Thread: Re: [pgsql-www] UKPUG and using the PUGs site
[moving to -advocacy, where we usually chat about user group things] On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 5:55 PM, Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com> wrote: > 2009/10/17 Selena Deckelmann <selenamarie@gmail.com>: >> >> Yeah, the permissions are such that you need to be added to a >> posting-enabled group to put content up. In the past, we've >> restricted this to the people who are running the PUG. >> >> Would you like to help organize meetings? I'd be happy to add you as >> someone who can post announcements. >> >> Dave and Simon have traditionally been the folks to do this, IIRC. >> >> -selena > > Thanks for replying Selena. I think I understand what the content > creation is for then; for organisers to communicate to their > respective groups. > > As much as I'd like meetings to take place, I'm not confident enough > to organise them at this stage as I'm not at all familiar with how > these groups work, and I don't mean only a PostgreSQL user group. My > first physical step into the community will be at PGDay in Paris in a > few weeks, so things may change after that. That will be a great place to start! All the leaders of the Pg-EU organization will be there, plus most of the European developers, and community members. > Am I to understand that there are no UK meetings of any kind at the > moment? I've only really heard of Dave Page and Simon Riggs, and I > don't get much sense of a community here in the UK due to lack of > members. I don't believe there's been a UK meeting since the conference, but I'll leave it to Dave/Simon to confirm or deny that. My understanding is that the meetings were typically started at the pub, in the late afternoon. :) > On a related note, what generally takes place at other meetings, and > what form do they take? Yes, I really don't know :) Different groups operate differently -- but typical things are: * Short (5-15 minute) or long (~45 minute) presentations on Postgres or database related topics * Networking events and socializing for people interested in Postgres * After-meeting pub get-togethers * Dinners * Patch review parties And many user groups organize single or multi-day conferences. Some user groups are a bit more formal - with actual bylaws, and rules about membership and maybe even membership dues. The US user groups are as a rule very informal - no special membership requirements, and meetings open to all. I believe the UK group has a similar structure, but again, I defer to Dave/Simon. :) Generally, I try to help people get together to talk about Postgres stuff regardless of what kind of organization they've got. And when people are traveling that are part of the development or advocacy groups, we try to arrange for them to meet up with locals. This is a good mailing list to subscribe to if you're interested in those types of things. -selena -- http://chesnok.com/daily - me http://endpoint.com - work
2009/10/17 Selena Deckelmann <selenamarie@gmail.com>: > Some user groups are a bit more formal - with actual bylaws, and rules > about membership and maybe even membership dues. The US user groups > are as a rule very informal - no special membership requirements, and > meetings open to all. I believe the UK group has a similar structure, > but again, I defer to Dave/Simon. :) > > Generally, I try to help people get together to talk about Postgres > stuff regardless of what kind of organization they've got. And when > people are traveling that are part of the development or advocacy > groups, we try to arrange for them to meet up with locals. > > This is a good mailing list to subscribe to if you're interested in > those types of things. > Thanks for the info! :) As it happens I'm already subscribed to the advocacy list, but I forgot it was there. I'm looking to become less of a passive end-user and more of an active community member, possibly making contributions where I can. I've already made a start on that by contacting the Joomla community to get my extensive code changes to the Joomla codebase tested and reviewed which prepares it for multi-DB support (as opposed to the MySQL-only option at the momenet), including the Postgres hander I added (which looks to all be working fine for the most part). Well I'll see how things go after the conference. Thom
On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 2:13 AM, Selena Deckelmann <selenamarie@gmail.com> wrote: >> Am I to understand that there are no UK meetings of any kind at the >> moment? I've only really heard of Dave Page and Simon Riggs, and I >> don't get much sense of a community here in the UK due to lack of >> members. > > I don't believe there's been a UK meeting since the conference, but > I'll leave it to Dave/Simon to confirm or deny that. > > My understanding is that the meetings were typically started at the > pub, in the late afternoon. :) Yes. There are very few active community members in the UK, and until Heikki and Greg relocated, we were largely centered around Oxford. The people we know from elsewhere could be counted on one hand (Sam, Richard, Mark, Oliver - I think that's about all :-( ). Consequently, the 'PUG' meetings usually take place in Oxford, following a call along the lines of 'Hi Simon - fancy a beer tonight? Sure - 7:30 at the Bird & Baby?' The conference was a lot of work, and did manage to reveal some additional users, most of whom are not active community members, though they may lurk (iirc, we had around 30 people register specifically as PostgreSQL attendees). The intention was to follow that event with one in London this year, but Simon and I both ran out of spare cycles to organise it. >> On a related note, what generally takes place at other meetings, and >> what form do they take? Yes, I really don't know :) > > Different groups operate differently -- but typical things are: > > * Short (5-15 minute) or long (~45 minute) presentations on Postgres > or database related topics > * Networking events and socializing for people interested in Postgres > * After-meeting pub get-togethers > * Dinners > * Patch review parties Ours are much less formal, and normally just involve chatting over beer and sometimes dinner. > And many user groups organize single or multi-day conferences. > > Some user groups are a bit more formal - with actual bylaws, and rules > about membership and maybe even membership dues. The US user groups > are as a rule very informal - no special membership requirements, and > meetings open to all. I believe the UK group has a similar structure, > but again, I defer to Dave/Simon. :) If you can get to the pub, you're a welcome member! More seriously Thom, if you have the time and energy to try to organise something more formal, whether an online group, pub group, or another conference, please, feel free. I'm happy to help/advise in anyway I can, and I imagine Simon would like to be involved too if he has the time (if you go for the conference, please *do* contact me first). Selena; feel free to give Thom access to the UKPUG page. It'd be good to have someone with the time to make it useful :-) -- Dave Page EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
2009/10/19 Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>: > The conference was a lot of work, and did manage to reveal some > additional users, most of whom are not active community members, > though they may lurk (iirc, we had around 30 people register > specifically as PostgreSQL attendees). The intention was to follow > that event with one in London this year, but Simon and I both ran out > of spare cycles to organise it. Only 30 in the whole of the UK? That's quite depressing. Looks like the advocacy work has been cut out for all of us. >> Some user groups are a bit more formal - with actual bylaws, and rules >> about membership and maybe even membership dues. The US user groups >> are as a rule very informal - no special membership requirements, and >> meetings open to all. I believe the UK group has a similar structure, >> but again, I defer to Dave/Simon. :) > > If you can get to the pub, you're a welcome member! Well unfortunately Oxford is a bit far from where I live in Sussex, about 90 miles I think. Not outside the realms of possibility though. After all, a guy from my local sign language class travelled from Oxford every week. > > More seriously Thom, if you have the time and energy to try to > organise something more formal, whether an online group, pub group, or > another conference, please, feel free. I'm happy to help/advise in > anyway I can, and I imagine Simon would like to be involved too if he > has the time (if you go for the conference, please *do* contact me > first). > > Selena; feel free to give Thom access to the UKPUG page. It'd be good > to have someone with the time to make it useful :-) > Thanks for the encouragement Dave. I may end up doing just that, although may be a bit out of my depth (even though I'm called the "PostgreSQL guru" at work... very far from it though). I've never partaken in any real-world user groups as there have never been any for anything I've personally been interested in. We'll see how things develop. :D And don't worry, I have no plans on taking on an entire conference. That's a terrifying prospect, at least at the moment. Thom Brown
On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 5:01 PM, Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com> wrote: > > Only 30 in the whole of the UK? That's quite depressing. Looks like > the advocacy work has been cut out for all of us. Yeah - but I think a lot of the problem is that we simply don't know who the PostgreSQL users are. We ran a booth at LinuxLive/MacLive last year, with Greg, Simon, Gianni and I spending time manning it, and as well as a lot of people who didn't know PostgreSQL, I remember there being quite a few that did - it's just that they don't hang out in the community, so don't necessarily hear about the events that we plan. > Well unfortunately Oxford is a bit far from where I live in Sussex, > about 90 miles I think. Not outside the realms of possibility though. > After all, a guy from my local sign language class travelled from > Oxford every week. Yeah, that does seem pretty far for an ad-hoc meeting. Sounds like we need someone to organise something thats worth making the effort for :-) > Thanks for the encouragement Dave. I may end up doing just that, > although may be a bit out of my depth (even though I'm called the > "PostgreSQL guru" at work... very far from it though). I've never > partaken in any real-world user groups as there have never been any > for anything I've personally been interested in. We'll see how things > develop. :D And don't worry, I have no plans on taking on an entire > conference. That's a terrifying prospect, at least at the moment. Yeah, that is pretty daunting. Actually, the main reason I said to contact me was so that we could talk to UKUUG about piggy-backing on one of their conferences again. That saves a *lot* of work. BTW - PGDay.EU in Paris, November 6 - 7th. Will we see you there? http://2009.pgday.eu/start. -- Dave Page EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
2009/10/19 Raymond O'Donnell <rod@iol.ie>: >> Only 30 in the whole of the UK? That's quite depressing. Looks like >> the advocacy work has been cut out for all of us. > > And one of those was Irish! - I got a year's membership as part of the > fee for attending the conference. :-) > Speaking of which, I hope you guys manage to get that Irish PUG up and running. 2009/10/19 Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>: > > BTW - PGDay.EU in Paris, November 6 - 7th. Will we see you there? > Indeed you shall. I've sorted my booking with Magnus, Eurostar and the Hotel Kyriad and really looking forward to it! Thom Brown
On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:12:39 +0100 Dave Page wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 5:01 PM, Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Only 30 in the whole of the UK? That's quite depressing. Looks like
> > the advocacy work has been cut out for all of us.
