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Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:29 UTC
I recently moved to Nashville, and as part of that transition, I’ve taken the helm as the new organizer for the Nashville PHP user group. I posted what follows to the Nashville PHP mailing list, but I thought it would be a good blog post. Enjoy!
Six years ago, I founded the Atlanta PHP user group (along with a few others), and I’ve been organizing it since then. It’s been a lot of hard work to grow and develop the PHP community in the Atlanta area, but it’s also been rewarding to meet so many great people and to see them take interest in and become invested in the continued success of their PHP user group. I’m proud to have been a part of building that community to the point where it can sustain itself without my involvement.
Now, I’m in Nashville. A few months ago, I moved here to pursue a job with a local web start-up. I never had any intention of running the local PHP user group, but Will Fitch, the former Nashville PHP organizer, contacted me to see if I would be interested in taking over the reins. He had moved out of the area and was no longer able to devote the time necessary to keep the group growing. I humbly accepted the torch, and that’s why I’m now the Nashville PHP organizer.
There have been several incarnations of PHP user groups in the Nashville area over the past ten years, all with varied success. It is my hope to build on those successes and to grow a sustained community of members who are personally invested in seeing a vibrant and active PHP community in the Middle Tennessee area.
That’s a lofty goal that will require a lot of hard work, so I’ll need your help. Nevertheless, I’m up for the challenge, and I hope you’ll join me in growing this community.
First of all, a few matters of business:
- Nashville PHP will hold regular monthly meetings on the second Tuesday of every month at 7pm at the same location each month. I am currently solidifying this location, and I’ll let you know when details are finalized.
- June 8 at 7pm will be our first meeting. Location and topic TBA.
- Nashville PHP will continue to use Meetup.com as our central place for membership and meeting announcements and RSVPs.
- I’m dropping the discussion forums on Meetup.com in favor of a Google Group for discussions and job postings. Please join the Nashville PHP Google Group.
- Follow @NashvillePHP on Twitter for community status updates. Also, if you have a Twitter account and you want to be listed on the nashvillephp-devs list, let me know. I’ll add you.
- Join me on Freenode IRC in the #nashvillephp channel. If you’re new to IRC, read this basic IRC tutorial to get started.
- Employers and recruiters are welcome to post job opportunities to our discussion list. Before posting, please read the rules.
Welcome to the new Nashville PHP! I hope you’ll join me in making this community a success.
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Tags: nashville, nashvillephp, php, phpc, phpcommunity, phpgroups, user-group
Sat, 3 Oct 2009 19:49 UTC
Miami CodeWorks, so far, was the smallest conference but I still think some important connections were made, especially with regard to user group contacts.
At the Microsoft happy hour on the second day of the conference in Miami, I was able to meet Brendon Van Heyzen, who is interested in starting up a PHP user group in Boca Raton. It seems that the Miami PHP user group has quietened down and gone silent, and he’s interested in starting up a group for the Boca Raton PHP community. We had a great discussion, and I offered him some points of advice on how to start a group, and this reminded me of the user group starter package I’ve discussed with Rafael and Michelangelo. I really need to push the PHP Groups initiative to get started on this.
The two main pieces of advice I offered were to start a mailing list and then to find adequate meeting space. The mailing list is important to get discussion going and to see what kind of group the people in your area want to have. It will inform your search for meeting space so you can find the kind of space that will work best for the type of meetings you want to have.
So, CodeWorks has been an excellent way to reach out to local leaders and people who want to start groups in their areas. If you’re interested in starting a group, join the PHP Groups mailing list and introduce yourself.
Rounding out our visit to Miami, I enjoyed some great Cuban food at Puerto Sagua, and we actually managed to find some good beer at The Room in Miami Beach. It was a beer oasis in the midst of a desert filled with mojito sand.
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Tags: codeworks, conferences, cw09, php, phpgroups, user-group
Mon, 3 Nov 2008 20:41 UTC
I usually don’t announce Atlanta PHP meetings from my blog, but given the short notice, I figured that greater exposure would be best, so here we go…
When: Thursday, November 6, 2008—7pm-9pm
Where: Consulate General of Canada
November Topic: Got a problem? We’ve got answers!
Got a bug that’s been nagging you for hours? How about a feature that you just can’t seem to implement? This month at Atlanta PHP, we’re diverging from our usual presentation format and opening the floor for a “round table” discussion about development problems you are facing.
