Initial Thoughts on FreeGeek Columbus
Tonight was my first “meeting” at FreeGeek Columbus. I knew this was a place I could love when one of the guys asks Scott: “Did you bring the 54G?” I loved that the “Linksys WRT” was implied–that the level of knowledge shared between them was that high. Yeah, 54G indeed.
My first task was to help Scott get a couple of old Dell servers (forgot the model number) stuffed into an old rack and booted up. No rails, only one of the triple power supplies plugged in, and monitor, keyboard, mouse and KVM switch sitting on top of the top server.
After that was done, I helped get a new video card installed and configured on one of the PCs that they were building. As I worked on that, I wondered “I work on computers all day. Why would I want to do this kind of thing in my free time.” Then it hit me: the subtitle for Free Geek could be “Computers without Committees”. At least it could be for the volunteers–there we were just getting stuff done, no committees or change control process to evaluate if it was the right thing to do.
So, I guess I’m now an official Free Geek Columbus member. I’m even writing this post from my freshly installed Kubuntu. Hopefully my enthusiasm will last longer than it did for the Personal MBA….
Thanks for joining us. You’re subtitle is a good one — we’ll need to remember that.
For myself, I participate because I learn a lot. I learn how “regular people” use their computers, which helps me a lot when dealing with people at my day job. I learn about hardware and software. And I get to learn about other people. The social nature of the working meetings is a very strong draw for me.
Stick with it as long as you want. It’s a sufficiently informal organization that you can come and go as you like — there’s no penalty for not coming to meetings on a regular basis!