We’ve talked a lot about various WordPress meetups and events here on WP Daily. We’re obviously big fans (will you be at WordCamp Atlanta?) of what you guys are doing in your local communities to support and push WordPress even further.
Case in point: In addition to my local WordPress Users Group, there’s a local WordPress Advanced Users Group, as well as a local WordPress Developers Group.
But here’s the problem: We’re all a bit fragmented. And not just “we” as in those of us who are local, but “we” as in citizens of the Internet.
People share their notes and photos on services like Meetup, Flickr, or Picasa, and then then they share notes or quick tips via Twitter, their blogs, or some other similar site.
Initially, I posed the question:
Why don’t we try to having WP Daily be the centralized location for all types of meetups?
But this brought some significant points of discussion to the Twittersphere and I took down the post until I can make some revisions. The revisions have been made, so here’s the post along with a few more points of discussion.
First Post! (Or, “The Goal of the First Draft”)
Ultimately, the goal of the first draft of this post was to have a single place in which we could all share notes and experiences about our local WordPress meetups. Right now, I currently follow a number of respectable bloggers, developers, designers, and more and love to see what each of them are up to in their local communities.
It’s really neat and I’m sure many of you do the same. So I took that point and ran with it:
Capturing All The Meetups!
Bottom line: I think it’d be neat to see WP Daily serve as a hub for all meetups across the country – and across the world – in capturing notes, pictures, and tips based on what we’re all doing in our local communities.
Additionally, I think that it could provide a solid homebase for people who are looking for a meetup, but aren’t sure where or how to get started.
It’s a lofty goal, for sure, but why can’t we do it?
Planning The Meetup: Solved!
Let’s say that you’re in the process of planning a WordPress meetup. Meetup.com is great (and recommended) for this kind of stuff, but – in my experience – people usually just use it for the RSVP, to keep up with the current month’s events, and that’s it.
Of course, why not announce your meetup and the event here? Even though some people may be on Meetup, they may also be regular readers of WP Daily.
Imagine if someone is looking for a local meetup, is not using Meetup.com, and sees that there’s a meetup within an hour or two drive from their place.
Neat right?
Of course, Meetup.com is not so much a place where people hang out after the fact. This is where WP Daily where come into play.
The Meetup Postmortem
This is where I see the potential for WP Daily to have the most value. Whether or not you announce a meetup, you simply share your notes about everything that happened.
Imagine after each meetup, we share the bullet points of what was discussed, photos from the event, and links to any material that was used – be it slides, videos, or any other type of media – for others to use around the country and/or the world for their own meetups.
Over time, the community will have created and compiled a massive list of significant resources (and fun media, such as photos or videos) that we’re all able to share with one another.
Eventually, we’d become the de facto place hub for local WordPress Meetup notes, photos, etc.
This is straight in line with the community aspect our manifesto, right?
But Wait! There’s More To It
Yesterday, Andrew Nacin – lead for WordPress 3.5 – made the following point on Twitter yesterday:
@wpdailyco @tommcfarlin Probably best to get involved with ongoing efforts instead. Otherwise, you risk fragmenting: http://t.co/TYqUL7HY
— Andrew Nacin (@nacin) February 13, 2013
You can follow the entire conversation on Twitter, as well.
Siobhan McKeown – who’s at the helm of leading the WordPress Handbook efforts (and with whom I collaborate weekly specifically for the Plugin Developer Handbook) – shared the following:
@tommcfarlin I like the idea of a hub but having it on @wpdaily seems odd. After all, it is a website with its own interests. @nacin
— Siobhan McKeown (@SiobhanPMcKeown) February 13, 2013
To be clear, my goal was not to introduce fragmentation into the WordPress Community. In fact, I’ve been tracking with Aaron Jorbin’s strong efforts regarding an official community effort around WordPress Meetups. At the risk of coming off as self-promotional, my personal blog post about meetups and my experiences with helping to organize them is referenced in this post.
As Siobhan mentioned, it seemed odd given that WP Daily is a site with its own interests – that point, I can understand. The ultimate goal wasn’t to serve the needs of WP Daily as a site, just to serve as a place where we, as a community of WordPress fanatics, can share our notes and experiences with WordPress.
@tommcfarlin @SiobhanPMcKeown Didn't think the post needed to come down; rather, it's a good idea that could use an official home.
— Andrew Nacin (@nacin) February 13, 2013
But after deliberation, I opted to take it down in order to introduce some additional thoughts after this particular conversation on Twitter.
Again, you can follow the entire conversation here, but the bottom line is this: There’s an ongoing effort on the Make Events blog that’s putting together guidelines and other material for meetups and I want to make sure that the community is well aware of that. We’ve covered it here, as well.
I’m not fan of fragmentation or even causing a rift in the community, but I know that based on a single Twitter conversation that this is obviously a point of discussion for some.
Ultimately, I want a place to share my notes and I’m sure others do to. Where that happens is secondary to the actual goal, but I’m sure that others have their own opinions on all of this and we’d love to hear ’em.
So go for it – what are your thoughts?
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