So, feel free to bring your coding problems to us, and as a group, we’ll come up with the solutions. Bring your laptop or a thumb drive containing snippets/samples of your code or application, so we can look at it as a group. This is sure to be a learning experience for us all.
Our meeting takes place at the Consulate General of Canada at 100 Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta (at the corner of Peachtree and 14th Streets). Click here for directions. You will need to see the concierge in order to gain access to the 17th floor.
PHP Basics at the Atlanta Web Design Group Meetup on November 11
On November 11 at 7:00pm, Matthew Turland will speak to the Atlanta Web Design Group about PHP, covering basics of the language and best practices from a designer’s perspective. This will include basic output, variables, conditional branches, loops, output modularization using includes, coding style, and escaping output for security purposes.
Matthew is the Lead Programmer for a Web application service provider, is Zend PHP Certified, and works with PHP and MySQL on a daily basis. He’s also a member of the PHP Community organization and serves as an organizer for the Acadiana Open Source Group. You can also read his blog at http://ishouldbecoding.com/.
There will be a 30-40 minute presentation followed by Q&A and discussion.
You must RSVP at Meetup.com for this meeting.
php|works and PyWorks in Atlanta November 12-14!
Atlanta PHP invites you to join us at php|works and PyWorks in Atlanta, GA November 12 through 14!
Atlanta PHP user group members receive $100 off the price of registration!
The publishers of php|architect and Python Magazine, are proud to invite you to php|works and PyWorks, two great conferences that will take place in Atlanta, GA, USA, between November 12 and November 14.
With over 65 talks in 5 tracks, 10 tutorials and great networking events and parties, php|works and PyWorks represent a unique opportunity to not only hone your technical skills, but also meet and interact with members of a vibrant community of developers from all walks of life. And remember—your attendance fee covers access to both conferences!
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Tags: atlanta, atlantaphp, php, phpworks, pug, pyworks, user-group
Tue, 9 Sep 2008 19:55 UTC
After a long hiatus and a very quiet mailing list and forum, I am delighted to announce that the main communication channel for PHP Groups is moving to the official PHP project at php.net!
You may recall PHP Groups being created over a year ago for the purpose of networking together the leaders and organizers of PHP user groups around the world. I’ve been very bad about keeping things moving on this front, but I want to pick things back up and get us talking again. I also want to get us back on track for the mission of this group:
PHP Groups networks PHP user groups into a tighter community, provides a means to share information and resources among its community members, and aids in the formation of new PHP user groups.
In the near future, we’ll have more discussion about what we can do to progress toward fulfilling this mission.
In the meantime, if you help with the organization of your local PHP user group in any way, feel free to join the ug-admins mailing list or subscribe to the ug.admin news group at php.net:
ug-admins-subscribe [ at ] lists.php.net
news://news.php.net/ug.admins
Also, look to this list for announcements about meet-ups of user group leaders and organizers at upcoming conferences!
And, as always, I’m lurking in #phpgroups on Freenode IRC, so feel free to join me, if you like.
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Tags: php, phpcommunity, phpgroups, pug, user-group
Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:33 UTC
Last night, Costa Rica PHP held their first user group meeting. A whopping 37 developers attended! While I’m excited to see any new PHP user group form and be successful, I’m especially ecstatic about Costa Rica PHP because it’s headed up by two of my colleagues from Schematic: Pablo Viquez and Karolina Hidalgo.
It sounds like they have a very active and vibrant PHP developer community in Costa Rica, and they’ve found two very supportive universities that have offered to host their meetings and events. I wish that every PHP user group could find sponsors willing to provide computer labs and even bring in outside speakers!
Pablo writes the following about their first meeting:
I’m very pleased to announce that we had a great response from the PHP developers here in Costa Rica. We held our first meeting in the University of Costa Rica (UCR), with a total of 37 developers of different backgrounds and skills. At the end of the meeting everyone was very excited and happy with the initiative of the Costa Rica group, and willing to contribute.
We’ve received support from two universities who want to host our monthly meetings, they offered the opportunity to not just do monthly meetings but use their labs to have workshops and even offered the support to bring speakers from other countries.
Congratulations, Costa Rica PHP on a successful first meeting, and here’s to many more successful meetings!
Check out the Costa Rica PHP website at http://www.costaricaphp.org/.
