Published
2009-03-13 15:44
I think that here in the UK, we're missing out on something. Ideally I would like to have a central place to communicate and support each other with civicrm. Hopefully this will help organise meet ups and other events in the same timezone.
I have set up a provisional group at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/civicrmuk/ if you could join up and start the ball rolling.
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We are not exactly in the same timezone, but 1 hour difference is manageable :-) Are you targetting the UK specifically or would you be interested in a European group? We are based in the Netherlands, and although I can not see myself flying up and down to the UK every other week I can imagine we would like to take part in some events and certainly join the group.
Regards
Erik Hommel (EE-atWork)
If people from slightly further afield want to join then feel free. I feel a little lonely here the other side of the water so if I can strike up a bit of a conversation with people more local to me I think we can get a bit of mutual help when our US cousins aren't awake.
I've already been impressed by how far people have traveled to attend the meets in Bristol, Manchester and London and think it would be great to widen the net even further. I think the main thing is that it's useful to have that physical meeting and informal chat over a cup of tea (or even a pint maybe....) It's very easy to feel isolated otherwise.
I think OG would be a great way of organising such events, but it does add yet another channel to the options on civicrm.org - possibly more chance of things getting missed?
In that case we need to use social media for what it's good at. Keeping people informed. RSS feeds, twitter updates, facebook groups/events. Just need to get the message (preferably with one click). I think a revamp of the homepage would be useful too. Perhaps the ability to show recent posts in a block from the groups you are following. Hmm, cogs are turning in my head.
How does this relate to the existing UK section of the forum and the various physical meetings that have happened in the UK?
Hi Chris,
Great that you want to organise around CiviCRM in the UK. I've been working with a few different UK based developers/consultants over the past year or so, and we've organised a few really useful meetings - google CiviCRM UK and feel free to give me a call (020 7226 5160) to talk about what we've done so far and what you think is missing.
At the mo, I'm busy making preperations for a Civi Developer Camp UK this summer and although I don't think I'll have time to organise anything else before that, I'd be happy to support you if you want to organise a meet up, and also really happy if you want to help out organising the Developer Camp :)
How do you see the yahoo group being used? Have you seen the UK forum board? I think the key question about UK communication is "what is so special about the UK that we need our own forum/mailing list, etc.?" I've come to the conclusion that the only things it makes sense to organise at a local level are things related to physical meet ups and that everything else (including localisation, etc) is probably best discussed using in the relevant Civi forum board / IRC.
I think you are right that we don't have the toolset we need to effectively organise meet ups locally but it's not just the UK that is missing out - it is more of a worldwide thing. In the past we’ve talked about a 'CiviCRM events' mailing list/organic groups system organised at a local level - maybe it is time to get the ball rolling on that?
Would be good to hear your thoughts on all this.
Michael
I agree there is nothing special about the UK from a development point of view, or from a support stance. It is more a physical thing as you say. I'd love to help in any way I can with the dev camp you are sorting.
My contact details are chris[at]joltbox.co.uk and 07894 950478
I'm Birmingham based so if you're nearby or I have a little notice, a meet up would be great.
how about we start off with a groups.civicrm.org (similar to a groups.drupal.org)
this allows us to have forums and mailing lists for local events and will also allow the civicrm team for better integration with OG. Over a period of time we can also start using those groups to focus around a few features
lobo
...to me. Me and Chris are going to chat about this and the event tomorrow so we can get back with something more concrete.
I think it would be great if we had a groups.civicrm.org using OG. I'd like to start a CiviCRM Users Group for Toronto that liaised with DUG-TO (the Drupal User Group - Toronto, Ontario) and the Joomla! User Group Toronto. Probably start by adding a bit of time at beginning or end of their regular meetings.
Did you start the Toronto CiviCRM group?