[kw-pm] meatspace locations

[Daniel R. Allen]

A question about our meeting location for technical meetings.

If you aren't particularly concerned about meatspace locations, feel free
to advance to [1] below for the geek content of this post.

--

Chris said last Thursday it would be nice to not have to host every
meeting.  Which I can understand; it's work to set up/stay-till-the-end.
He suggested we rotate locations among two places, to distribute the
responsibility.  I want to go easy on our hosts; it's great that Chris has
been point-person for this and I don't want to wear him out.

A few locations were suggested, including the Working Centre, Open Text,
and a University of Waterloo lecture hall.

Charu said he likes the Working Centre, where the Linux Users Group meets;
downtown Kitchener seems central, there is free parking at night, and it's
a "neutral space" so people don't feel they're being prosletized by a
company.

Simon said that meeting at or close to the Universities would mean more
students would show up; getting to downtown Kitchener can be a bit long by
bus.

I noted that rotating meetings means everyone needs to actually think
before heading out the door, so fewer people might show up; and being
affiliated with a company rather than non-profit can be nice because it
adds a professional air.  At boston.pm, we met at the boston.com building;
they were really nice and gave us free food. (this was after 3 years
meeting in someone's attic, then 2 years off in the suburbs).

Arguile agreed with this merit, coming from vancouver.pm which meets at
ActiveState.

Previously, someone has said meeting at the University detracts from
business people showing up because it would feel like a student group and
it's tougher to find parking.

If you drew a vector along the axes of physical location, ease for hosts,
parking, cost, and town-gown relations, I think so far everything nearly
cancels and we find ourselves very close to the origin.  (help?)

It was agreed that we should definitely meet at a student-friendly
location once a term, before homework sets in.  This makes sense.

Invitations on offer:
Quarry every couple of months (comes with parking, data-projector, and
uptown location);

Open Text (Rick Price has said he could ask; they have parking, a
board-room with data-projector, a location very close to the U of W);

The U of W has spaces that are generally available; or we might be able
to use the lab we met in the first time once every few months;

My office at my house.  Small table, cozy, street parking, no projector.
Puppy.

-- 

Although having only one location would make it easier for attenders, that
puts a burden on the host. And I don't want to impose every month on Rick,
who hasn't even asked his boss yet. :->

I don't know if the Working Centre will offer to host us, since neither
Bill or Paul are perl programmers and although I volunteer there, I don't
have a key.  I will ask this afternoon.

In the interests of a "good enough fit", first, should we consider sharing
the wealth with two locations; and second, should Rick ask his boss so we
have more options to chose between?

--

[1] And now for a bit of geek history, courtesy Dave Cross, the current
Benevolant Dictator of the Perlmongers organization.


a geek history

First there was God. He was quite lonely so he created Dennis.

Dennis was unimpressed with God.

So, God created Brian.

But, Brian got bored with God.

So Brian and Dennis started playing, and they created C. God saw C, and
saw that it was good. So he decided to let Brian and Dennis play some
more.

Then Brian and Dennis created Unix. God saw Unix, and he was jealous. So
he created Bill to torment Brian and Dennis and obscure their creation
(for God could not destroy Unix, for he secretly admired its perfection).

So Bill created Microsoft. And Microsoft created Windows. And God saw that
it was bad, but it had market share, so he was happy. Then Bill got cocky,
and his ego got bigger than God's. So to knock Bill down a couple of pegs,
God put into effect a wondrous plan.

First God created Tim. And Tim created the World Wide Web (using Unix, of
course). This was good, but not THAT good. So God created Marc. Marc
created Mosaic (using Unix, of course). Mosaic created a huge feeding
frenzy that has got a lot of people who are reading this their jobs.

But that's a different story. Mosaic was good, and God saw it was good, so
he allowed Marc to start Netscape. Back to this later.

But all this time Brian and Dennis started to make something better than
Unix called Plan 9. (Great legends say that God crushed Plans 1-7. There
was no Plan 8 because Brian and Dennis pulled the wool over God's eyes and
just jumped to Plan 9, which was too bright a move for even God to figure
out.)

Eventually, God figured out how to create Larry.

No one knows how or why he created Larry, except perhaps to reduce
productivity at the Jet Propulsion Labs at NASA. Rumors are that God
created Larry because he secretly liked what Dennis and Brian had done
with C, but didn't think C and Unix was enough -- this probably isn't true
because God believed he had destroyed Brian and Dennis's plans by
destroying Plans 1-7, and by creating Microsoft to slay their beloved
Unix.

Anyhow, Larry created Perl (using Unix and C, of course), and God saw it
was good, so he made Randal. Larry and Randal wrote books about Perl. And
everyone saw that this was good, except snobs who were too much into C,
Windows, and Intel.

[...]

Continues at http://www.dave.org.uk/geekhist.shtml ...


-Daniel

http://coder.com/ - Prescient Code Solutions - (519) 575-3733 da at coder.com