Re: [PLUG] OT: Linux Business Forum

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, at 04:45  PM, W. Chris Shank wrote:
> I finally made the plunge into the business world. My business is 
> heavily
> focused on bridging Windows & Linux for businesses. I think that Linux 
> has
> a bright future in business and am wondering if there is any interest 
> in
> creating a Philadelphia are Linux Business Forum? I'm not exactly sure
> what this forum would be or do, but I think it would be a resource for
> networking and business contacts for those of use who sell Linux 
> related
> goods and services. Does something like this already exist? Is there
> interest among the PLUG membership? Is this a topic that can be kept
> inside PLUG itself instead of as an offshoot? Please let me know your
> thoughts.

Yes. This is an absolute necessity. It's actually one of the major 
reasons why Linux is not taken seriously in business. Linux users are 
still (even with IBM and Compaq's involvement) viewed as a bunch of 
smelly hackers by the suits. Even Dell has realized that Steven does 
not play well in the Enterprise market. (He is not in any of the Dell 
Server ads, and the references to Robot Wars are really subtle...)

As someone mentioned -- Management needs to hear THEIR buzzwords -- 
like ROI, rduced budget expenditures, disaster tolerance and break even 
point -- in the justification for a new system... not merely gigabytes 
of RAID or CPU megahertz and RAM.

Personally, I would wait until LISA next month. (Nov 3-8 at the 
Convention center
http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa02/ - Discounted, registration ends 
FRIDAY 10/18)

Plan to set up a BOF via the bulletin boards -- Use the name you 
proposed "Philadelphia area Linux Business Forum". And see how many 
outside of PLUG you can get to sign up.

There's no reason that it cannot/shouldnot meet as a BOF of PLUG... at 
least until there is a big enough crowd that wants to meet someplace 
else.

I can envision that the topics for presentations would be things like 
-- how to propose Linux so that the Board of Directors will let you buy 
it.

Keep me on your list of interested parties.

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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