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<H2><A NAME="s8">8.</A> <A HREF="User-Group-HOWTO.html#toc8">About this document</A></H2>
<H2><A NAME="ss8.1">8.1</A> <A HREF="User-Group-HOWTO.html#toc8.1">Terms of use</A>
</H2>
<P>Copyright (C) 2003-2013, Rick Moen. Copyright (C) 1997-1998 by Kendall Grant
Clark. This document may be distributed under the terms set forth
in the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licence at
<A HREF="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/</A>, or, at your
option, any later version.</P>
<H2><A NAME="ss8.2">8.2</A> <A HREF="User-Group-HOWTO.html#toc8.2">New versions</A>
</H2>
<P>New versions of the Linux User Group HOWTO will be periodically
uploaded to various GNU/Linux Web and ftp sites, principally
<A HREF="http://linuxmafia.com/lug/">http://linuxmafia.com/lug/</A> and
the
<A HREF="http://www.tldp.org/">Linux Documentation Project</A>.</P>
<H2><A NAME="ss8.3">8.3</A> <A HREF="User-Group-HOWTO.html#toc8.3">Please contribute to this HOWTO </A>
</H2>
<P>
I welcome questions about and feedback on this document. Please send
them to me at
<A HREF="mailto:%20rick@linuxmafia.com%20">rick@linuxmafia.com</A>. <I>I am especially interested in
hearing from LUG leaders around the world, especially outside the USA</I>.
Please let me know of innovative or noteworthy things your group does,
meriting description here.</P>
<H2><A NAME="ss8.4">8.4</A> <A HREF="User-Group-HOWTO.html#toc8.4">Document history</A>
</H2>
<P>
<UL>
<LI>1.0: Released on 13 July 1997.</LI>
<LI>1.1: Expanded online resources section.</LI>
<LI>1.3: Added LUG support organisations and expanded the Legal and Organisational Issues section.</LI>
<LI>1.3.1: General editing for clarity and conciseness.</LI>
<LI>1.4: General editing, added new LUG resources.</LI>
<LI>1.4.1: General editing for clarity.</LI>
<LI>1.5: Added some resources, some discussion of LUG documentation, also general editing.</LI>
<LI>1.5.1: Changed Web location for this document and author's e-mail address.</LI>
<LI>1.5.2: New copyright notice and license.</LI>
<LI>1.5.3: Miscellaneous edits and minor re-organisations.</LI>
<LI>1.6: Added Chris Browne's material: GNU/Linux philanthropic
donations and LUG political considerations.</LI>
<LI>1.6.1: Very minor additions.</LI>
<LI>1.6.2: Minor corrections.</LI>
<LI>1.6.3: Maintenance assumed by Rick Moen on 26 July 2003: General
initial touch-up, correction of broken URLs, etc.</LI>
<LI>1.6.4: Further minor fixes and additions.</LI>
<LI>1.6.5: More-extensive edits, added "Limits of advocacy",
added caveat about conflicting value systems in support contexts. Added
more news sites, reordered examples of LUGs using Internet well. General
tightening of phrasing, greater brevity in places, tempering of the more
egregious boosterism.</LI>
<LI>1.6.6: More small fixes, added Yahoo LUG list.</LI>
<LI>1.6.7: Added formal-organisational pros/cons, "Elections,
democracy, and turnover" section, Web site suggestions, and link
to "Recipe for a Successful Linux User Group" essay. Fixed mis-tagged
sections under "Legal and political issues".</LI>
<LI>1.6.8: Fixed small glitches. Rewrote section concerning
GNU/Linux news outlets; parts of sections concerning consultants, businesses,
and elections.</LI>
<LI>1.6.9: Minor corrections.</LI>
<LI>1.7.0: Caught up with GLUE membership having become free
of charge.</LI>
<LI>1.7.1: Added a bunch more newly supported embedded CPUs.</LI>
<LI>1.7.2: Added more on CPU support / ports (which section was always a bit silly, but I figure it might as well be exhaustive, correct, and <I>grandly</I> silly, if present at all); furnished matching URLs. Added details about GNU/Linux in India, and <I>LINUX For You</I> magazine. Expanded legal issues section.</LI>
<LI>1.7.3: Added mention of Debian GNU/NetBSD to the CPU ports
section. Reorganised and further expanded the latter. Recorded <I>Linux
Gazette</I>'s move to new hosting. Added <I>LinuxFocus</I>.</LI>
<LI>1.7.4: Added <I>LinuxWorld Magazine</I>, fixed URL of Recipe for
a Successful Linux User Group, which I moved. Added Tux.Org and
LinuxUserGroups.org as LUG support organisations.</LI>
<LI>1.7.5: Added several more embedded CPUs to the supported list, implemented licence change (9 Jan 2004) to Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 or later after securing permission from Kendall Clark. (The HOWTO had previously been under the LDPL version posted at LDP's site in 1997, which by 2004 had become not only deprecated but also somewhat indeterminate as to content, because the licence had been edited in place with neither clear versioning nor a distinct URL for each revision.)</LI>
<LI>1.7.6: Corrected addresses for TeX User Group in USA and
UK. Added mention of C. Northcote Parkinson's Bike Shed Effect. Other
minor corrections.</LI>
<LI>1.7.7: Added reference to the UK Linux User Groups site.
