GNOME + Beers = GBeers

Although the favourite tipple (outside working hours of course! Ed.) of our regular volunteers is cider, we do have a couple – notably Messrs Treasurer and Secretary – who are fond of beer and real ale in particular.

Consequently we were intrigued when Phoronix reported that beer and open source are being combined in GBeers (GNOME + Beers = GBeers), a world-wide initiative for GNOME meet-ups with lightning talk presentations taking place while drinking beer. Madrid in Spain recently hosted the very first GBeers event. Other GNOME users and developers are being encouraged by the GNOME project to arrange GBeers events in their own towns and cities.

The proposed format of GBeers events is 1 hour of lightning talks, with each talk lasting 5-10 minutes, on unrestricted topics every month, with the talks possibly being recorded for internet distribution. A further possibility is arranging virtual GBeers through Skype or Google hang-outs.

GBeers have so far been organised in Madrid, Las Palmas, A Coruña, Seville (all Spain), Chicago (USA) and Lima (Peru). Further information about this initiative can be found on the GNOME Live Wiki.

By the way, if anyone is thinking of organising a GBEERS event in Bristol or roundabout, Mr Secretary has a lightning talk on how open source can help a small voluntary organisation and if anyone needs a longer talk (up to 1 hour), Mr Treasurer does a good line in pirate radio (news passim). 😉

Hat tip: Roy Schestowitz.

This is a revised version of a post originally published on the author’s personal blog.