Why Community Matters (Channel 9)

While at TechEd 2006, I caught up with some of the folks who are innovating Community principles and implementation in the UK, from Girly Geek to Next Generation User Group. Here we talk about community, why it matters, what is needed to grow community, etc. The interviewees are also Niners. Tune in and meet some passionate members of the UK developer community who are among those who are taking Community to the next level.

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blowdart Peek-a-boo

Dec 13, 2006 at 1:30PM

Oh nice still of An_Angel, heh. I don't think she'll be impressed
eagle

Dec 13, 2006 at 3:42PM

So Charles has to travel to Spain to talk to people from the UK about community when he could have attended a DotNetUsers meeting in Seattle.

Where were you when the Seattle dotnet community needed you Charles?
eagle

Dec 13, 2006 at 4:03PM

The community innovators were DotNetUsers and NJMSDEV, but DotNetUsers has just diabanded, you could have helped them Charles they had their meeting in Building 43.
Charles Welcome Change

Dec 13, 2006 at 4:06PM

eagle wrote:

So Charles has to travel to Spain to talk to people from the UK about community when he could have attended a DotNetUsers meeting in Seattle.

Where were you when the Seattle dotnet community needed you Charles?

Uhm, that's pretty dramatic, Eagle...

I travelled to Spain to take part inTech Ed 2006 (as mentioned in the description of the video). The folks in this conversation are community innovators who happen to be from the UK and also attending Tech Ed 2006 at the same time as me and my camera.

C
Charles Welcome Change

Dec 13, 2006 at 4:09PM

<sarcasm>Oh yeah, that's right. Only Americans truly innovate... I just keep forgetting that, Eagle....</sarcasm>

Move along now, please. The topics discussed in this video have nothing to do with nationalism.

C
eagle

Dec 13, 2006 at 4:29PM

Nationalism…..??

This is about the Seattle DotNet community; they need someone to step-in and help, but you can’t walk over to Building 43.
Charles Welcome Change

Dec 13, 2006 at 4:42PM

Eagle, as usual, I am not following your logic. How can I help a defunct (or not) ASP.NET user group by walking over to building 43? What's your point? What do you mean? What do you think I can do about it? And, most importantly, what does any of this have to do with this video?

End the hijack, Eagle. Contact me offline with a mail explaining what you mean.

C
eagle

Dec 13, 2006 at 4:55PM

It's about community in your own backyard.
raymond

Dec 13, 2006 at 5:37PM

Two users groups that I regularly attended in the Dallas area have ceased to meet.

The usual problem is finding people who have the time to lead the group and present material.

They were replaced by other user groups in the area.

Many people simply do not have the time, interest and or talent to make presentations and be active as a user group leader.

Also, there is a fairly high burn-out rate with user group leadership.

At one time in another career, I was very active for over a decade in particiating, presenting and leading professional committees.

I too burned-out and am no longer interested in such a role.

Let people do what they want and are interested in doing.

Eagle, please get off of Charles' case.

Thanks.
timscarfe

Dec 13, 2006 at 7:11PM

hey great to see some UK guys on c9!

I met Sarah some time back at a Girl Geek Dinner but I must admit I have been out of the community scene for a while. Time to get involved I think!

That said; I may be at the Sharepoint user group shindig in London later
timscarfe

Dec 13, 2006 at 7:24PM

btw Charles; I spoke on WPF @ DDD3 (June) shame you didn't make it bro
richy

Dec 14, 2006 at 12:42AM

Eagle is certainly bitter about something that has happened in his community, which is a shame.

I don't think you should have a go at Charles over a video he recorded at TechED in Barcelona, when he found a group of enthusiastic community leaders..

Create a new thread and see if the community can help in any way.
An_Angel Waterbaby

Dec 14, 2006 at 1:22AM

Hi,

Eagle, it sounds to me as though the usergroup that you were part of, and failed to continue just needed someone to spend a bit of time letting people know about it and getting the community to run it themselves. Part of being a community driven is that the community support each other and sharing the workload, whether Microsoft and other large corporates get involved or not. This begs the question in your area about whether the community is really there and whether there was or is a better less time intensive way of running it. Have a think... maybe you could be their new community leader.

A word of advice to any community group from me is let the community run it together, spread the work, spread the joy and most of all have fun with it!

Tim, good to hear from you and I hope that the video entices you back to the community scene
die-Sel

Dec 14, 2006 at 2:40AM

nice video on UK users, would be cool if we could get some Ireland based community videos (not that i know any communities in Ireland)

An_Angel is cute also

back to work for me .....
Ion Todirel buuu

Dec 14, 2006 at 3:08AM

so who is the girl in the video?
Massif aim stupidly high, expect to fail often.

Dec 14, 2006 at 6:16AM

Ion Todirel wrote:

so who is the girl in the video?

Look up two posts!
blowdart Peek-a-boo

Dec 14, 2006 at 8:28AM

richy wrote:

Eagle is certainly bitter about something

Fixed that for you [6]
An_Angel Waterbaby

Dec 14, 2006 at 10:44AM

die-Sel: Thanks... I think... the vid is really bad at picking up the good side of me. Charles was a little too close with the camera More info on the london girl geek dinners can be found below and Microsoft did a good virtual side video on the events too which can be found here: http://www.mseventseurope.com/Teched/06/Pre/Live/VideoDev5.aspx

Ion: Who am I... well for that you will have to go and have a look on my mobility blog here: http://geekswithblogs.net/waterbaby and here http://www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk and here http://www.girlygeekdom.blogspot.com and from that you should get which community I am looking after. I also actively participate in Mobile Mondays and a number of the London groups, but not always just the Microsoft ones.

I guess you could say I am just another girl geek... with a fixation on mobile devices and tech gadgets.
eagle

Dec 14, 2006 at 4:33PM

Hi Sarah, I live nearer to London then I do to Seattle, our community is amazing and includes; NJMSDEV.ORG. NYCDOTNETDEV, N3UG, NJ SQL, NY Metro SQL, NY Enterprise Windows, NYC SharePoint, NYC Connected Systems

We just announced our fifth Code Camp at Microsoft's office in NYC.

Barcelona has two .Net User Groups SpainNet and Bcndev
richy

Dec 14, 2006 at 11:39PM

Hi, On the subject of user groups i thought i'd just drop in the Next Generation User Group can be found at

http://www.nxtgenug.net/">http://www.nxtgenug.net

and our podcasts at

http://www.nxtgenug.net/podcasts.aspx">http://www.nxtgenug.net/podcasts.aspx
die-Sel

Dec 15, 2006 at 5:04AM

An_Angel wrote:

die-Sel: Thanks... I think... the vid is really bad at picking up the good side of me. Charles was a little too close with the camera More info on the london girl geek dinners can be found below and Microsoft did a good virtual side video on the events too which can be found here: http://www.mseventseurope.com/Teched/06/Pre/Live/VideoDev5.aspx

Ion: Who am I... well for that you will have to go and have a look on my mobility blog here: http://geekswithblogs.net/waterbaby and here http://www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk and here http://www.girlygeekdom.blogspot.com and from that you should get which community I am looking after. I also actively participate in Mobile Mondays and a number of the London groups, but not always just the Microsoft ones.

I guess you could say I am just another girl geek... with a fixation on mobile devices and tech gadgets.

No problem An_Angel i thought Charles did an excellant job