Added description of PingoS e.V. Corrected URL for Thomas Kappler's
e-mail address. Added Volgograd LUG to Online Resources.</LI>
<LI>1.7.8: Added Jerome Pinot's Linux architectures list,
used some data from it. Added "I Linux User Group italiani".
Corrected capitalisation of PingoS. After securing permission from
Kendall Clark, added "or any later version" clause to document licence.</LI>
<LI>1.7.9: Corrected India Linux link and added
<I>LINUX For You</I>, per suggestions from Rohit Kumar. Added Linux
Foundation to list of candidates for receiving monetary support. Made fixes
to Red Hat LUG list (reincarnated as "Army of Friends" database), as suggested
by Vincenzo Virgilio. Added LinuxHQ and O'Reilly LUG lists and FSF GNU User
Groups list. Added Wikipedia Category:LUGs page. Dropped material about the
GLUE site, which SSC, Inc. tragically deleted in mid-2006 without allowing
anyone a chance to adopt it. Added kernel support for two more embedded chip
families. Substituted static mirrors for two (vanished) pages listing
Linux kernel ports. Dropped <I>LinuxWorld Magazine</I> (vanished).
Removed references to getting help in founding LUGs from Red Hat User
Group Program and Kara Pritchard's LinuxUserGroups.org (both vanished)
and from lug.net (deactivated). Added Swedish tax/regulatory details
from Martin Karlsson. Added analysis of issues surrounding incorporation,
tax-exempt status, and insurance in the USA. Found new URLs for a vast
number of links. Updated licence to Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, to
incorporate improvements. Re-sorted country coverage into alphabetical
order (a small gesture to further reduce US-centrism).</LI>
<LI>1.8.0: Corrected typos. Improved some markup. Expanded "Common Misconceptions Debunked" section to address recently popular errors about USA Volunteer Protection Act of 1997, civil liability, and IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Linked directly to the Act and an analysis page. Furnished links for <I>Non-Lawyers' Non-Profit Corporation Kit</I>, for <I>DistroWatch Weekly</I>, and for the Raymond quotation.</LI>
<LI>1.8.1: Banished more typos. (I blame society.)</LI>
<LI>1.8.2: Added more CPU ports. APCUG changed Web sites. Linux India's LUG list, lugww.counter.li.org, Red Hat Army of Friends, LUG Webring, O'Reilly LinuxGroups, and LINUX For You Magazine (of India) LUG List vanished. IDG moved the Raymond article (again). LinuxFocus was revived via a CMS. NewsForge was shut down by The Company Formerly Known as VA Linux. Linux International Development Grant Fund program vanished. Project Gutenberg moved to its own domain. Colorado Linux Users and Enthusiasts moved. Added mention of IRS e-Postcard for 501(c) non-profits. Added Linux Users Group - Delhi. Added New Zealand Linux Resource. Added Project Runeberg.</LI>
<LI>1.8.3: Replacement ARM Linux Web site. New URLs for many embedded and other systems. SoftBlaze renamed to PetaLinux.a LUGs WorldWide Project, Linux Online -- User Groups, LinuxHQ User Groups, and New Zealand Linux Resource vanished. Free Software Foundation GNU Users Groups got moved/renamed to LibrePlanet Group List. New URLs for LinuxFormat and LinuxCounter. PingoS e.V. vanished (though its SelfLinux project for hypertext tutorials in the German language persists). Linux User Group of Singapore, St. Petersburg Linux User Group, and Svenska Linuxforeningen folded.</LI>
<LI>1.8.4: Linux.org (without its former Linux Online branding) has been rebuilt and offers a new LUG directory.</LI>
</UL>
</P>
<H2><A NAME="ss8.5">8.5</A> <A HREF="User-Group-HOWTO.html#toc8.5">Acknowledgements</A>
</H2>
<P>I would like to give a big thank-you to Kendall Grant Clark for the
initial versions of this document in 1997-1998, and for trusting me to take
over and renovate his creation starting in 2003.</P>
<P>Warm regards and thanks to
<A HREF="mailto:%20cbbrowne@cbbrowne.com%20">Chris Browne</A> for describing the situation with
non-profit and charitable groups in Canada, his thoughts on financial
donations as a way to participate in GNU/Linux and the free software and
open-source software movements, and his ideas about the kinds of
political issues likely to arise within LUGs.</P>
<P>In addition, the following people have made helpful comments and
suggestions:</P>
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Matthew Craig</LI>
<LI>Jeff Garvas</LI>
<LI>Greg Hankins</LI>
<LI>James Hertzler</LI>
<LI>Thomas Kappler</LI>
<LI>Martin Karlsson</LI>
<LI>Hugo van der Kooij</LI>
<LI>Rohit Kumar</LI>
<LI>Charles Lindahl</LI>
<LI>Don Marti</LI>
<LI>Vincenzo Virgilio</LI>
</UL>
</P>
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