Wikipedia refers to GLUG as a private generally not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for GNU/Linux users, particularly for inexperienced users. Extending this defination, for FSMK, GLUGs are the one of the main functional units which work inside different colleges and help take the ideas and philosophy that FSMK promotes to all students in the college. GLUGs also are one of the main sources of volunteers for FSMK. FSMK has started more than 20 GLUGs in various colleges across Karnataka, though few of them have become non-functional over a period of time.
Introduction to Free Software session: GLUGs can organize an introduction to Free Software session where students from various departments can be informed about the philosophy and advantages of Free Software. The students can also be introduced to FSMK and its various chapters and goals. This is one of the first sessions where after the session, interested students to join the GLUG and take it forward can stay back and discuss various activities that can be planned for the future by the GLUG. Generally this session is planned for 90 mins in an auditorium. Since this session involves showing lots of small videos to the audience rather than just speaker doing a talk, it is good to have it in a place with good sound system. Some of the videos that can be shown to audience are:
Install Fest In the install fest, volunteers from the GLUG can help install any GNU/Linux based distribution on the personal systems of new students interested to be part of GLUG and/or interested to experiment with Free Software. Generally FSMK supports Ubuntu due to its better compatibility with drivers of latest laptops and mainly because the current volunteers of FSMK are regular users of Debian/Ubuntu. However students can be encouraged to try various other GNU/Linux based distributions. During the install fest or before that it is good to also introduce newbies to various Free Softwarealternatives of popular proprietary softwares which helps them to get the confidence of trying out free software.
GLUG Meet GLUGs are advised to regularly meet, preferably once a week for 2 hours such that all students from different branches can join. During GLUG meet students can discuss various new things happening the Free Software, Free Society world along with sharing their own experiences, learnings and issues while using Free Software. GLUG Meets are one of the most crucial part of a GLUG as regular GLUG Meets only ensure that existing GLUG members are associated with GLUG and also it gives opportunity for new students to join the GLUG and be part of it. GLUG members are also advised to regularly blog about their GLUG Meet happenings so that other GLUGs in FSMK and elsewhere can know what is happening in a particular GLUG and can also learn from it.
Free Software Fest-Swatantra Tantramsha Habba The GLUG can organize a Free Software Fest in their college where various events around Free Software including but not limited to talks, workshops, competitions, hackathons, etc can be conducted. FSMK organized its first Swatantra Tantramsha Habba(SwaTaHa) in PES Mandya through its PES Mandya GLUG. Apart from various fore-mentioned events, during the fest, a Free Software Jatha was also organized by the students taking the idea of Free Software to general public and informing them about the fest and Free Software in general.
Online/Offline Coding competition GLUG can organize online/office coding competition to help improve coding skills of the GLUG members. Generally coding competition in C is organized using GCC and it helps students improve their algorithm skills and also get to know GCC much better. BMSIT GLUG also conducted online coding competition by running a Free software judge software. JVIT GLUG had organized an offline coding competition. Both the events were able to attract huge participation exceeding 300 students each.
Talks on Various Free Software Technologies GLUGs are encouraged to regularly organize talks on various free software technologies, preferably during GLUG Meet. This helps in ensuring that every GLUG meet, members learn something new. It is preferred to organize talks related to the interest of the various GLUG members. Talks also give an opportunity for the GLUGs to invite people from the industry and have an interaction with them. Some of the popular topics for talks for a newly formed GLUGs are:
Workshops on free software technologies/tools/frameworks Once in a while, GLUGs are encouraged to organize 1 or 2 days workshops on free software technologies/tools/frameworks inviting trainers from the industry. The GLUGs can charge nominal fees to ensure that only interested students participate in the workshop. The participants can then also be given certificate of participation from the department and/or from FSMK. Some of the popular topics for workshops for GLUGs are: