[olug] Hello all!

[Dan Anderson]

Lets see, a bunch of unemployed IT people* with various marketable skills...

You should band together and start a company not just roving packs of
Linux advocates.

When was your opportunity cost $0 last?

When do you think it will be as affordable again?

Get together, brainstorm some ideas, determine which skills are
available and which ideas seem marketable, buy a cricket phone, some
budget web hosting, a free-checking account and print some flyers - if
nothing else, how about "on-call" support for smaller businesses? (a
chronically under served market)

SNORT
OpenOffice
MySQL
Asterisk
Nessus
Metasploit
Open Source POS
OpenBox
VMWare - not free, but still
Web Development (LAMP, etc)
OpenVPN
Training (you can probably get rooms at the libraries or community
centers if nowhere else - 20 people learning about internet safety
(,facebook privacy, customizing firefox, using metasploit, installing
MythTV, using linux, setting up tomcat, certification preparation,
etc) for $50/person is still $1000 and you just met 20 people who
consider you an expert - its like being paid to network)

Depending on your available skills there are a lot of possibilities.

Like Dynatron says, charge less, there might not be a lot of work at
$100/hour, but since you are making $0/hr now you can afford to work
for $20-30/hr.

And in a "belt and suspenders" way, this may also help your networking
since you might find a new job if someone decides they like you enough
to keep you.  If nothing else you can at least do this while you are
looking for work.

Recessions suck, but lots of businesses get their start in them.

If you need a first customer let me know - I might be willing to pay
someone $100 or so to set me up with a nice MythTV/DVD "jukebox"
(which has been on my todo list for about 5 years and the wife is
starting to think I'll never get to it.)

*AKA independent contractors :)

Dan

On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 5:19 PM, DYNATRON tech <dynatron at gmail.com> wrote:
> OLUGgers are here to help as far as ideas, but the IT crowd is hurting for
> work right now, so it's gonna be tough getting corporate employment doing
> IT, even talking to the right people.
>
> with so many "jobless" brains out there, maybe we should organize some kind
> of open-source "expert squad".
> charge less, push open-source, liberate the masses, etc.
>
> most people would hire an expert before a geek any day.
> ...especially if that expert could tell you with confidence that you'll
> never get another computer virus...
>
> i walk into a place with an ubuntu disc, and an hour or two later walk out
> with 50$ while saving the customer $100s (and a lot of headaches).
> that's been my preferred MO lately.
> linux is ready for prime-time, and i can verify that with the daily "thank
> you"s i get for pushing it.
> i'm expecting (and hoping) the next ubuntu release will take the movement
> mainstream.
>