Your thoughts about the NYC Drupal Group

Here goes nuthin.

1) What have you appreciated about the NYC Drupal group so far?
I like the social aspects involved with sitting with >3 people who have a clue what I am rambling on about. It's easy to get isolated in software development when still trying to discuss specifics of the application you are working on. Hence user groups.

2) How could the group and our group meetups be improved?
I like the idea of segmenting beginners and advanced bi-weekly. I might even attend both, but I paradoxically dislike both of these sentiments:

"I don't want to get to technical?" and "I feel alienated cause everyone here is too technical."

3) your relationship to Drupal (developer, themer, site administrator, your organization runs Drupal)
I work for a company that builds webites exclusively using Drupal, and own a few others that do the same.

4) your Drupal expertise level (Don't be shy!)
Passing familiar.

5) Length of time you've been a member of the NYC Drupal group
Member for
2 years 12 weeks

which seems to indicate my timelines on the previous thread may be erratically off. oops, beer kills brain cells. Either that, or that time got reset somewhere in there....

Advomatic

1) What have you appreciated about the NYC Drupal group so far?
Being fairly new to the group and creating drupal sites for about two years the best parts of attending meetups comes in different areas for me:

a) Creative Perspective - First being a Creative Director these meetups help me understand more about the functionality and whats possible with drupal from a "cool design" perspective.

b) Business Perspective - while owning and operating a small multimedia company this type of group interaction helps me keep up with whats "hot/new", develop new ideas based on conversations and projects. It also help me understand developers and freelancers workflows better so that I can improve on our workflows. Maybe find and hire someone for ongoing projects.

c) Development Perspective - Not being a developer and with only so much knowledge of code like HTML and CSS, little PHP...its a great environment to learn about code and what is possible with the system from a design and cool factor perspective. Lets face it I'll never be a developer but want to find the best way to create great projects that do develop.

d) Personal Perspective - I just like meeting new people, especially those who have similar interests and ideas.

2) How could the group and our group meetups be improved?
Based on the three or four times that I have been there and from a couple of posts that went out, I do think the group shell is a bit too technical. While I love technical and want to learn and gather as much info as possible we have to remember that these kind of groups are social events and should be set up as such. When I first came to the group I felt a bit out of place as all I saw and heard was "techy stuff", so I was a bit intimidated to venture into conversations with anyone. Granted that drupal is more of a development platform and a bit on the technical side but inorder for the group to reach out to everyone interested in drupal, "techys" and "non techys" alike it has to have a medium.

I think somewhere in the meetups there should be some sort of forum where we ask who is new and let then introduce themselves if they wanted to and also let everyone know who is who in the group. Say if there are Art Directors, Business Owners, Senior Devs, Newbes, Talent Scouts...the group should know who is who at the meeting as this is a platform of resource sharing and this will help people identify with someone else there...creating more social interaction. Just make them "Fun"

3) your relationship to Drupal (developer, themer, site administrator, your organization runs Drupal)
I am mostly a site themer but do light development
My company produces various drupal site for our clients and is in the process of changing two of the company's site into drupal platforms.
Lover of drupal form a personal and business stand point.

4) your Drupal expertise level (Don't be shy!)
I have a great working knowledge of the drupal system and how it functions from a user and administrative stand point.
Beginner developer / Intermediate Themer.

5) Length of time you've been a member of the NYC Drupal group
Roughly 6 months

1) What have you appreciated about the NYC Drupal group so far?
I've appreciated watching the NYC Drupal group grow from barely even 10 of us sitting around a table at MNN 2 1/2 years ago to what it is today. I also enjoy seeing our local talent taking the time to teach the newbies, and showing off their cool new projects.

2) How could the group and our group meetups be improved?
As much as I enjoy how large we've grown, I think that at some points, it gets a bit disorganized at times. With all due respect to the "un-conference" style of the NYC Group, I think we need a bit of organization and structure.

3) your relationship to Drupal (developer, themer, site administrator, your organization runs Drupal)
I do a little bit of everything. I've been a developer/ themer/ site administrator in past positions. I currently am a Project Manager so I have to keep my finger on the pulse of all the different fronts. I also do consulting, so I'm constantly switching hats.

4) your Drupal expertise level (Don't be shy!)
Drupal Ninja

5) Length of time you've been a member of the NYC Drupal group
2 years 10 weeks or so.

Mike

1) What have you appreciated about the NYC Drupal group so far?

It has given me a way to see a wide range of things that can be done with Drupal - more than specific how-to I'm interested in knowing about possibilities, then I can go figure out the details. I like the community feeling. The members are interesting and smart, and I can find out tips others have learned by experience - that one module may be better than another similar for some purpose, for example, as well as get a sense of how the development path works and what is coming. The two Drupal Camps I attended, which I would not have known about without being in the group, has been really helpful.

2) How could the group and our group meetups be improved?

I've gotten a lot of value out of it. Ideally having someone(s) to keep the discussions moving along on topic would be great, but I don't know how realistic that is. Simply less jargon would help keep the technical discussions more open to beginners, and I'm not sure the meetup is the place for debates on the direction of Drupal as a whole and that sort of thing. I'd like to learn more about navigating drupal.org, ways to get involved in the community, helpful resources, and more on the business side - connecting with developers for specific projects, how people market themselves, what the market for website/drupal work is like, who's hiring, that kind of thing, and get to know people better. I'd like to know more about how others approach site development problems - not just how to build something, but how to decide among different possible ways to build it, what questions to ask, where to look for information and resources.

