RVNUG

My thoughts on Open Spaces

Chris Williams — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:24:48 GMT

At the beginning of the MVP Summit, we had these talks called Open Spaces. The idea behind this was a free exchange of ideas with little or no agenda... just a topic. It's been done other places with varying degrees of success, but unfortunately the sessions I attended would have to be classified as a failure.

Why?

The first problem was the lack of moderation. We had a facilitator, but honestly he lacked a strong enough personality to reign the group in. It eventually got to the point where an MVP stepped up and started running the session. If I didn't know the guy, I would have thought it was arranged.

The second problem, and this isn't Microsoft's fault, is that our topic comes with a room full of egos. The topic was User Group Community and the room was mostly full of User Group Leaders. It's understood that there's a certain amount of ego involved in running a user group. It's not for the timid or the shy. You have to be willing to get up in front of people and considering yourself a leader certainly helps.

The problem is, there's a lot of folks who are convinced that they way they do things is the only possible way it should be done. Now, it may certainly be the only way that could work for "their personal group dynamic, in their town, at that time" but I can assure you as someone who has started and led 3 different user groups in 3 different states, there is NO "one-size-fits-all" solution for running a user group.

So we had a few folks that had very different opinions about what constitutes best practices. That's GREAT!! That's what open spaces are all about. Unfortunately, some of these folks lacked certain social graces, like knowing how to take turns, waiting for others to finish speaking, you know... things our society considers polite... and that is when the trouble started.

(Before you start warming up my inbox, yes I understand that this was a Global Summit, and yes there are cultures other than our own present, but the major repeat offenders in this case were all of the local culture and most definitely should have known better. Most of our foreign guests were actually quite polite and patiently waited for their turn to speak... a turn which sadly often never arrived.)

Without fail, every time the conversation would fork in an interesting direction, one of these egos would just start shouting over everyone else and inevitably steer the "discussion" back to their own agenda and their own experiences.

Examples of things that should never occur or be discussed at an event like this:

legal advice (even if you're in the same state as the person you are "advising," if you aren't a lawyer please refrain from dispensing legal advice. It doesn't matter if you're right. It doesn't matter if your brother is a lawyer. Just don't do it.)
unethical fund-raising (to the guy who sells his user group members contact information. Shame on you.)
discouraging new speakers (seriously? were you born with the gift of public speaking? I sure wasn't.)
elitism / exclusivity (yes there are groups out there that actively discourage novices from joining. If you want to form an experts only group, that's fine but don't complain about lack of INETA or community support.)

This session was held twice, to accommodate folks who wanted to attend a different session during one of the two time slots. I sat through both sessions, and while the second session was definitely more on track than the first, it could have been a lot better.

Don't get the wrong impression. Some good points were made, even by some of the egos, but ultimately I think the message was lost in the medium.

Coding4Fun @ South Carolina Code Camp 2.0

Chris Williams — Wed, 03 May 2006 11:01:00 GMT

Do you live in the SouthEast US and have a fun or interesting project you want to share with others?

Whether you wrote it yourself or just built upon it, we have a track especially for you at the South Carolina Code Camp 2.0 this coming September 16th & 17th.

In addition to an all day Game Dev track (ending with a Game Dev Q&A panel), we also have a “Coding For Fun” track, put together especially for the casual/hobbyist programmer to show off a bit.

For more information, visit the SC CC 2.0 page! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

South Carolina Code Camp 2.0

Chris Williams — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:43:00 GMT

As your friendly neighborhood INETA Membership Manager for North and South Carolina, I'm happy to announce that South Carolina is getting their second Code Camp!! This one will be in September (just like last year) and is in the Greenville/Spartanburg area.

This is a TWO DAY code camp and while the exact location is still TBD, the dates are set: 9/16 & 9/17.

The call for speakers is open and you can find information (along with the speaker submission form) at the Greenville Spartanburg Developers Guild website under the Code Camp tab.

If you have ever thought about doing any speaking at user groups or events, Code Camps are a fabulous way to get started. First time speakers are encouraged to apply. Remember, this is about community. Anyone who has a code-related topic and presentation is welcome. (This isn't just a .NET love fest either. The Developers Guild embraces all types.)

(also worth mentioning, there will be a Game Development track and (hopefully) a game developer panel at the end of the day.)

running a successful code camp

Chris Williams — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:27:00 GMT

I've spoken at four Code Camps and chaired one in Charleston. I'm gearing up to do another one in September. Today someone asked me if I had any advice/suggestions for running a code camp. If there's anything I'm full of, it's suggestions. :)

This is what I came up with:

- plan things as far in advance as possible. we did Charleston in 3 months, this one in 6 months.

- promote early and often, in every way you can think of.

- involve the local colleges and universities!!

- contact as many supporters (magazine & book publishers, software companies, etc) as possible.

- acquire as much swag as possible and let your speakers give some out during their sessions

- have some special speaker swag too, those guys deserve it more than anyone.

- get your DE or DCC to cough up money for food or facilities.

- get your local booksamillion or barnes&noble to donate bags for the attendees.

- get as many volunteers as possible and have one person be the volunteer coordinator.

- have another person be the food coordinator.

- in case you haven't figured it out yet, don't try to do it all yourself!

- get Robin Edwards involved, she rocks!

