Re: [lp-ca-on] Starting phase #1

[Blaise Alleyne]

On 23/09/14 10:15 PM, Sergio Durigan Junior wrote:
> [...] We already have a "regular team meeting" set up, even though we don't
> really know the details.  BTW, it is really good to define the
> place/time that we are going to meet in advance (say, 2 weeks before),
> so that we can start spamming it to other friend groups (if they let us,
> of course).

Agreed.

Better yet, if we can pick a regular location, date/time, e.g. Third Monday of
each month or something.

Re: location, I'd suggest a bar in the Yonge/Eglinton area maybe over coffee
shop (since we had the coffee shop close on us this week).

Re: date/time, I'd suggest (a) we start with a time that generally works for the
three of us who are involved so far, but (b) we cross-reference meetup times of
some other ally groups to avoid conflicts if possible. For example, we
definitely wouldn't want to be meeting at the same time as GTALUG.

We might need to compile a list of ally groups (which wouldn't be a bad idea
anyways), and note their usual monthly meeting times, to see if we could carve
some space for a unique LibrePlanet time.



> In BR, our meetings were called "librebar", as a contrast
> to "open bar" (I don't know if you have "open bars" here; they're
> parties where you don't need to pay for drinks [the drinks as free as in
> price], so we wanted to make this little wordplay). 
> 

I'm not sure if it totally works in English. We do have the concept of an "open
bar," typically at a wedding or some kind of party. I didn't get the play on
words from "librebar" alone though.

But... still doesn't hurt -- "librebar" still makes sense as a LibrePlanet bar
night, even if the play on words isn't obvious!

I'm cool with calling it a "librebar" night or something.



> About the website, I barely know HTML :-).  Web is definitely now my
> expertise, but I can help with anything (i.e., I can learn).  I believe
> Blaise can take care of building our website, right?  Oh, BTW, here's
> the LibrePlanet São Paulo website: <http://libreplanetbr.org/> (I've
> made it in org-mode inside Emacs).
> 
> As I said in the meeting, I can serve the website in my own server.  It
> runs Apache + PHP, and it is completely Free Software.  Of course, if I
> could choose, I'd prefer not to run Wordpress :-), but I can do that
> without problems.
> 

So, I'm not attached to WordPress or anything, but the reason I suggested it
first was that you can have a flexible website up and running in minutes, with
thousands of themes already available, the ability to have a blog with comments
and RSS, etc etc.

But, none of that is critical on day one, especially if this mailing list and
the IRC channel will be the primary ways to communicate with members. (Though, a
web-based option might also be more accessible to non-devs?)

Is the hesitation with WordPress just software freedom issues, or also bloat,
MySQL, security issues, etc.?


I'd suggest maybe we do a single-page straight HTML site to start. We can kick
the can down the road on the question of additional functionality in a website.

I would probably drop in something like Bootstrap though as a framework to make
it look a bit nicer, since I'm no designer. (But I would copy the Boostrap files
to the web server, to avoid privacy issues of using versions hosted by Google or
whomever else.)


The end result would be content in a single HTML file that's easily editable in
any text editor, with just some markup applied to the HTML to make the layout
and presentation look a bit nicer.

Would that work?


I guess direct SFTP access would be ideal, though not necessary.

And, registering our own domain might be a good idea. How about 
libreplaneton.ca?

(libreplanet.ca is also available... I wouldn't want to be presumptuous and
pretend to be all of Canada, but at the same time it could be a useful domain...
even if we just put a link to libreplaneton.ca from libreplanet.ca, and then to
any other Canadian LP groups, now or in the future?)

I can register the domain name if you want. I use Hover.com as my domain name
registrar. But I don't mind if you are using another domain name registrar
already. (Not sure if they'll all allow you to register .ca though.)



> I have no idea about the other basic materials (business cards or
> postcards).  What I did in BR was:
> 
> - Ask a friend to come up with a logo for our group
>   (<http://libreplanetbr.org/files/logo/lp-br-sp-logo_small.png>; South
>   America is green, Brazil is yellow, and São Paulo state is blue, the
>   colors of the Brazilian flag).  We should really create a logo for our
>   group too, because it can be used in slides, postcards, business
>   cards, etc.  Unfortunately, my skills as designer are close to -200.
> 

In the absence of a LP Ontario logo, we could potentially use the main LP logo?
I'm assuming it's freely licensed? (Though, could be restrictively licensed,
e.g. the FSF likes to use CC BY-ND, though not sure if they'd put ND
restrictions on logos, usually just essays...)

http://libreplanet.org/w/skins/common/images/groups-logo.png

But yeah, an Ontario logo could be cool eventually.


> - Create a postcard using the logo (I will try to find the PDF and send
>   it here, it can actually be a good base for us).
> 
> - Print the postcard (I don't know where to do that in Toronto).
> 

I haven't done printing directly myself, but Alleyne Inc. has, or I could ask
around for recommendations.

Re: costs, I guess we get a quote and pool our money together for a first print 
run?

How did you cover costs for these things with LP São Paulo?


> We did not have business cards, but as I mentioned, we wanted to create
> t-shirts for the members.  This is also a very good idea, because
> t-shirts are live postcards that you can use everywhere :-).
> 

T-shirts are a great idea! Though, I'd consider this as a slightly later step
once we have more members.