April 23: The parties started in the far west of Florida, in Pensacola.  David made a 3 hour trip out to Pensacola to take some swag and represent the LoCo with the Pensacola LUG.  The great thing is, we found out there are several Ubuntu implementations coming up in the area.  We hope to have more news on these real soon!

Pensacola Jaunty Release Party Gallery!

April 25: Northeast and north central Florida get their Jaunty shake on!  Two parties on the 25th made for a hectic day for some of us, but we were able to pull both of them off!  In Jacsksonville/St. Augustine, Jon threw a nice shindig at City Coffee.  We were able to help out some new (to Ubuntu) users with installs, and even started the coffee shop owner on a path toward Ubuntu enlightenment.  Later that evening, in Gainesville, we capped off the day with pizza, drinks, a mini-LAN party, and lots of fun.  Thanks to Douglass and Clint for organizing, and the  folks at Fiber Optics Plus, who have always been supportive of Linux, for allowing us to use their facility again.

Jacksonville & Gainesville Jaunty Release Party Galleries!

May 2: Another dual-release-party day!  David secured a room in the Leroy Collins Public Library in downtown Tallahassee.  Several members of the local LUG joined us to hand out CDs, do a Wubi demo,  and talk Ubuntu.  Later that afternoon, in Tampa, the LoCo team threw down with a combo Release Party/LAN Party.  Michelle, of the Qimo project, helped organize a great party.  About 20 people showed up, ate cupcakes, did some fragging, and generally got their geek on and partied late into the night.  Thanks to “[pnp]thomas” for helping out with the venue and to Dave for trying to work with us on organizing at the last minute.

Tallahassee & Tampa Jaunty Release Party Galleries!

May 3:  The Jaunty party train finally made its way to central Florida on Sunday, May 3.   We met at a local Panera, where some of the newer members of the LoCo team showed up and promptly began discussing functional programming languages.  Well…we considered it a party!!  Once we took a break from arguing programming languages, we handed out some Ubuntu swag, did the Jaunty Jackelope dance, ate, drank, and were merry.  Jimmy helped organize the Orlando party for the 3rd year in a row, and as usual, did a great job.

Orlando Jaunty Release Party Galleries!

May 10: In a bid to stir up some controversy, the Florida team decided to make south Florida show its true Ubuntu spirit by holding the Miami release party on Mother’s Day.  The key is, we knew the Moms out there would drag their non-computer-literate husbands out to celebrate the big release on their way to lunch/dinner/celebration.  We were right!  Well … a little bit right. Ropetin organized our party at the Brew Urban Cafe.  I didnt get to attend, but everyone agreed it was a great location.  Several of the  newer LoCo team members came out, and everyone who attended had a great time.

Miami/Fort Lauderdale Jaunty Release Party Gallery!

We have an 8th party organized, but it was delayed until June 6th because we just didnt have enough time to fit everything into the 3 weeks before UDS.

I dont even know where to start congratulating and thanking people. 

John really helped out with the swag.  I really can’t thank him enough, personally, for his continued support of the Florida and Georgia LoCo teams.

On-Disk.com got us kickstarted with some great pre-printed CDs before we even had our ‘official’ allotment from ShipIt.  Thanks so much to @webpath and “hal14450″ for setting us up with the on-disk.com CDs.  They were really friendly and helpful.  I recommend you check out groups.on-disk.com to see what community efforts they have ongoing.

Of course Chris, the individual organizers (Douglass, Jon, David (twice!), Jimmy, Ropetin, and Michelle), and the entire LoCo team did a great job of getting out, having fun, and spreading the Ubuntu message.

As many have heard by now, we are looking at 6 or 7 release parties here in Florida.  Gainesville, Orlando, Melbourne, Tampa, St. Augustine/Jacksonville, Miami, and Tallahassee.  This is really a tribute to the efforts of the people getting involved at the local level.  Douglass, Jimmy, Chris, John, Jon, Raphael, and David are all great examples of the enthusiasm, not just for Ubuntu, but for GNU, Linux, and Open Standards, that exist here in Florida.

While its true we wont reach the shear numbers generated by the some other groups, and not every party we have is going to have 40-50 people attending, our goal is to be able to hit every corner of Florida with at least 1 launch event.

I think we can do this everywhere.  And we should.

There is no reason that someone in Lincoln, Billings, Lubbock, or Shreveport cant print out some fliers and go stand in front of a Library.  Or that folks in Camas, Louisville, Trenton, or Anchorage can burn some CDs and hand them out at schools.

You get my point.  Release parties can happen everywhere.  It doesn’t have to be pizza and beer with 50, 20, or even 10 people.  If there is no release party in your area, make one!  A single person answering questions and getting the word out is still a huge success.

In the words of asommer: Party On!

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