also,
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mails often reach people faster than messages on a webforum so you
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could see a mailinglist as a faster discussion medium.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>IRC<indexterm>
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<primary>IRC</primary>
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</indexterm> (Internet Relay Chat) is a way of communicating with
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many people interactively. Most people know Instant Messaging
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software such as MSN or Google Talk. Well, IRC is somewhat older but
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still very much used as it supports chatrooms where several hundreds
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of people can participate. IRC is the fastest medium for
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participating in discussions and can be seen as a method for
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creating "online" meetings.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Support</title>
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<para>Communities often perform the role of support people: if you have a
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question about their software project they are eager to answer and help.
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If you think the software is insufficient, they will help you expand it or
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have it work together with other tools (or even redirect you to other
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software projects if they feel you want something out of their favorite
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tool that the tool isn't made for).</para>
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<para>Support can be given on many levels...</para>
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<section>
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<title>Documentation Guides</title>
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<para>A documentation guide is often created with one goal: describe how
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to do something with the tool. Such guides are therefor often called
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HOWTOs<indexterm>
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<primary>HOWTO</primary>
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</indexterm>. Much work is put in such HOWTOs because they should be
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correct, well formed but also complete. The better the HOWTO, the lesser
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questions are asked after reading it. If you ask the community how to
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perform a certain action and the action is described in such a HOWTO,
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you'll be redirected to that HOWTO (sometimes with a more crude
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reference to the RTFM<indexterm>
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<primary>RTFM</primary>
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</indexterm> term, or ``Read The Fucking Manual'' - although the third
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term is also often read as ``Fine'').</para>
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<para>Other types of documentation are FAQs (<emphasis>Frequently Asked
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Questions</emphasis>) which are generally very small HOWTOs or answers
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to conceptual questions rather than technical ones. When you're new to a
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certain tool it is very interesting to read through the FAQs before you
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ask your question. Not only are chances high that you find your answer,
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you might find out more about the tool which can be very
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interesting.</para>
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<para>Some communities also offer a knowledge base. Such systems can be
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seen as an aggregation of questions and answers, but unlike FAQs they
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might not be frequently asked. Knowledge bases often offer support
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solutions to specific setups.</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Internet and Usenet Forums</title>
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<para>Internet forums (webbased) or Usenet forums (newsgroups<indexterm>
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<primary>newsgroup</primary>
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</indexterm>) are a more interactive approach to obtain support.
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Internet forums have the additional advantage that you can add specific
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formatting in your questions: you can show command code, exceptions or
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errors better than in plain text. You can even include screenshots.
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These forums allow for any user to be helped quite fast: forums are read
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by many and the interface is simple enough to quickly see the new
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topics.</para>
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<para>An additional advantage of internet forums is that, once a
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question has been asked and answered, it is stored in the database of
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the forum. Hence, the entire forum can be seen as a knowledge base with
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a multitude of answers. Very popular topics are often made sticky,
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meaning that the topic remains on top even when no further discussion
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happens on it, increasing the chance that new users read the
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topic.</para>
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<para>Usenet forums (or newsgroups) are another popular approach to
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support although it must be said that newsgroups are not used that often
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for free software tools. Usually you'll find a newsgroup when the
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project itself doesn't provide a forum (anyone can launch a new
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newsgroup) although it does happen that internet forums and usenet
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forums are linked: posts in one forum are merged with the other.</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Mailinglists</title>
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<para>A more direct approach are mailinglists<indexterm>
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<primary>mailinglist</primary>
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</indexterm>, e-mail addresses where several dozens (or even hundreds)
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individuals listen to. A mailinglist is often perceived to be a bit
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faster than forums because many developers frequent mailinglists but not
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forums due to the ease of use: mailinglists result in plain e-mails
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which can be easily filtered.</para>
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<para>Most mailinglists are archived as well, allowing you to skim
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through the older topics in the list. Whereas forums are usually pure
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for user experience, mailinglists are used as the primary communication
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channel for development purposes. Some projects also have internal
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development mailinglists which aren't readable to the public. This isn't
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because they want to hide development stuff from the users: such mailing
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lists are used to communicate security issues, personal information
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(including account information) but also to talk about topics that are
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juridically difficult to defend if they are made public.</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Chat</title>
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<para>Chatting is almost the most direct form of communicating with each
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other. Many free software projects use IRC<indexterm>
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<primary>IRC</primary>
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</indexterm> (Internet Relay Chat) as a central communication channel.
