About a year and half ago I traveled to Boulder, Co for the first time.  What I found there was a vibrant web developemnt / design community.  Here is what I mean by that.

Tech Community

In Boulder: At least a couple of events (great then 50 people) a week.  It isnt all the same people at all the events, although at the major ones you can expect the regulars, but in general a good diversity and networking / learning opportunity.  Some of these events are fun geek nights out (Ignite) some have a bit more structure in content (Boulder New Tech Meetup, generally has some demos / presentation about companies and products), some are just user groups exchanging knowledge.

Along with all these events comes many organizers.  These are people that want to give back to the community, want to see it grow, and want to be a part of it.  In Boulder I have seen many people reach out to be a part of this, and I’m starting to see more of that here in New Mexico (read as: a very good thing).

In The Land of Enchantment

Over the last year I think we have seen a good increase in geeky events in New Mexico.  NMTC, Barcamp, Webuquerque, IgniteNM, AIGA, SynerQue, ABQ Web Geeks, Several User Groups(ruby, python?), as well as others I’m sure.  One thing that I think we lack a bit, is cohesion.  Just last night I heard about 2 events that I would have been interested in attending, however I didnt hear about them in time to attend.  Part of this is trying to keep up with multiple groups and just getting lazy about doing so.  Some of it is not knowing about new groups that are just getting started.

The Solution?

There is a question mark, because this is still very open for discussion.

The first step that I’m going to take (and hopefully getting some others involved too) is to start a calendar of all NM Tech Events.  This will be administered by all the group organizers.  Have a group or are you planning an event? Contact me (mick@davidmichaelthompson.com) and I’ll set you up with access to the calendar.  This is based on a shared google calendar, and a website to display the events, and highlight some.

Step 2. Blog covering upcoming events, highlight recaps of past events, and discuss new or current groups.  I’m willing to do some of the writing, but I really want this to be a group effort (i.e. I’m looking for a bunch of other contributors)  This will all at nmtechal.com If you are interested in contributing in any way, let me know.  I want to run this very open to the community at large, everyone welcome!

Step 3. Talking with Chad Kieffer, he has the idea for a event where we actually all pull out our laptops and work on some code.  Very hands on.  I’m thinking about a “Web Project Night” at the Santa Fe Complex.  It would meet 1-2 times a month, we’d decide on some sort of small project, and try to use new tools to accomplish the goal.  Getting to work with others, build something, and try out some new things along the way.

That’s it from me.  Grow community, Grow!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Community, New Mexico, Notes, projects, thoughts about the web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.