I\u2019d like to start a user group about programming, but I have two problems:\u00a0 I\u2019m lazy and my ideas are a bit off the beaten path.\u00a0 So far, it\u2019s the first one that\u2019s stopped me from trying.\u00a0 I\u2019m busy.\u00a0 Most programmers are.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to chat about the possibility and poll a couple of friends.\u00a0 I\u2019ll even make convincing gestures with my hands.\u00a0 But actually organizing such a thing involves work, a very scary proposition indeed.\u00a0 However, I\u2019m now being nudged into action and suddenly wondering if my odd ideas are anything more than just that.<\/p>\n
User groups have a couple of problems in my opinion, the biggest of which is that they are about something, something too specific.\u00a0 That something is usually a programming language.\u00a0 We build our forts out of Java or .NET sticks and don\u2019t bother much to peek out the windows.<\/p>\n
On paper at least, this is practical, even desired.\u00a0 The compiler of a typical programmer rarely changes in a typical week, month, or occasional decade.\u00a0 Why shouldn\u2019t the user group match the contents of the hard drive?\u00a0\u00a0 But this insular focus on a particular technology or language first limits the potential audience for the group (in a way not unlike a binary search) and ignores something incredibly fundamental.\u00a0 Most of us are doing a lot of very same things.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re searching the contents of a database.\u00a0 We\u2019re organizing a project that got much larger than originally expected.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to make an interface better for our users, moving a widget here and changing a color there.\u00a0 We\u2019re dealing with a tangle of code written by someone else.\u00a0 We\u2019re wondering if we are doing this or that the right way or, in my case at least, the most interesting way.<\/p>\n
These are the types of things I\u2019d like to discuss and not only because my current job<\/a> can lead me between database maintenance, a web application written in Java, multiple .NET platforms, and, lately, an Objective C application for the iPhone in a typical week.\u00a0\u00a0 I just enjoy discussing technology.\u00a0 It\u2019s what made me a geek.\u00a0 There\u2019s a ton of programming topics<\/a> to discuss and debate, both common and uncommon alike, that don\u2019t center around a single programming language.<\/p>\n The other problem is that user groups are boring, boring in both topic and presentation.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I\u2019m the only person that has stumbled into a group meeting after a long day at work and spent the next hour wishing I was home with my kids.<\/p>\n A narrow focus on a specific language often leads to equally narrow and specific topics.\u00a0 Sit me down in an extended session about something I\u2019ll never, ever use and I\u2019ll show you someone more interested in their cell phone than the voice coming from front of the room.<\/p>\n In fact, sit me in an extended session about anything after the hour of six in the afternoon and yawns often result.\u00a0 I need a kick start after work and I don\u2019t mean pizza, even though it certainly helps.\u00a0 A long form presentation is the very opposite.<\/p>\n I see any decent user group as a great opportunity for discussion and debate.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about something.\u00a0 Let\u2019s experiment<\/a> with presentation styles<\/a> created by people as bored as I and make something worth the attention and feedback of the folks still seated in the room.\u00a0 Let\u2019s argue about religious<\/a> topics and foster participation.\u00a0 Folks willing to spend their free time in a user group are often quite passionate about what they do.\u00a0 I want to hear some of it.<\/p>\n In a lot of ways, I just want to chat.\u00a0 About stuff.\u00a0 Programming stuff.<\/p>\n I might just be interested enough to attend such a chat after work.\u00a0 Add pizza to the mix and we are golden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019d like to start a user group about programming, but I have two problems:\u00a0 I\u2019m lazy and my ideas are a bit off the beaten path.\u00a0 So far, it\u2019s the first one that\u2019s stopped me from trying.\u00a0 I\u2019m busy.\u00a0 Most programmers are.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to chat about the possibility and poll a couple of friends.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}