Corporate .NET User Groups?

Everyone knows about INETA and how it supports public .NET user groups. In fact, according to the counter on the up left corner of the INETA home page, there are currently 522 registered user groups with 196,658 users worldwide.

But...what about the corporate (or internal organization) user groups out there? It's hard to even know who they are since many organizations have privacy and security concerns. But you just know they'd benefit from having some of our “rock star” speakers give presentations. And heck, INETA probably wouldn't even have to buy them pizza.

Even cooler...how about a “buddy“ alliance between a (public) local UG and a (private) corporate one? Perhaps they could put together periodic joint all-day events? There are some obvious cross-polination ideas here.

Comments?

4 Comments

  • Corporate groups don't sound like a good idea to me. There should already be some sort of standard way to pass info around than a user group. Corporate groups are also very subject to groupthink.



    External user groups are better in this regard because they involve cross-pollination among the (usually) better or more motivated developers of several companies. I know that my .NET user group, WeProgram.NET, attracts some of the best in the area (third-party speaker observation, not my own!).

  • Corporate groups already get INETA speakers, but these groups have to pay for the speakers. And this shouldn't be different ;-)

  • Keith, I think Corporate .NET user groups is a great idea. These .NET developer communities exists but outside those companies there is little visibility so they get none of the benefits that an external user group would get (support from MS and 3rd party companies); if a registry of these existed it would help them and those who would like to support them.



    Once a month for a few hours during business hours or immediately after is a way to capture the attention of those who won't or can't spend an entire evening a month away at an off-site user group for personal reasons such as "someone has to take care of the kids." Having a buddy alliance would be great as it would help cross polinate with outsiders.



    As for INETA speakers being paid, I disagree. Internal user groups are rarely funded with a specific budget, and a speaker is only going to spend an hour or two anyway; that is not really training or consulting, but might possibly lead to some if they do a great job speaking, which would benefit both the speaker and the company.

  • I personally think Corporate User groups are really not very useful. It looks too much like a office meeting and there is always an intranet for information sharing inside the company.



    External User Groups help share the knowledge across companies and that is what I think is its biggest plus point.

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