Models of local or regional user group websites?

What are some examples of regional Drupal websites? And what purposes do they serve? What are other open source communities doing?

Please edit and add yours!

[We're considering making a site for Drupal Ireland and considering these models - h]

1. Community sites. They provide the space for community interaction, event planning, discussion.
2. Public facing welcome mats for decision makers
3. Websites for the regional association or group.
4. Are there any which are replacements for the Drupal.org Marketplace? listing service providers for an area or region.

1. Community sites

These supplant the functionality of Groups.Drupal.org. These don't seem to have as much about promoting Drupal to non-users. They are inward facing to support the existing community. They also provide local language support.

• UK Drupal community - http://www.drupal.org.uk/ Member list http://www.drupal.org.uk/profile
• Drupal Sweden group - http://drupal.se/community/
• Drupal Italy - http://drupal.it/
• Drupal Israel - www.drupal.org.il
• Drupal Poland - http://drupal.pl/

2. Association web sites

• Drupal Spain "Association" website. drupal.es resolves to http://asociaciondrupal.es/

3. Promoting Drupal outside the community

These are slick petite websites which give basic information about Drupal and point decision makers or new comers to the local contacts.

• Drupal in germany http://www.drupal.de/
• A good example, but not local is Drupal.com - http://drupal.com/

4. The market place

The official market place for Drupal.org is in development. However, it would seem one challenge on the ground is that decision makers are finding it tough to find local Drupal expertise. As well, it's hard apparently to get on the "official" service providers list. Are there local marketplace type websites?

• Drupal.org - Marketplace http://drupal.org/marketplace-preview/all/all/Ireland
  However if you manage a list locally, what requirements do you establish? Who has the rights to manage that list?

• Wordpress has a "Marketplace" - Code Poet - Developer directory http://codepoet.com/browse/project-size/100000-250000/
  There is a very LOW barrier to entry: How to apply to Code Poet - http://codepoet.com/apply/

• The Joomla Ireland community has a community website http://joomlaireland.org/ It's worth noting the "Business directory" is on a different domain http://joomlaireland.ie/