Posted by pwolanin on April 3, 2009 at 11:26pm
We had a very enjoyable meetup this past Tuesday - 14 people came representing educational instutions, companies, consultants, local political groups, and themselves!
The discussion went strong for about two and half hours, and one of the later topics was possible timing and topics for future meetups.
The timing for future meetups was suggested as once per month or once per two months. If they are more frequent, meetups may be more casual and unstructured, while others might have a more focused program.
Among the suggestions (in no special order):
- A "showcase" meeting where a few people walk though their sites and highlight the moduels and themese and how the sites were built.
- Active coding and mutual assistance on code, themes, and other technical issues
- A theming workshop or presentation
- A beginner presentation on module development
- Exploration of some development tools like devel module and the theme developer module
- An "Install fest" where people who have never installed Drupal are encouraged to come and get help
- A "contributor" workshop - make sure you have a drupal.org account, find out how to get and give help, add to documentation, and test a patch
- A discussion of Drupal 7 changes and Drupal 7 usability efforts
Please comment with your ideas and preferences.
Comments
We might also get some ideas
We might also get some ideas from other meetups going on regularly, such as:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/20594
http://groups.drupal.org/node/20532
topics
I'm also interested in how people are hosting their drupal site(s), vps/shared and how if any developers here are working towards being their own drupal web firm. I'm teaching myself how to be a linux admin to run drupal sites, and it's a bit painful...any help to books/classes would rock.
Topics
I like both ideas on http://groups.drupal.org/node/20532
Also, I'd be interested in Theming and Module Development.
I think it was indeed a
I think it was indeed a productive first meeting. Regarding topics, I'm definitely interested in site recipes. Everything I've done so far is trial and error, so it would be good to see how other people setup their sites. I've never talked with other Drupal developers outside our organization about the things we've done. At IAS, we have several different D5 and D6 installations, including multi-site setups, so we could demo for others. We also host all of our own sites, and could help with some of the linux/apache admin questions. Otherwise, I'm up for any topics.
Also, we at IAS can probably volunteer space and resources, if needed. We have ample parking and are within walking distance to the train station.
Topics and Approaches
Most of these topics work for me.
What I'm wondering about is how to set meetup agendas to consistently appeal to a wide range of people; from beginners to experts. Too much emphasis on the former and the latter may not show up.
But is this a misplaced worry?
While I think we should
While I think we should strive to have meetings that have at least something for everyone, I think it's fine and natural if some topics/meetups appeal more to one sub-set of people than another.
For that reason, I think that having them fairly often (e.g. monthly) and have some be general interest/informal will keep enough appeal for all.
I agree
I think I would be disappointed if we didn't get together monthly. There is certainly enough to cover, and I think that a monthly meeting would be easier for people to plan on attending.
One idea would be to alternate between technical and non-technical topics alternating different months, or perhaps breaking into several parts. Perhaps having someone give a presentation on a particular module, followed by a site recipe (modules used on a particular site), and then a main presentation or discussion.
Thanks,
Dana
I think since we don't
I think since we don't necessarily know what everyone wants right now we should either do something general, to start, or vote on it. We could pick one subject and just cover it from beginner to expert. Use part of the time for presentation, and the rest for questions and discussion. Installation might be a good topic. We could cover basics, multi-site, modules, themes, server configs, hosting, tips, common problems, etc. This would also give us a better understanding of what environments each of us are dealing with, and what kind of help we need. In any case, whatever is chosen I'm sure won't be perfect. We just need to do something, then go from there. And I'm sure it will be beneficial to most people as long as there is plenty of time for open discussion. I definitely favor that over formal presentations.
let's pick a date
Since the Tues evening time seemed to work last time - how about either April 28 or May 5 at 7 pm?
May 5
May 5 is better for me.
I talked with a couple
I talked with a couple people at my place who'd like to attend and we all have no preference. Either April 28 or May 5 is fine.
I like David's suggestion
I like David's suggestion about a discussion around installation and hosting, plus we could do hand-on installs for anyone looking for help. So how about that for May 5? David - you offered to host at IAS?
May 5th is fine for me. 7pm?
May 5th is fine for me. 7pm? Yes, we can host. Any objections, or concerns? What's the next step?
Since you have the details
Since you have the details on where it will be, why don't you create an event and cross post (or I can) to near-by groups like Philly, mid-Atlantic and nyc.
Follow this link for May 5th
Follow this link for May 5th meeting - http://groups.drupal.org/node/21329