Does it matter that the "Florida" group doesn't fit the g.d.o guidelines?

What doesn't it meet?

Florida Drupal Group, We meet Every 3rd Saturday in Orlando
http://groups.drupal.org/florida

You answered your own question:
"or a Drupal event organizing group such as a DrupalCON organizing group" - how about DrupalCamp?

Ryan Price
Florida Creatives

@liberatr: Very good point. A name like "Florida Drupal Camp" would be very good. But look at these links:
http://groups.drupal.org/california
http://groups.drupal.org/texas
http://groups.drupal.org/colorado
http://groups.drupal.org/north-america
http://groups.drupal.org/america

None of them exist. Florida is the only meta-region with its own group, and as a result, there is no:
http://groups.drupal.org/tampa
http://groups.drupal.org/west-palm-beach
http://groups.drupal.org/jacksonville
http://groups.drupal.org/miami
http://groups.drupal.org/orlando

Cities make sense, because people can collaborate better with their neighbors. Florida would be much better served with more regularly occuring events. This can only be achieved by people stepping up in their own cities.

I realize I'm not making any friends in the Florida group by asking them to change, but imo, this is necessary for other people to have a chance at making productive groups in their community. People cannot be expected to travel great distances, on a regular basis, to get together and talk about Drupal.

Orlando doesn't need to be the mecca of florida drupallers, nor should it be.

As the person that started the Florida group I don't understand the question. There is plenty of room for both regional and a statewide groups in drupal land. I think on of the benefits of the Florida group can is that it can be an information portal local groups.

Personally I live in Sarasota but am frequently in other parts of the state and would like to hear more about drupal things going on anywhere ..... I might want to go to a drupal meeting in Key West ...

Joe Moraca

@joemoraca: As I pointed out above, Florida does not conform to "a geographical user-group such as users in a specific city." I don't think we need a portal group to other groups, we just need those other groups.

The problem here is that Florida users can't find a local group because everyone is posting to the Florida group. For instance, look at the problems it's causing by reading this discussion page.

Since the "Central Florida" group seems rather quiet, I'm expanding its description to include "Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton, Tarpon Springs, and Lakeland."

If the main purpose of the organizers in this group is to create Florida Drupal Camps, then you should rename this group to reflect that. This was a simple mistake, but it's really stunting the growth of the expressed mission of the group:

We will need to develop groups in the major urban areas and try to coordinate...

Main point: This group doesn't need to "develop groups in urban areas." The people who live in those areas need to do that.

I understand both sides of this debate and would like to offer a solution...

I, like Joe and others, like to hear about what is going in Drupaland around the entire state. At this point in time, the most active part of Florida is the Orlando area - I think everyone would have to agree with this. I would argue that there's no need to create an entire new group for an individual Florida region unless the region in question is so active that it can support an entire group.

I liken it to some of my small-business clients who ask me to implement Drupal's Forums module. I usually advise against it unless they can convince me that they have either an existing group of online users who will frequent the board or a marketing plan specifically aimed at getting people to the board. A ghost-town forum is often worse than no forum at all.

The same can be said of a Drupal user group - if there's only 3 or 4 regular participants, new users will visit the site, see that the bandwidth is low, and move on. Take a look at the Miami group, with over 50 members, they've had only 7 posts in 2009; 2 of them were from central Florida people, 4 were job postings, and 1 was from somebody asking if there was any group activity lately (no offense to the Miami people, just a convenient example - many of them came up to DrupalCamp in Altamonte Springs).

The compromise that I propose is this: don't put the cart before the horse. Don't create a new group just for the sake of creating a new group. Do the hard work first - get a group of people in your region together and create the need for a new group. This way, you can take advantage of the bandwidth of the Florida group (you'll be posting to well over 100 members instead of less than 10) to spread the word about Tampa activities.

From my perspective, Florida in thin with Drupal talent - we need to stick together as much as possible instead of breaking off into even smaller groups.

-mike

Well said, ultimike.

"a geographical user-group such as users in a specific city"

This may be semantic, but "such as" usually means "for example..."

I am in northern Palm Beach County, close to half way between Miami and Orlando. I don't particularly like traveling as far as Orlando or Miami for meetings, but will, given the topic and timing --so far the meetings in Orlando have been on days when I have to work :(

I don't think I am unique in the Florida Drupal group. Ultimike's suggestion is what is working now, and makes sense. I think the fact that a lot of the Drupal experience and talent in the group exists in the Orlando region explains why there is more activity there. And that's fine. If there were a group here, I'd be a member of both so that I didn't miss the great stuff going on in this group.

I'm working on a way to just move the Orlando group down here ;)

Carol

Mitchel,

The only reason to rename the Florida group to Orlando is in the case that it would cause so much confusion that Members would rather stay at home than deal with the stress of identifying what group they belong to. Maybe, when the Gainesville group, the Miami group, Sarasota, and the Tampa group successfully grow, then it might make sense to rename. I feel perfectly comfortable right now driving to Orlando and saying I belong to the Florida group, even if it means a 1-1/2 hour drive.

There are a lot of groups that refer to larger geograhic regions, for example:

Several Islands, most likely several countries:
http://groups.drupal.org/caribbean

Countries:
http://groups.drupal.org/panama
http://groups.drupal.org/taiwan
http://groups.drupal.org/western-australia
http://groups.drupal.org/greece
http://groups.drupal.org/bolivia
http://groups.drupal.org/venezuela
http://groups.drupal.org/iraq

Here in the US:
http://groups.drupal.org/central-texas
http://groups.drupal.org/arkansas
http://groups.drupal.org/southern-colorado-scug
... and so on

In the case of the Caribbean, semantically, it overlaps parts of Venezuela and Panama which share the Caribbean sea, there shouldn't be perfect exclusion.

Florida Drupal Group, We meet Every 3rd Saturday in Orlando
http://groups.drupal.org/florida

Sociology is my declared major, and it's a field where I feel particularly comfortable. Based on my time studying society, I have put together a small theoretical framework to back up my reasoning.

Conceptual terminology:
- "Grouping through cross-sectional sampling": A methodology to take a 'slice' of a target group. Quality of a sample depends on its accuracy in describing the population.

Quotes from a sociology article that help link culture and demographic groups:
- "If the common social and behavioral characteristics of a group's culture explain their wealth advantages, one would also expect that these effects would be largest in those social settings where the maintenance of their distinct social patterns is strongest." (edited heavily)
- "The residential isolation of ethnic populations is a well established correlate of cultural maintenance."

Discussion:
Cross-sections of Drupal users/developers that offer the best window into understanding/predicting their contributions rely on granular, isolated groupings.
One of the best methods for constructing cross-sectional samples of an ethnically diverse interest group is by their closest city/community (not just in terms of region). This doesn't stop people from being a part of the activities in more than one city/community.
To sum this up: The comparative cross-sectional sample quality of grouping people as residents of Miami verus Florida, is that Miami has far better quality in grouping people and their activities. It is very important to use sound technique in grouping people if your goal is to effectively foster socially driven results.

Hopefully the above ideas convince you to think about demographics not solely in geography but also with a more culturally infused paradigm.