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Tags: costa-rica, costaricaphp, php, pug, user-group
Sat, 21 Apr 2007 20:55 UTC
So, I will once again find myself in New York City next week, and while I’m there, I’ll be attending New York PHP’s April meeting. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop by. Chris Shiflett will be presenting a talk entitled “Security 2.0.” I’ve seen a sneak peak of the title slide, and this talk will be highly informative—as usual—but this time there will be a twist on the sometimes dry topic of security. You’ll have to come see what I’m talking about; you’re bound to be entertained. I’m looking forward to it.
If you want to attend, be sure you RSVP or you might not be able to get in. Here are the details:
What: New York PHP
When: April 24, 6:30pm
Where: IBM, 590 Madison Avenue, Room 1219
Who: Chris Shiflett is presenting on “Security 2.0”
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Tags: new-york, nyphp, php, user-group
Wed, 7 Mar 2007 21:33 UTC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Ben Ramsey
770-704-5279
Email: ben [at] phpgroups.org
Web site: www.phpgroups.org
Worldwide support network for PHP user groups launches
ATLANTA, Ga., Mar. 7, 2007 – PHP Groups, a worldwide network for PHP user groups, launched today with the intent to foster an open community for PHP user groups to share and exchange ideas and information. Membership is open to anyone working with a PHP user group or interested in starting one.
“This is a great opportunity for PHP user groups to become more aware of each other, find out what works and what doesn’t, and share ideas and, potentially, some resources. I think the overall PHP community will benefit from this kind of exchange at the grassroots level—the user groups,” said Ben Ramsey, the organizer of the Atlanta PHP user group and one of the founding members of PHP Groups.
Every month, PHP.net lists events for over fifty PHP user groups. However, there may be as many as 200 or more PHP user groups around the world. PHP Groups seeks to unite these user groups and provide a means for them to communicate with each other.
User groups are clubs focused on the use of a particular technology. PHP user groups focus on the PHP programming language and related technologies such as Linux, the Apache Web server, and the MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. The first PHP user group formed in Chicago in 1997.
At present, PHP Groups provides a mailing list where user group leaders and those interested may subscribe and take part in a dialog with other user groups. “I hope that part of our accomplishments will involve uniting and bringing together for an open dialog all of the PHP user groups across the world,” said Ramsey. “I hope this mailing list can get that conversation going.”
To subscribe to the PHP Groups mailing list, go to www.phpgroups.org.
About PHP Groups
PHP Groups networks PHP user groups into a tighter community, provides a means to share information and resources among its community members, and aids in the formation of new PHP user groups.
About PHP
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, or simply PHP, is a “widely-used general-purpose scripting language,” designed with the Internet in mind. Commonly implemented to manipulate databases and dynamic content on the server, PHP is also an indispensable local scripting tool. Delivering high performance, intuitive syntax, powerful structure, and a rich feature set, PHP puts ideas into action, both locally and on the Internet.
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Download a PDF version of this press release.
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Tags: community, php, php-group, php-mongers, phpgroups, user-group
Tue, 9 Jan 2007 16:06 UTC
I’m pleased to announce the official Atlanta PHP Call for Proposals. If you’re going to be in the Atlanta area and would like to present at an Atlanta PHP meeting, then, by all means, please let me know!
From the official post at Atlanta PHP:
Atlanta PHP announces its official Call for Proposals!
Atlanta PHP meets on the first Thursday of every month at 7:00pm Eastern Time in midtown Atlanta. We seek a wide variety of presentation topics of interest to intermediate-to-advanced Web developers with a focus on PHP and related technologies. Atlanta PHP connects and unites PHP users across the Southeast, provides world-class support and resources to the community, and advocates the adoption of PHP to local, national, and international businesses.
If you will be in the Atlanta area on the first Thursday of a month and would like to present a PHP-related topic at an Atlanta PHP meeting, please contact Ben Ramsey (ben [at] atlphp.org) and include your talk title, brief synopsis of your talk, full contact information (including phone number), and desired meeting date.
At this time, we cannot provide a speaker compensation package, though this is being investigated for the future. If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities allowing Atlanta PHP to provide speaker compensation packages, please contact Ben Ramsey (ben [at] atlphp.org) for further details.
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Tags: atlanta, atlantaphp, cfp, php, presentations, proposals, talks, user-group
