brady gaster

yadnb

Is there an organized North Carolina user group?

Here we go, rant #1 while a North Carolina native. Let's hope i burn no bridges.

It seems that the user group situation in North Carolina is uninvolved at best. First of all, there's the Enterprise Developer's Guild. Sure, they meet at the Microsoft campus. Their web site is uninformative. I've emailed every single person listed as a contact at least twice, and i've not yet heard back from anyone. i emailed once to find out about a mailing list (as the only one i saw that was “useable” bombed when i entered my email address to sign up), another time to offer my services as a trainer and/or speaker. This whole process, coupled with the fact that there appears to be no formal mailing list at all leaves me a little, well, frustrated. Granted - i have not yet had the time to attend any of the meetings, so i have no idea the caliber of the group. Yet, if i have to take time out of my schedule to remember to go to the web site to look up the next meeting, what's the point? Developers are busy people, and forgetful at times, too. They need to be prodded when these meetings happen. Additionally, i've heard that this group isn't 100% dedicated to .NET. Like i said, i'm not sure of this, but if it is true, there's a problem.

Second is the Piedmont Triad User Group, which serves the central portion of the state. So for meetings, it's not very useful. Still, there seems to be no formalized mailing list. Which is, of course, a little disenchanting. The AZDNUG  mailing list was so helpful to so many people, why don't either of these groups have one going on?

So there's my rant. i think that the AZDNUG group and list is about the most perfect example of a productive list which helps people learn about .NET. Good speakers, Microsoft involvement, and lots of stuff to give away at every meeting. The members were there to help one another out, and lots of code got shared each month. i'd like to see something in North Carolina like this.

Better yet, i'd like to either start something like this - a user group and mailing list dedicated solely to .NET Developers - or help out with one of the current initiatives going on. So if anyone's interested, or if anyone knows something i don't about one of these groups, please - shout about it!

Posted: Nov 18 2003, 11:57 AM by tatochip | with 4 comment(s)

Comments

Rob Zelt said:

Check out the TRIangle .Net User Group. They are an active group in the RTP area. There is a general meeting on the 2nd Wednesday and many other SIGs that meet during the month. Some of the recent speakers have included Brad Abrams, Jeffrey Richter, Jeff Prosise, and G. Andrew Duthie to name a few. There is a lot of energy and excitement driving initiatives within the group to continue to make things even better.

Check it out.

http://www.trinug.org
# November 18, 2003 12:52 PM

brady gaster said:

Oh yeah - that's the one i couldn't find more info about. thanks for putting it out there. So far, i've gotten some good emails from this list (which i signed up for some time ago). Seems the email isn't very active, i wonder why not? love to offer my services as a speaker to this group if ever there's a need.
# November 18, 2003 2:12 PM

Scott Cate said:

Brady, thanks for the props bro. We miss you here in Arizona. Are you still on our list? no reason you shouldn't be. Obviously we can't help with local stuff (ISP port blocks, etc) but the info is still invaluable. Hey, if you were here you could catch our free movie. We rented a theater for our meeting after which we get to see Haunted Mansion. Check out our home page, or Dec 2003 on the left for the details.

Thanks again for the props.
# November 25, 2003 7:14 PM

Scott Cate said:

Two other things:

1) The URL above is a broken link due to a typo. <a href="http://www.AZDNUG.com>AZDNUG.com</a> should work.

2) Our e-mail support list is not restricted to just Arizona, we have many people on the list that live outside the state, and don't contribute to our meetings, but are great resources on the list. I'ts very friendly. Go to our home page, and signup int he top left corner.

# November 25, 2003 7:17 PM
Leave a Comment

(required) 

(required) 

(optional)

(required)