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Users can be quickly helped through IRC while developers can talk and
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discuss changes quickly.</para>
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<para>Chat channels can be very popular. Gentoo's main chat channel
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(#gentoo on the freenode network) has between 800 and 1000 participants
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at any time.</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Real-life Meetings</title>
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<para>Once in a while, developer groups come together for real-life
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support or to discuss the evolution of their software. In many cases,
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real-life meetings offer a way for people to get hands-on, interactive
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help. We have talked about LUG meetings (where real-life meetings are
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often held) but also software communities have real-life meetings. Many
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of these meetings offer a way for developers to meet each other (for the
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first time), discuss topics and learn from each other.</para>
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<para>In some cases, <emphasis>hackfest</emphasis>s<indexterm>
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<primary>hackfest</primary>
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</indexterm> are organized. During these meetings, developers
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aggregate together with a single goal: to develop new features or remove
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bugs from the software. Although this can well be done offline,
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hackfests allow developers to communicate freely and help other
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developers with their problems. Meeting in real life allows developers
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to easily show the problem they have (some problems can be difficult or
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too time consuming to write down).</para>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Conferences</title>
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<para>In the Free Software world, conferences are often organized. During
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these conferences</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>talks are given about certain software titles (design, features,
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evolution, ...) or projects (infrastructure, offered services, used
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technologies, ...)</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>booths are organized where projects can show themselves to the
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wide(r) public. Distributions frequently use booths to hand out
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installation CD/DVDs and show systems running the distribution.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>companies offer information on how they use (or develop) free
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software (and sometimes recruit developers)</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<section>
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<title>FOSDEM</title>
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<para>FOSDEM<indexterm>
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<primary>FOSDEM</primary>
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</indexterm>, or the <emphasis>Free and Open Source Developers
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European Meeting</emphasis>, takes place in Brussels, Belgium at the
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beginning of each year (around mid-february). During this conference,
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talks are given about coding and development of software, but you'll
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also find booths about various software projects/distributions and
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developer rooms (where a single project can offer talks about
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project-specific topics).</para>
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<para>FOSDEM is held during two days and has become a major conference
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in the Free Software community, especially in Europe as many other
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conferences are held in the USA.</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>FOSS.IN</title>
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<para>FOSS.IN<indexterm>
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<primary>FOSS.IN</primary>
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</indexterm>, or the <emphasis>Free and Open Source Software
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conference in India</emphasis>, is one of Asia's largest FOSS
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conferences. It occurs at the end of every year in Balgalore, India,
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featuring talks, discussions, workshops, meetings and more from
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international speakers, users and developers.</para>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>LinuxTag</title>
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<para>LinuxTag<indexterm>
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<primary>LinuxTag</primary>
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</indexterm> is a free software exposition with primary focus on the
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Linux-based operating systems and solutions. Unlike FOSDEM, LinuxTag
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focuses more on the integration of Linux (and free software) in larger
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environments, offering booths to both commercial companies and
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non-commercial organisations.</para>
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<para>It's slogan is "Where .COM meets .ORG". You can visit LinuxTag
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around spring every year. </para>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Exercises</title>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Try to find the online discussion methods (webforum,
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mailinglists, IRC) offered by the Gentoo Linux distribution.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Resources</title>
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<para>A few more free software conferences:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>The <ulink url="http://www.linuxsymposium.org">Ottawa Linux
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Symposium</ulink> is held every year in Ottawa, Canada during summer
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break.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://www.linux-kongress.org">Linux
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Kongress</ulink> has almost always been held in Germany although a
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single instance was in Cambridge, England.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://linux.conf.au/">Linux.conf.au</ulink> is
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hosted in Australia in the beginning of every year</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://www.ohiolinux.org/">Ohio Linux Fest</ulink>
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is held in Ohio every fall.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org/">Linux Fest
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Northwest</ulink> is held in Washington every spring.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/">SCaLE (Southern
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California Linux Expo)</ulink> is held late winter.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://onlinux.ca/">Ontario Linux
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Fest</ulink></para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/">LinuxWorld
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Conference and Expo</ulink></para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><ulink url="http://freed.in/">Freed.IN</ulink></para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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