[volunteers] Liaison to Netgear

[Mark Weisler]

This note offers the idea of SVLUG acting as liaison to Netgear regarding 
their 'open' products, especially routers. Please read on if interested.

A while back Daniel Gimpelevich and I were chatting about routers. Daniel 
pointed out that Netgear is pitching its KWGR614 to  "...Linux® developers 
and enthusiasts."

http://www.netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGateways/GWirelessRouters/KWGR614.aspx?detail=Specifications

Daniel's idea was immediately appealing to me and intriguing. Seeing a 
manufacturer invite participation by the open source community is a rare 
enough occurrence that it draws my attention.  So, in discussion with Daniel I 
tried to characterize a potential liaison relationship. Below is that 
characterization. 

------

The general idea would be to...
* applaud and encourage Netgear for recognizing the hobbyist and open source 
markets.

* thank Netgear for taking steps to supply the hobbyist and open source 
markets with useful gear.

* offer suggestions to Netgear-basically suggestions that can lead to more 
products and continually increased product viability. These suggestions could 
be in areas of processor types and speed, memory, chipsets, selling price, 
distribution methods and channels, and the 
compatibility of components with open source resources.

* expanding on the idea of simply offering suggestions to Netgear, we could 
describe a reference platfrom that we would like to see. This would be a more 
detailed undertaking than making suggestions as a reference platform would 
fairly completely describe (maybe specify) a working system. We would include 
reasons why components are suggested.

* Netgear, and all the manufacturers, are perpetually interested in devising 
and offering products that are competitive and would be interested in 
hearing informed opinion about product direction. The open source community 
is sufficiently new and different that developers inside a company such as 
Netgear might really appreciate having a channel of communications with us. 


* solicit SVLUG membership to help in the effort; this would include 
encouraging members to try the products for which we serve as liaison, 
sending communication to Netgear "on behalf of" SVLUG thereby putting some 
weight behind our suggestions, and other roles and capacities.

------------     end of quick characterization    ---------

So, what are your thoughts about this idea? 
While I recognize that this sort of thing can be pursued entirely on-line, I 
think I would be good, if there is sufficient interest, to have a meeting of, 
say, an hour, to do some brainstorming. In my opinion, a good time for this 
might be in the hour before starting the general meeting or maybe the first 
hour of a CABAL.
-- 
Mark Weisler