>
> Yeah - but I think a lot of the problem is that we simply don't know
> who the PostgreSQL users are.
Other countries - like germany - suffer from the same problem :-(
> BTW - PGDay.EU in Paris, November 6 - 7th. Will we see you there?
Yes ;-)
Bye
--
Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum
German PostgreSQL User Group
European PostgreSQL User Group - Board of Directors
Volunteer Regional Contact, Germany - PostgreSQL Project
PGDay.eu 2009 in Paris, Nov. 6/7, http://www.pgday.eu/
2009/10/20 Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum <adsmail@wars-nicht.de>: > On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:12:39 +0100 Dave Page wrote: > >> On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 5:01 PM, Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com> wrote: >> > >> > Only 30 in the whole of the UK? That's quite depressing. Looks like >> > the advocacy work has been cut out for all of us. >> >> Yeah - but I think a lot of the problem is that we simply don't know >> who the PostgreSQL users are. > > Other countries - like germany - suffer from the same problem :-( > > > >> BTW - PGDay.EU in Paris, November 6 - 7th. Will we see you there? > > Yes ;-) This may sound like a dumb idea, but how about registering community members by location and showing them as markers on a Google Map? We could get a clearer idea of user distribution then. Thom
On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com> wrote: > This may sound like a dumb idea, but how about registering community > members by location and showing them as markers on a Google Map? We > could get a clearer idea of user distribution then. 'Community members' are a small subset of 'users', which is the problem. We know who the community members are, but not most of the users. FYI, we used to have a location map of developers a few years back, but it was hard to maintain and got abandoned. It might be interesting to reproduce that now we have more usable tools like Google Maps. -- Dave Page EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com PGDay.EU 2009 Conference: http://2009.pgday.eu/start
2009/10/20 Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>: > On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com> wrote: > >> This may sound like a dumb idea, but how about registering community >> members by location and showing them as markers on a Google Map? We >> could get a clearer idea of user distribution then. > > 'Community members' are a small subset of 'users', which is the > problem. We know who the community members are, but not most of the > users. Yes, I see what you mean. In that case I guess it's not worth it. Thom
On Tue, 2009-10-20 at 10:51 +0100, Dave Page wrote: > FYI, we used to have a location map of developers a few years back, > but it was hard to maintain and got abandoned. It might be interesting > to reproduce that now we have more usable tools like Google Maps. OpenStreetMap! ;-)
On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 12:35 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> wrote: > On Tue, 2009-10-20 at 10:51 +0100, Dave Page wrote: >> FYI, we used to have a location map of developers a few years back, >> but it was hard to maintain and got abandoned. It might be interesting >> to reproduce that now we have more usable tools like Google Maps. > > OpenStreetMap! ;-) Or that. Especially now it uses Postgres... -- Dave Page EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com PGDay.EU 2009 Conference: http://2009.pgday.eu/start
2009/10/20 Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>: > > OpenStreetMap! ;-) > Erm... kind of embarrassing now that you point that out. Yes, OpenStreetMap would be the obvious choice, and would both help promote both Postgres and OpenStreetMap.