Welcome to OpenSolaris User Groups!
Introduction
OpenSolaris
User Groups (OSUGs) are sponsored by the Advocacy Community Group
on opensolaris.org,
and all the information you need to get involved is right here.
Please subscribe to
advocacy-discuss (
subscribe,
archives,
forum)
and osug-leaders (
subscribe,
archives)
if you have any questions or want to get involved. We encourage
everyone to participate on advocacy-discuss and osug-leaders so we can
communicate
across all the OSUGs around
the world.
This is
particularly important because we'll have website infrastructure issues
to discuss and governance-related conversations that affect all the
user groups. The steps
below will walk you through getting involved.
Join the Advocacy Community Group
Join an OSUG or Start a new OSUG
The OpenSolaris
Community is a community of communities -- just as the Internet is a
network of networks. Within the OpenSolaris Community, there are
Community
Groups centered around issues and technologies. One of those
Community Groups is this group, the OpenSolaris Advocacy Community,
which
sponsors user groups and other related projects. If you are new to
OpenSolaris
and are
interested in participating in a user group, this is
where you begin.
The Role
of
Sun,
Transparency, and the
OpenSolaris User Groups
OpenSolaris user
groups are independently run, but many of them are hosted on
opensolaris.org
with projects spaces and/or discussion lists. Sun participates in the
OSUGs by contributing website infrastructure and other materials. But
Sun doesn't run
the user groups or the Advocacy Community. Instead, it's always been a
community effort. Decisions about the
Advocacy
and the user groups are made openly on advocacy-discuss and based on
the consensus of those doing the work. If something didn't happen on
list, it didn't
happen. Everyone is encouraged to participate and share
ideas, connections, and resources.
OpenSolaris "User
Groups" are actually "Projects" on opensolaris.org. Projects offer user
groups substantial website infrastructure --
including a dedicated space on the site with project
editing privileges, a blog aggregator, source code management
(Mercurial and Subversion), a Mailman list with administrator access,
an RSS-enabled announcement section, and spaces
for news, file
hosting, discussions, observers, and leaders. Because user group
leaders are simultaneously project leaders who have earned the right
to manage their own project, they stand a very good chance of
gaining Contributor and/or Core Contributor status within the
Advocacy Community under the
OpenSolaris
Constitution. Core Contributors are also considered Members of the
OpenSolaris Community, and Members can participate in community-wide
governance
issues.
Joining
OpenSolaris
User Groups
Look for
user
groups in your area. If you find one, simply join that group's
mail list, introduce yourself, get to know the members, and
participate. This is the best situation because you will have a
pre-existing group of people to get involved with. Also, since user
groups are usually based on geography, it's always best to
join an established group if possible rather than creating
infrastructure for overlapping groups. You should also join the
advocacy-discuss
and
osug-leaders
mail lists, so you can talk to other OSUGs around the
world.
Start a
New OpenSolaris User Group: Three Easy Steps
If there is no
established user group in your area, you can propose that a new group
be created and hosted on opensolaris.org. To get user
group infrastructure (a project space and mailing list) on
opensolaris.org, send a short proposal to
advocacy-discuss (
sign
up,
archives,
forum).
You
need one +1 vote and no -1 votes. Only Core Contributors
can vote, and voting is open on advocacy-discuss for three days. Write
your proposal in the following format:
- Name of your OpenSolaris User Group and the abbreviation for
the project URL. For example: Japan OpenSolaris User Group. JPOSUG.
Please check the
list of OSUGs for names and abbreviations that are already taken.
- Two or more initial participants listed with their
opensolaris.org
user IDs
- A short paragraph description of the group -- including
location
(City, State, Country),
activities planned, related organizations, etc. Keep it simple.
If your user group proposal is approved, the Advocacy Community
Facilitator will work with you to set
up a project space and mail list.
OSUG
Leader Responsibilities on opensolaris.org
As a leader of your
new user group, it is expected that you will maintain your
project space and mail list (filter spam, add/remove names,
communicate with the OpenSolaris webmaster and other community members
on advocacy-discuss and osug-leaders,
etc)
-- just as all the other project leads in the OpenSolaris Community.
Please review the documents below so you are clear about website issues
--
especially the policy around mail list management. For instance, if
lists are not used and properly managed, they can be deleted after a
period of time.
Subscribe to the following lists:
Follow the appropriate website, trademark, project,
and community
policies:
Use the OpenSolaris slide templates for
presentations (right click on the links to download the OpenOffice
files):
- opensolaris-org-slide-template.odp
- IMPORTANT:
Sun employees may not use Sun's internal corporate presentation
templates for public presentations. Please use the OpenSolaris
presentation templates instead. Also, please do not post to opensolaris.org
any documents marked with "confidential" or "proprietary" or similar
notices. If the information is not confidential and is appropriate for
the community, please remove the confidential notice before posting.
This is not optional. Documents marked "confidential" in any way can be
deleted by the site administrator without notice.
Page Updated: Jim
Grisanzio, 3/13/09