APM: December Meeting?

[Montgomery Conner]

@Mark

Although they can be a bit dour, back when I was a kid they had these
conveniently located public institutions called 'libraries' that often
offered meeting rooms and services. ;-)
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/map.htm.

There's also a pretty extensive system of community centers in Austin
(google didn't locate one in the north central Austin area, but I'm sure one
exists) that are chartered with "community development" in the broadest
sense.

These institutions may also offer projector services, which seems to have
been problematic in the past.

###################################

In terms of the topic of the meeting, aren't we really concerned first and
foremost with creating *momentum* locally in order to help promote the
larger Perl community globally. Many mongers groups take-on projects as a
group to help build the local community and train the next generation of
Perl gurus and monks. Some groups bring in great speakers (Patrick Michaud,
the current Perl6 compiler pumpking lives in Dallas, and has some fantastic
presentations on the new compiler toolkit and syntax.) And there are
certainly other tactics to, rather than prostheletise Perl's virtues, "show
by example" that Perl is not only still relevant, but vital... and really
really cool. ;-)

Shouldn't the real suggestion here be that we brainstorm to find out what
would engage current local Perl users, including many members of this list,
over the long term? Converts are great and all, but is there even a strong
base of users to do that work here in Austin?

I was speaking with Josh McAddams at OSCON this past spring and he mentioned
that Jeremy Fluhman is interested in organizing and helping to host YAPC::NA
in Austin at some point in the future (he helped set up YAPC::NA in Houston
and the Open Source conference in San Angelo last year, but thinks that
Austin would probably be more fun for out of towners). Clearly a more active
mongers organization is needed before such a step could be taken... but what
better way to publicize Perl's relevance?

I agree that spending energy shouting into the echo chamber is futile. I
hope that isn't what anyone is suggesting. I think ideally we're not really
fighting a meme so much as providing services, examples,  and information
that combat ignorance, right?


--Montgomery

On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Mark Lehmann <mark at marklehmann.com> wrote:

> Sure.  I need some recommendations of free meeting places more central.
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Montgomery Conner <
> montgomery.conner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Is there any chance the meeting can be held somewhat centrally? i.e. no
>> further north than 2222 and no further west than Mopac.
>>
>> It would really, help at least in the case of my own attendance...  :-)
>>
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Montgomery
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Keith Howanitz <howanitz at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> 17th sounds good to me.
>>>
>>> --
>>> -Keith
>>> howanitz at gmail.com
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Austin mailing list
>>> Austin at pm.org
>>> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/austin
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Austin mailing list
>> Austin at pm.org
>> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/austin
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Mark Lehmann
> 512 689-7705 M
>
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