Please answer on this thread and include:

3) your relationship to Drupal (developer, themer, site administrator, your organization runs Drupal)

Site and content administrator, I've built several small-business, personal, & non-profit sites as a consultant, and do some client work for a Drupal hosting company. I really like working in Drupal, my other web experience is using HTML templates and Joomla and non-development stuff: copy, graphics, content, proofreading, testing, developing site specs and requirements, creating RFPs.

4) your Drupal expertise level (Don't be shy!)

I started using Drupal early in 2007. I'm pretty comfortable with the admin stuff, CSS, installing modules, building forms, etc. etc. I don't do any real programming, but I'm not afraid to cut and paste a little. I feel it is possible to do a lot without being a programmer if you aren't afraid of learning by trial and error.

5) Length of time you've been a member of the NYC Drupal group

Since I found out about it, which was around May or June 2007. I don't have any big complaints about how it is run and I don't want to see a major divide between "newbies" and "techies" because I feel the mix is valuable. I do think gearing some of the meeting content in either direction would probably be better for some people as long as it doesn't lead to too much separation.

Jean Gazis
www.jeangazis.com
www.webhostny.com – Drupal hosting

1) What have you appreciated about the NYC Drupal group so far?
I think that any time people get together to share knowledge and promote the use of Free Software it is a good thing. I've appreciated the people that have put in effort to make this community such a dynamic group. I appreciate the folks that put community centric thinking ahead of traditional business.

2) How could the group and our group meetups be improved?
I think that the group is going along fine. We just need to have more communication. I stopped attending the meetups a while ago, when they moved to a location where I had to go through a security checkpoint to attend. I'm more on the drupal camp side of things than the meetups.

3) your relationship to Drupal (developer, themer, site administrator, your organization runs Drupal)
I have been using Drupal for about 5 years. I run a small Free Software consulting group and we moved away from slashcode and other tools towards drupal due to the dynamic nature of the development and user communities.
I have helped organize drupal camps in nyc, helped Jacob with the early meetups that led to the formation of this group. I use drupal on my own site and the sites of a number of organizations I work with (from the site admin side), have worked in teams that have created modules, done complex theme work, etc.

4) your Drupal expertise level (Don't be shy!)
In my 20 years or so of professional technology work, I've found that the more someone knows a tool or technology, the less likely they are to say they are an expert, as it takes a lot of experience and knowledge to understand how large the picture is and just how much you don't know. So, I'll simply say that I have been working with drupal as a project manager, coder, and advocate, having created dozens of very complex sites. I'm very experienced, but far from expert.

5) Length of time you've been a member of the NYC Drupal group
I've been a member of the NYC Drupal Community since before this group was started, and a member of this group from the time it was started (about 2 years and 9 weeks ago). Remember, this g.d.o group started after we'd already pulled off two drupal camps and had months of meetings -- Jacob's goal was to create a place for people to discuss things between events and plan such events.

Why not organize the monthly meetups in two parts, as a formal meeting at some suitable business-enabling venue such as Mansueto (which among other things, is far more convenient to transportation than MNN was), followed by a get-together for drinks at some suitable socializing-enablign venue - but have that time and place designated in advance?

I have enjoyed going out for drinks after the meeting, but often there seems to be just a lot of milling around and I end up just leaving - we can't all stay out indefinitely late, etc. If the "after-party" were announced in advance, those who prefer to just do that could easily do so, those who prefer a presentation/Q&A session could do that, and anyone could do both, but be able to plan their evening a little better in advance.

The formal meeting could go say 6-8:30 and the drinks 8:30-10 or something along those lines. A bar/restaurant where we could reserve a medium-sized somewhat private room near the meeting space would be ideal.

Another idea would be to alternate formal meetings with social meetings.

Jean Gazis
www.jeangazis.com
www.webhostny.com – Drupal hosting

Hey, there's nothing to stop anyone from hanging out till they close the place... but some of us are over 30 and have to get up in the morning - or at least tell our spouses (spice?) or babysitters when we'll get home!

Jean Gazis
www.jeangazis.com
www.webhostny.com – Drupal hosting

1) No one has suggested that only people who attend meetups should have a say in the group, simply that if you choose to miss meetings, you choose to miss whatever discussion or happenings occur at the meetings. There are 400 people registered for this group, what are the chances that we get more than 40 to show up at the same time and place on a regular basis? Obviously all of the substantive discussion isn't going to take place only at meetups.

2) Most buildings that have a room that will accommodate 40 people with internet access and projection capabilities are going to be in buildings that have some routine security - just being realistic. Whatever one's personal feelings may be, that's not a reason for the group as a whole not to hold meetings in those buildings. No one is being excluded except by their own personal choice. There are probably people who'd feel uncomfortable in a low security building too - or walking far to/from the nearest transit stop in a low-traffic area late at night. We all have to choose which risks we are willing to take.

If anyone is willing to take on posting a summary of the meeting on this site afterwards, that might be an aid to better communication. I can do it when I can make it (I think I've only missed a couple in the past year+), since I usually take some notes, but I'll have to very broadly summarize the really technical/Drupal insider bits.

Jean Gazis
www.jeangazis.com
www.webhostny.com – Drupal hosting