- get a web page up with as much detail as possible as early as possible. update it often!

- don't rely solely on other people to submit sessions, recruit speakers you know do well.

- even the good ones still have to be nagged for pics, bios and slides!!

- I let MSDN events handle registration, which wasn't bad but was probably unnecessarily complex. We used a dedicated gmail account for our community launch and that worked GREAT! Portland used a Yahoo group, which worked well too, as I recall.

- (Depending on the facilities you are using, such as a college or large company...) if you are providing food, consider getting the internal food service to cater your event. Not only will it build goodwill towards future events, but you might get a pretty competitive deal in the process.

- Code Camps don't have sponsors, but don't let that keep you from having supporters and contributors. Swag doesn't just show up without being requested. Most companies in our industry understand Code Camps by now, but you still have to ask them. Don't turn your code camp into a marketing fest.

- Don't let recruiters actively recruit at the event. If they want to leave some cards on the free stuff table, that's fine... but don't let it turn into a recruiting event. That annoys folks pretty quick.

What INETA can do for me...

Chris Williams — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 23:49:00 GMT

INETA is always asking what they can do to better serve the user groups... well, as a user group leader, here's my suggestion:

Advertising! Small to medium sized groups have little or NO budget for advertising, and it's incredible how many times I meet people in the developer community that have no idea a local user group even exists. This is NOT due to a lack of effort on our part.

So it comes down to advertising... specifically, run a monthly ad in the main .NET related mags, such as CoDe, MSDN, Visual Studio & ASP.NET Pro, that lists all the appearances of speaker bureau members for that month. These speakers are typically scheduled far enough in advance to make the ad timely. (After all, ads can be delivered later than content.)

What this would accomplish is getting INETA some exposure and getting the User Groups some exposure. A monthly ad would drive people to the INETA website and their local user group. Fact is, most folks who visit the INETA website are already in a user group. So advertising the appearances there is not very effective. By listing the upcoming speaker appearances, all participating User Groups will get mentioned 3-4 times per year in magazines that claim to cater to user groups. (I say that because they send our groups free magazines.)

Why is that last point relevant? Because, if ASP.NET Pro and CoDe Magazine (for example) really want to help User Groups, they'll cut INETA a deal on the ad rate.

Am I totally off on this? Tell me what you think...

.Net User Group Olympics

Chris Williams — Tue, 17 May 2005 18:22:00 GMT

This is a cool idea...

http://www.dotnetolympics.org/

I'd REALLY like to see the Carolinas do something like this as well. We have numerous user groups.

(It's funny... GC.NUG is doing the Open Source Mobile Game Programming Expo, which ends in July. When we first came up with the idea I wanted to include other Carolina groups to make it a bigger event and more fun. The primary opposition to that suggestion ended up dropping out of the contest after a couple months, quitting the company I work at and moving to Texas. I wonder if he's participating in this?)

Maybe our next big contest will be open to other groups... like I wanted to all along. :)

Question is... what should it be? I don't necessarily want to do compact framework again, so maybe a windows app or a web app. It probably won't have a “just games” focus. Maybe we could have two categories... 1 for business and 1 for fun... and the platform could be left up to the entrants. The only qualifiers would be that it has to be written in a .NET language (can use any of the frameworks) and that it's something NEW. Not an app you sold 2 years ago and modified. Like the DNO site says, if you ever got money for it, or released it publicly then it isn't eligible.

While I'm on the subject, this seems like a good time to mention I've registered http://www.carolinausergroups.com (and .org). In addition to collaborative competition and area news, I plan for the site to also offer a way to get some exposure to the various user groups in your area that you may or may not know anything about. As well as a forum for UG leaders (and UG members) to talk and share ideas.

The site is not up yet (or even close to being ready) but it's one of the top items on my list of projects. Now all I need is a webhost willing to donate some space in exchange for some free advertising and a DNN 3.0 install.

inclement weather

Chris Williams — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:27:00 GMT

The Roanoke Valley .NET User Group meeting for tonight, February 3rd 2005 is postponed due to snow and ice. New date to be announced. If you must drive tonight, please be safe.

www.rvnug.org

it was a good one

Chris Williams — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 15:03:00 GMT

Yesterday was my birthday (hold your applause) and I took a road trip up to Roanoke VA. (For the record, that's normally an 8 hour drive, which I made in 5 1/2 hours.) The reason for the trip was three-fold: 1) I wanted to see my friends and family and 2) I wanted to attend the electoral nominations of the Roanoke Valley .NET User Group (RV.NUG) that I started back in August of 2003, which just happened to be meeting last night, and 3) because Geoff Snowman of Microsoft was presenting at the RV.NUG meeting.

Well I made the mistake of telling a couple people I was coming, and they decided to turn the NUG meeting into a birthday party. Wow! Needless to say, I was pretty suprised. The meeting went well, and the low-carb birthday cheesecake was actually pretty good. (Thanks Lori) and Geoff was awesome, as always. The gifts were nice too, D&D minis and a Southpark DVD. We also got a couple of digital pics of Geoff presenting while wearing a party hat. :)

After the NUG meeting, a number of us went to a local bar for drinks and pool. I got my butt soundly kicked by Geoff Snowman in a game of cut-throat. Geoff bought a round of drinks and some of the best chicken wings I've ever tasted.

It was a great night!