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Support Your Local ... DNUG?
Akallabeth, the Arch-Lich writes: "New to town, I was trolling around for a LUG or two, and found this. Find your own DNUG here. Now, I can see the need for a support group for .NET users group, as no one really knows what it does. But, an UG founded by for-profit companies? That are Microsoft Certified Partners? With prize givaways listed on the meeting schedule? Something don't smell right. Oh, and they have banner ads too." However genuine or organized, local "support groups" seem like a good idea to me. Maybe we could all go toss a frisbee?
I think we should encourage user groups such as these instead of critisizing them. While the .NET technology is not of the same quality of what comes out of the loins of the Open Source developer community, it is a good start by MS.
By allowing the free sharing of code and information among MS developers, most of them will see the appeal that the global Open Source developer community offers.
Wearing pants should always be optional.
There are also Java User Groups going up all over as well, and have been for several years. I'm not sure if they were founded by Sun or are funded by them, but Sun does have a website listing info about them, and it seems there are currently 954 of them.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Sure, ther presentations are going to be slanted toward ".NET good, everything else bad". And there's nothing wrong with that! Any rational consumer is going to expect a slant at ANY user group. It's not "astroturfing" or propaganda, it's giving the people what they want! You aren't going to see "How XP Saved My Life" at at a LUG, either.
If the sponsor does not organize well and provide good content, the members are free to vote with their feet; and almost certainly will.
Bringing likeminded geeks together is a good thing. (As long as there is adequate ventilation!)Would you have the same reaction to say, IBM sponsoring a LUG?
Not so much a sig as a lack of one.
For the record, I started a .NET User Group in Northwest Ohio and listed it on DNUG. We are neither for profit or a Microsoft partner, although we do get supported by MS at least in somewhat of an informal way. They've sent us free software, books, and even sponsored events to big conferences (ie, Microsoft TechEd). The main reason I started the group was to promote the learning of .NET programming and having a support group for people to figure out what in the world they are doing with .NET, and share what they have learned. It has been really great. Not to mention there are other perks, like helping out the community (we are going to be doing some non-profit projects), good food, get to meet people in the area, looks good on a resume, etc.
:)
I think the whole point of a user group is to bring people together and share knowledge. It's really a lot of fun. Not sure why anyone could be upset about this, other than the fact that it is under the "umbrella" of Microsoft technology and this is slashdot
By the way, some of the user groups that you can find through DNUG (it is basically a search portal for UG's) have different goals. When I was at a user group leaders conference last year, I learned that not all the UG leaders shared my same views but for the most part UG's are for the betterment of the community.