What’s In an IT Group?
We have talked until we are blue in the face about how we want an IT group in the Texarkana area. We have made attempts to have a thriving community blog, hold monthly meetings (April is slipping by… maybe next month), and have technical or “look what I’m doing” presentations. The TAUG has done the same for many years now and nothing seems to work as one would expect in this area.
I talked to Adrian last night and he was on his way to Seattle to attend a users group meeting geared towards the Ruby programming language. I read all the time on other blogs about so-in-so attending the Linux Users Group here, the FreeBSD Users Group here, or the PHP users group over there. These people drive great distances to attend these meetings. Why?
Here is my question: What makes a good “users group?” What are the groups in Texarkana (Average Admins/TAUG) doing wrong? Are we doing anything right? Before you throw up a complaint, are you doing everything that you can? Are you offering up ideas? Contributing? Spreading the word? Do you think an IT group is even beneficial or needed in this area? Is Texarkana ready for that or should we all drive to Lufkin, TX once a month for the FreeBSD Users Group down there (it’s just an example)?
I think we have a lot of strong talent to pull from here in the Texarkana area. We, and other organizations around us, are using a lot of cool technologies. There are a lot of people out there in this community that know a lot more than me, that do things differently than I do, that may have an interest in what I do or the applications I develop. How do we put it all together and maintain a thriving users group?
If there are viewers from abroad visiting this blog, do you attend users groups where you live? What makes them beneficial to you? What do you look for in an IT group? All comments, local and abroad, are more than welcome! I think we have a lot of potential and talent to pull from within the group currently, and I know there is more to be exploited in the IT community here and elsewhere.
If you or anyone you know would like to contribute to the blog (write technical how-tos, post opinions on related news, write “look what I can do” articles) please let me know. Ask them to register an account on the blog and shoot me an e-mail. I will gladly update their account to have article posting privileges. I know there is a lot going on out there and I want to read about it and offer a place for others to blog their experiences for everyone’s enjoyment and benefit.
The Average Admins group has potential. I think the blogging aspect is beneficial. How do we create and maintain momentum?