Sydney Linux Users Group (SLUG)

As well as other events, SLUG typically holds regular meetings on the last Friday of each month.

We normally send out an announcement a week or two before each meeting. To receive these notifications, you can subscribe to our low-traffic announcements mailing list and/or our ical calendar feed.

These meetings present talks on various topics, aimed at both experienced and new Linux users.

• Meeting format
• Participation
• Past Talks
• Guide for speakers

If you're interested in speaking to SLUG, please see our Call for Participation.

SLUG meetings follow a standard meeting format with a common first half, and then dividing after the break. This is to provide two streams of content catering to both new and experienced Linux users.

The standard meeting agenda is:

18:15: Doors Open

18:30: Announcements, News, Introductions

Introduction to SLUG, Q&A, "What has Linux done for/to me lately?", SLUG News & Discussion

18:45: General Interest talk

The General Interest talks are designed to be of an intermediate level. Previous topics have included:

• SLUG Forum: "Package Management Systems comparison"
• Conrad Parker: Sweep
• Adrian van den Dries: Zope

19:30: Break/Intermission

Refreshments available in the foyer. We request that you make a gold coin donation to cover our expenses.

19:45: Split into two groups for:

• In-Depth talk. Previous topics have included:
  • Bruce Badger: "Smalltalk"
  • Peter Miller: "AEGIS"
  • Jeff Waugh: "Open Mosix clustering"
• SLUGlets. quick talks/demos and discussion of Linux and Free Software

8:30pm: Dinner

SLUG's monthly meeting features several talks of varying length. We're always looking for new talk offers, and talk offers should be sent to activities@slug.org.au, committee@slug.org.au and/or posted on the Wiki.

SLUG talks can be on any topics that would loosely come under the heading of "Open Source Software" or "Free Software". We're open to talks about software, about projects, about features, about tools, and about the Open Source and Free Software movements, and issues surrounding them.

Our membership are primarily hobbyists and professionals, however our meetings are open to the public.

Giving a talk at SLUG would be an excellent way to prepare for more formal speaking situations — conferences for example. Our selection process is very informal — just e-mail the committee, and we'll discuss the type of talk you want to give and where it would fit best in our meeting.

If you're new to public speaking or want some tips, see our guide for speakers.

There are three main types of talks given at meetings:

General talks

General talks are about 30 minutes in length, plus question time. They should be of interest to the majority of attendees, whether they be new or experienced Linux users. Ideal general talks include: cool applications or kernel features that people could go home and play with; insights into the Open Source and Free Software movements including advocacy and participation; major new revisions of important projects with lots of new features to show off. The aim of a general talk should be to get the audience excited about playing with something or doing something with Free Software.

In-depth talks

Attendees will have the choice between the In-depth talk and the SLUGlets, so a more focussed, detailed or technical talk would suit this slot. In-depth talks are also 30 minutes in length. Examples include: talks intended mainly for programmers; talks intended mainly for systems adminstrators; and talks intended mainly for people with a particular interest — audio, video, kernel programming, mission critical systems, etc.

SLUGlets

SLUGlets is a variety show of quick talks and demonstrations. A SLUGlet should suit a general audience, and possibly focus on new Linux users. A SLUGlet would typically be 5 or 10 minutes in length.

We take efforts to film our General and In-Depth talks. We ask that speakers agree to sign a release form enabling us to release the video under a Creative Commons licence. This allows us to aid the wider FOSS community, not just those who attended that particular meeting.

With speaker permission, SLUG records video footage of the talks given at meetings, and other events. The slides and video footage are available under the Creative Commons ShareAlike License unless otherwise noted.

• Talks from 2005
• Talks from 2004
• Talks from 2003
• Talks from 2002

If you're interested in speaking to SLUG, please see our Call for Participation.

If a talk that you'd like to see isn't online yet, or if you gave a talk but we don't have the slides, please contact the committee.

This guide is © Mary Gardiner 2003-2004. This guide is available for redistribution and modification under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence

 

Introduction

This document is a short guide to preparing and presenting a talk at the Sydney Linux Users Group, and should be useful for other groups too. It is intended for speakers who are comfortable with their topic area but do not have much public speaking experience.

This guide covers the type of talks given at SLUG; preparing your SLUG talk; and giving your SLUG talk.