> We may also want to consider alternating the meetings on two different days, for those who have persistent schedule conflicts on Thursdays. Perhaps try for a Tuesdayish or Wednesdayish in March or April?
Makes sense - March is a particularly good choice, since the usual Thursday runs right up against PyCon, and most people who are going would have to miss the meeting. Take care, -Brian On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 10:46 AM, Mike Orr <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 9:14 PM, Matthew Woodward > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 8:37 PM, Kevin LaTona <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> >>> Thinking out loud here but I wonder if the need for a "local user group" >>> has come to end of life? >>> >> >> ... I couldn't disagree more with the notion that local user groups >> aren't necessary in the age of all the online resources you cite. >> >> There's no question that things like stackoverflow are where people go to >> get specific questions answered quickly. But to me that's not at all what a >> local face-to-face user group is about. There's something much more >> powerful about an in person, interactive presentation that still can't be >> matched online, and I for one always learn a great deal more valuable >> lessons from in-person presentations. >> > > It is worth asking, however, what we want SeaPIG to be and whether its > goals need updating. The coordinators group has actually been doing this > over the past year to articulate what we like about SeaPIG and want to keep > doing, and what we want to try doing more of. The recent sprint-like > meetings and inter-meeting hack sessions are an outgrowth of that. The new > room we've gotten in Office Nomads is also an outgrowth of Jon leveraging > an opportunity. > > SeaPIGgies have always had a healthy skepticism of technology. I got my > first cellphone in 2000 and still have a barely-does-texting model. (I am > looking forward to the Ubuntu phones though, although it looks like > compatible models are in the $500 range.) We have avoided Google and > Facebook dependencies so far, as not giving us enough value for their > entanglements. IRC is still the messager of choice for project > coordination. It's paradoxical that people in the computer field are less > gee-whiz than our 24-hour texting and twittering friends outside it. Or in > other words, "I understand computers so I don't trust them any further > than I can throw them." > > My "build an index of tutorials" idea was not envisioned as a sprint per > se but as a project. I.e., something that might span multiple sessions and > be done mostly at home, with the sessions more geared toward coordination > than actually looking up sites and updating the wiki. > > More generally, I wonder if people would like to do more projects > together. I.e., something where we're coordinating at the meetings but have > the option of working on at home. I do my best programming at home where I > have my full environment, than in a meeting where I'm constrained by a > netbook/laptop, which I find much more cumbersome for programming. > > Another idea would be to invite other SeaPIGgies to our non-computer > activities. I've been doing some walking around town and joined a group > called Seattle Transit Hikers on meetup.com. If anyone wants to do that, > we may end up talking some Python while we're walking. The group tends to > do long 2-3 hour walks in the city or woods. There's another walking meetup > I'm eying that does more one neighborhood at a time with a local "tour > guide". > > We may also want to consider alternating the meetings on two different > days, for those who have persistent schedule conflicts on Thursdays. > Perhaps try for a Tuesdayish or Wednesdayish in March or April? >
