Drupal in Egypt: the way forward

Posted by jpoesen on March 8, 2012 at 11:46am

I'm not based in Egypt myself but I'm committed to helping out the African Drupal Community where I can (I'm based in Senegal).

I see a bit of tension, a lot of history and a lot of enthusiasm.
Let's channel all the good energy and get an actual event going.

How about we set up a User Group Meeting in Cairo 3 weeks from now?

For this we need a few simple things:

Someone needs to suggest a place where 10-25 people can get together, have some tea and discuss Drupal in a quiet setting,
It's often a good idea to have a central theme or topic for each User Group Meetup, like 'setting up Drupal on your local windows/linux/mac machine' or 'Social Networking and Drupal' or 'Drupal distributions'.

You don't have to be 'a leader' or 'The Established Egypt Drupal Community Leader' to get this going. All this community needs is for someone to suggest a place and a time, and for a handful of people to show up.

So let's go. Who can suggest a nice spot for a meetup?

Comments

Nice idea

Posted by FooZee on March 8, 2012 at 12:03pm

Nice thoughts @jpoesen :) thanks for pointing us out ;)

I suggest few places in different parts around cairo :)

Al sawy Culture wheel (Sakyet el Sawy --zamalek)
Cilantro Cafe (el Mesaha --Dokki)
Cilantro Cafe or Costa, beanos or whatever (Abbas el Akad --Nasr City)
maybe we can use IRC as a last resort ? :) (I really would like to meet some local drupallers in person :D)

... any other places ?

for the theme I would suggest, Starting a strong Drupal developers community ?

Community spread?

Posted by jpoesen on March 8, 2012 at 12:43pm

Hi @FooZee

Good idea to focus on the strong developers community - just don't forget there are a lot of newbies out there who might find very technical meetups intimidating.

How about we set up 2 polls:

a poll to see in which of the major major cities we have Drupal enthusiasts
a poll to get an idea of the different skill levels in the Egypt community

I think those 2 sets of information could be really helpful in figuring out the best way to kickstart the community.

Thanks jpoesen

Posted by meladawy on March 8, 2012 at 8:47pm

Nice idea Thanks @jpoesen for this great effort, I think the suggested places that @FooZee mentioned are enough. let's go ahead to the next step.

http://maged.me

Applause to Mahmoud and Joeri

Posted by Remon on March 18, 2012 at 6:21pm

Applause to Mahmoud and Joeri for your efforts!
Now we have some options for meetup place, would we decide when?
What about the first week of April, can we join an irc or something to discuss meeting date?

Great :)

Posted by faissl on March 18, 2012 at 10:40pm

I always hoped to catch a DrupalCon, this seems a wonderful alternative :)
there is also Rawabet Hall, and Cairo HackerSpace, I'll check Open Egypt and Eglug for this..

Surprise is mutual..!

wonderful

Posted by ahmedmigoo on March 19, 2012 at 8:29am

i want know more details please

there aren't much details so

Posted by FooZee on March 19, 2012 at 11:14am

there aren't much details so far :)
we are just trying to get anything done and some Egyptian Drupallers to meet together ;)

I agree with FooZee for this

Posted by JonathanHindi on March 19, 2012 at 8:42am

I agree with FooZee for this locations, and First week in april will be nearly impossible for me, due to mid-terms exams.

Amazing for me :) but, I have

Posted by FooZee on March 19, 2012 at 10:55am

Amazing for me :) but, I have exams the first week of April too :D, why don't we hold it on this Thursday (29 Mar) ?

ew! 29th will be impossible

Posted by Remon on March 19, 2012 at 11:01am

ew! 29th will be impossible for me, I have, well, another kind of exams too :D.
However, I'm happy if you guys reach a consensus on 29th. otherwise, let it be held second week of April.

After 9th of April its ok for

Posted by JonathanHindi on March 19, 2012 at 11:25am

After 9th of April its ok for me.

I'm in anytime of April

Posted by mohamedali on March 19, 2012 at 1:20pm

I'm in anytime of April

IRC

Posted by meladawy on March 19, 2012 at 5:50pm

Hey guys what about a small IRC meeting on the next Sat 25 mar , 8 pm ?

http://maged.me

Cool!

Posted by Remon on March 19, 2012 at 6:03pm

Cool!

What's the IRC channel you

Posted by rami.sedhom on March 19, 2012 at 7:02pm

What's the IRC channel you gonna meeting one?

#drupal-eg

Posted by Remon on March 19, 2012 at 9:07pm

#drupal-eg

bump!

Posted by Remon on April 23, 2012 at 11:33pm

bump!

well, let's hold a quick

Posted by FooZee on April 25, 2012 at 11:41pm

well, let's hold a quick gathering ?? or an IRC meeting or anything to set some roadmap and act upon it ? :)

I'm on irc 24/7! :D

Posted by Remon on April 25, 2012 at 11:49pm

I'm on irc 24/7! :D

Bump, Let's do something.

Posted by JonathanHindi on April 24, 2012 at 7:42am

Bump, Let's do something.

Next Fri !!

Posted by meladawy on April 25, 2012 at 11:57pm

Next Friday 4/27/2012 8pm ?

http://maged.me

I recommend an irc meeting

Posted by Remon on April 26, 2012 at 1:03am

I recommend an irc meeting first so that we could schedule everything waaay faster.
I'm available ANYDAY 9pm - 3am, what about you @FooZee, @bazo0oka, @JonathanHindi, @theMyth, @Faisal, @ahmedmigoo!

IRC Meeting is what i mean

Posted by meladawy on April 26, 2012 at 5:42am

Sure IRC Meeting is what i mean, Anyway i'll be around 8pm-11pm so i think 9pm is perfect , What about u guys ? @FooZee, @JonathanHindi, @theMyth, @Faisal, @ahmedmigoo!

http://maged.me

I'm in

Posted by amagdy on April 26, 2012 at 11:57am

I'm soo happy to finally meet some drupallers.
Tomorrow is gr8, though i prefer physical meetings... but this is a good start :).

great idea. can we do it next

Posted by melsawy on April 26, 2012 at 12:02pm

great idea.
can we do it next Saturday or Sunday?

Well Mohamed, its just a fast

Posted by meladawy on April 26, 2012 at 1:00pm

Well Mohamed, its just a fast session that might help us to arrange for a physical meeting. I don't think it will take a long time . Try to be there.

http://maged.me

Sure I'll try to do that isa

Posted by melsawy on April 26, 2012 at 1:04pm

Sure

I'll try to do that isa

So the meeting will be Today

Posted by JonathanHindi on April 27, 2012 at 9:26am

So the meeting will be Today Friday 27 April, 9PM on #drupal-eg, I will do my best to attend. See u :)

I'll do my best to attend

Posted by FooZee on April 27, 2012 at 2:00pm

I'll do my best to attend isA, but please keep me and all those who may not be able to attend posted :)

Man it's only 10-15 minutes,

Posted by Remon on April 27, 2012 at 2:05pm

Man it's only 10-15 minutes, please join even from your mobile :)

:\

Posted by meladawy on April 27, 2012 at 2:17pm

http://maged.me

Five of us have confirmed

Posted by Remon on May 14, 2012 at 12:22pm

Five of us have confirmed attending (I, Fozee, Bazooka, mos3aboof and Jonathan). Saturday 19th, 7.00 PM @ Cilantro el Zamalek.
Everyone else please confirm.