This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by James Britt. Original Post: Phoenix-area Tech Gatherings Feed Title: James Britt: Ruby Development Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/JamesBritt-Home Feed Description: James Britt: Playing with better toys Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by James Britt Latest Posts From James Britt: Ruby Development

I’ve been trying to get a handle on active developer groups here in the Valley.

I’m sort of looking to see if I can get off my ass and pay each a visit, or at least drop by the more active ones.

My gut feeling is that there is a good deal of grassroots developer activity in and around Phoenix, with numerous pockets of geeks and freaks off doing their thing, unaware of who else is doing what else.

I’d like to see that change.

Now, I don’t expect PHP folks to be steady visitors to the Ruby group (though of course they are always welcome), or regulars at the local Mac meetings to start lurking at the PCUG gatherings. But I’m certain that there are large areas of overlapping interests one way or another.

Id like to see more general developer gatherings, a meet-up or stammtisch where geeks can gather. Regardless of preferred developer language or tools, I think most of us would enjoy learning about Subversion, Trac, deployment techniques, different Web servers, scaling applications, and the wide choice of JavaScript frameworks. These needn’t be (and probably shouldn’t be ) formal talks, but simply “gather ‘round the laptop” presentations for people to share their knowledge and experience without some bogus “lecturer/audience” barrier. But first I’d like know what already exists.

I did a bit of Googling around and started assembling some links:

http://del.icio.us/jamesbritt/az:tech:usergroup

If you know of any other active groups, with a focus on software or technology design and development, post them here in the comments, or, better yet (if you have a del.icio.us account) add it to del.icio.us and tag it az:tech:usergroup

(Oddly enough, Austin started doing the much the same.)

If you run a local dev or tech group, pop over to AZGroups.com where Scott Cate has set up a calendar aggregator. It makes for a nice one-stop listing of Phoenix tech events.

BTW, I went to the AZ PHP user group meeting last week, and had a great time. Josh Eichorn gave a very good presentation on PEAR (slides here afterwards pretty much all of the dozen+ assembled went out to Boulders on B’way for dinner and good conversation. Whatever language you prefer, whatever tools you use, see if there’s a local user group and stop by.