Here's a nice article from Martin Aspelli, who wrote Professional Plone Development book and contributes a lot to Plone. He makes a lot of good points that could apply to other FOSS community based projects.

Oh how we love to hate Plone

It provides nice insights on different views towards community projects, and how it can affect the individuals working on them.

So for those slamming the organisation of say the community LPI exams due to some administrative issues with LPI or something, spare a thought for the individuals working to organise affordable community exams in their spare time. Community things like these are not for profit companies, to help improve things you have to be a part of it or support the community in some way.

Quite often you're benefitting for nothing but your time.

How much do commercial companies charge for MySQL training events?

How much does it cost to attend a MyOSS meetup where a MySQL employee is presenting?

Criticisms are good, but it's best with suggestions that shows good will.

Example,

"It sux, there is no food/drinks and any freebies"

Better,

"Since it's during dinner time, and we don't get much time after work to eat, how about we charge RM5/person so that we can have pizzas?"

Here are some upcoming activities:

• Jan 10th - Meetup MySQL/CouchDB
• Jan 26th - Accessibility Workshop (Visually Disabled)
• March LPI Community Exams - http://lpi.foss.org.my