[Phoenix-pm] Meeting today, wed june 6, 2007 @ 7:00pm Mill's End

[Michael Friedman]

For what it's worth, here's the view from Silicon Valley.

We've got something like the largest concentration of perl  
programmers in the country. SF.pm in San Francisco has a mailing list  
with between 100 to 200 people on it. And they only can manage a  
perlmongers meeting once every quarter at best.

In general, people post other meetings to the mailing list and then a  
group of perlers meets there. As Darrin suggests, the Linux users'  
group and BSD users' group are the normal targets, but we also have  
something up here called a "Beer And Scripting SIG" that has a social  
meeting every month at a particular bar. If nothing perl-related is  
being presented at any of the other groups round about, the  
perlmongers default to meeting there. Half of BASS is using perl  
anyway, it's just that it isn't their focus.

Were I still in Tempe, I'd still be a regular at Phoenix.pm meetings,  
but I must say I do appreciate the mailing list even though I've  
moved away. But I think that co-branding meetings is the way to keep  
the personal connection going for everyone and reduce the guilt  
everyone feels when there isn't a meeting, or there is a meeting, but  
only three people show up.

Just my $.02. I hope the Phoenix.pm community stays together, even if  
only so I have an outlet for my really weird perl questions.

-- Mike

PS - Anyone know of an Atom Publishing Protocol Server written in Perl?

On Jun 6, 2007, at 6:06 PM, Darrin Chandler wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 03:51:15PM -0700, Scott Walters wrote:
>> We get a lot of first time visitors who never return.  Perhaps they
>> think that something wonderful (other than Perl knowhow) will be
>> imparted on them during the meeting that will radically advance their
>> career (without having to sharpen their Perl skills).  Sometimes
>> they come out for the presentations, but the presentations have to
>> be pretty damn good to build up a following, and that's hard to
>> sustain.
>
> This sounds familiar...
>
>> Other groups in the valley related to Web tech or programming draw  
>> a lot
>> more people, a lot more and more serious speakers, are better places
>> for making connections, and better have their fingers on the pulse of
>> emerging technologies.
>
> Having attended a few meetings here and there, I can also say that  
> some
> groups have horrid presentations, don't have their fingers on any  
> pulse
> at all, and *still* manage to draw decent numbers because they're
> focused on something that's currently in the limelight.
>
>> We should all stop being such a specialized spliter group and start
>> going to REFRESH Phoenix, the Ruby User's Group, PLUG, and whatever
>> else.  When people are far more interested in tech, applications of
>> tech, their careers and career prospects, and making connections
>> with other programmers, it's irrelavent whether the meeting has a
>> Perl theme or not.
>
> This is something I've discussed off and on with Hans (of PLUG fame).
> The Valley has a LOT of groups that SHOULD have some synergy. There  
> are
> so many meetings going on that I've had to perform some triage, and  
> the
> result is that I haven't made it to Phoenix.pm (and several other  
> groups
> of note, and then a dozen more of at least some interest). From  
> talking
> to others, I know I'm not alone here.
>
> Consider keeping Phoenix.pm alive. Consider "co-branding" events with
> other groups such as PLUG, PhxBUG, and LOPSA. We have some Perl  
> people,
> and you have some BSD, Linux, and sysadmin people. There's a lot of
> crossover. Not long ago, I gave a presentation on writing daemons  
> at the
> PLUG-Developers meeting. Now, I haven't actually used Linux in a while
> and haven't written any daemons for Linux in much longer. So my
> presentation was using BSD. It really didn't matter. People showed up.
>
> Something to think about, anyway.
>
>> I suggest, however, keeping the mailing list.  That's about the
>> degree that area Perl developers really need to keep in touch with
>> each other.  And that might push us to move to a more virtual
>> existance, fixing up the Website, getting blog aggregation going,
>> and maybe some maps, or a database of employers -- the sorts of
>> things people might actually use.
>
> In addition, Hans has renamed the GNU/Linux Stammtisch to, er, I  
> forget
> exactly, but it's something like the Free Software Stammtisch. I  
> think I
> may have had something to do with that. Anyway... this makes a handy
> social event, and everyone is invited. If even BSD people are welcome,
> Perlers would be doubly so. There's no structure, many or most bring
> laptops, and nobody would object if a hacking session happened.
>
> -- 
> Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD User Group  |  MetaBUG
> dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://phxbug.org/      |  http:// 
> metabug.org/
> http://www.stilyagin.com/  |  Daemons in the Desert   |  Global BUG  
> Federation
> _______________________________________________
> Phoenix-pm mailing list
> Phoenix-pm at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/phoenix-pm

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Michael Friedman                     HighWire Press
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FAX:   270-721-8034                  <friedman at highwire.stanford.edu>
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