Geek/Tech/Entrepreneur Stuff to do in PHX

[Alan Dayley]

Josh,

I feel warned.  And I don't understand the reason for such a strong warning.

There are people in every industry, government or community who wish
to fleece their "community" for their own profit instead of mutual
benefit.  The trick is to find the positive people and ignore the
rest.  Apply the same filter with every event, group or blogger in the
lists and links I provided.  I don't expect bloggers or techies to be
any different, as if being techie makes one a saint.

Some of those bloggers are purely commercial or completely neglected,
I'm sure.  Some of the groups or events or sites listed are lousy,
boring or poor marketing excuses to sell something.  Some are not out
to create community but to build a "kingdom" for their own benefit.
They are the duds.

Let's look at a few positives:

- Read the Gangplank Manifesto on their home page at
http://gangplankhq.com.  That looks like a great articulation of their
goals and purpose.  Ones I strongly support!
-- Read how the manifesto came to be on Derek's blog at
http://derekneighbors.com/2009/07/collaborative-writing-or-how-the-gangplank-manifesto-was-written/

- Gangplank has hosted or is hosting:
-- MobiFest - a day long conference on developing for phones like
iPhone or Android
-- Gangplank Jr. - a 2-3 hour Saturday event for kids 5-15 to learn
programming concepts
-- Wordpress training classes for minimal cost or no-cost for non-profit orgs
-- Laid Off Camp - a day long conference on job searching and entreprenuership
-- Barcamp Pheonix - a day long conference on software development
-- TEDx night - Watch ted.com videos and discuss them
-- OpenPhoenix - a night of open mic music and entertainment

- The last http://desertcodecamp.com/ was held on June 13th and nearly
filled DeVry's Phoenix campus with developers talking about code or
making code.  Free lunch of pizza and sub sandwiches was provided too.
 Put together by volunteers.

- If you're into Microsoft based development tech, the people who
maintain the http://azgroups.com site do an annual all-day event at
venues like the Orphium Theater and at no cost to attendees.  Fine,
it's marketing for MS but it's put on by volunteers here in the valley
and a great way for people to learn about things that improve their
career skills.
(http://www.componentart.com/BLOGS/milos/archive/2009/06/02/scott-guthrie-event-2009-phoenix-az.aspx)

- The local Ruby On Rails group has monthly meetings with around 30
regularly in attendance.

- The Java group is also well attended every month.

- The third http://podcampaz.com/ is coming up in November, put on by
voluteers at no cost (donation requested) to attendees.  Had about 350
people attend last year (if I recall) for two days of conference.

- The http://azentrepreneurship.com/ conference will be in November
for the forth year.  This one costs $100+ but should be as well
attended as last year with 200+ people.  Funded and organized in part
by a local venture capital group.

- The first http://ignitephoenix.com event was held a year ago with a
little over 100 in attendance and has grown to fill the 600 seat
Theather at Tempe Center for the Arts back in June.  The connections
made there live well past the event.
-- Oh, a city council member and the mayor of Tempe spoke this last
time, though he was a bit silly trying to be Tempe exclusive.  That
seems to be at least verbal political support.

- The second ABLEConf on FS/OSS is being planned for October and
should be better than last year. (Go Hans and team!)

I'm not going to go on, though I could point out several purely social
events like http://phoenixfridaynights.com/, it's east and west valley
analogs, East Valley Thursday Morning breakfasts, Tempe Geeks Lunch,
South Valley Geek Meet and Eat and Gangplank's Brown Gag lunch
presentations every Wednesday.

Now, having said all of that "giddy blind optimism," I'd like to
understand how the above does not address the efforts of the past or
provide improvement over past efforts.  What are the real needs of the
community, if not some of the above?  What would you suggest?  How can
PLUG be a part of it?

Alan

On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 1:34 PM, Joshua Zeidner<jjzeidner at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Alan,
>
>    while I appreciate your post, and anyone who is making a sincere
> effort to build community in Phoenix... be warned.  There are some
> small groups who periodically spawn off new 'communities' every month
> or so.  Look closely and you see the same few people with reused
> marketing recipes.  Lots of blog and not too much community I'm
> afraid.  Their efforts amount to some simple branding and putting up a
> blog.  While these things are not really particularily offensive to
> me, they do somewhat detract from interest in the real needs of the
> community here.  Some of these people are just outright idiotic and
> cannot deal with existing structure and refuse to accept the history
> of efforts in the past.  They lack any articulation of their goals and
> purpose.  Often times they have trouble organizing even small groups
> of 2 or 3.  Dont forget we've had a tech incubator here.  Lets not
> smack down sincere criticism in favor of giddy blind optimism,
> remember you can't improve without criticism.  I would take these
> people much more seriously if they addressed the efforts of the past
> and perhaps suggested how they are going to improve on them, or
> perhaps indicate what has changed that will make them a success.
> Maybe seeking real political support would gain some legitimacy.
>
>    on the positive side, I think Phoenix will attract a lot of
> technology business due to its relative low cost and no doubt you will
> start to see community infrastructure grow.  We are seeing some real
> urban development happening in Phx metro which has me very excited.  I
> think when the macroeconomic problems are sorted out we will see
> downtown Phx bloom.  Im hoping that the average Arizonan gets involved
> in the political process and make sure that the corruption stays out
> of city and state politics.  Coming from NY, Im recognizing a lot of
> positive development trends in Phx metro.
>
>  -jmz