Bartlesville .NET User Group

The Bartlesville .NET User Group, or BDNUG, is one of the fastest growing user groups in the region. Since its founding in May of 2008, the group has over 60 active members attending monthly meetings. The group received INETA certification in September of 2008 and will be incorporated as a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation by the end of 2008. They have hosted prominent speakers such as Zain Naboulsi, David Walker, and Ray Lewallen.

The membership of BDNUG contains a host of talent and expertise. The president of the group, Jason Townsend, was recognized by INETA as a Community Champion in 2008 for his contributions to the development community. The membership itself has many years of experience with Microsoft products and has positioned itself as the vanguard for the adoption of newer offerings such as Silverlight, LINQ, and Windows Communication Foundation. Through the use of social media such as blogs and sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook, BDNUG members can share their expertise with other developers and IT staff worldwide. Members are also active in other events in the region, including Tulsa Tech Fest. They also work closely with other user groups in the region, such as the Tulsa .NET User Group.

In addition to their networking and educational achievements, the user group is also active in charity and community work. In January 2009, BDNUG will be sending a team to the We Are Microsoft coding event for charities in Dallas, Texas. Also in 2009, they will be hosting the Oklahoma Give Camp to provide applications for worthy causes. In addition, members will be at the Bartlesville High School Career Fair where they will be enlightening middle school and high school kids on the joys of programming. BDNUG will also be working with the Bartlesville District Science Fair on a new web site for 2010 that will handle registrations as well as marketing. In 2009 BDNUG will be helping form the Bartlesville Database Professional User Group, as well as helping in furthering the advancement of the Bartlesville SharePoint User Group.

With a focus on cooperation and a drive to give back to both the technical community and the region at large, BDNUG is positioned to be a major force in the region in the upcoming years. Membership is open to individuals interested in learning more about the current or future Microsoft software stack or who want the opportunity to network with other Microsoft professionals. Anyone interested in learning more or attending one of their meetings can find more information at the following web sites:

• Bartlesville .NET User Group: http://www.bdnug.com/
• Bartlesville SharePoint User Group: http://sharepoint.bdnug.com
• Bartlesville Database Professional User Group: http://dba.bdnug.com
• Oklahoma Give Camp: http://www.okgivecamp.com

FlaDotNet

FlaDotNet has grown from a single meeting to multiple meetings over the years. We are always trying new things, and one of our favorite activities was the XP LEGO Game we had at our ArcSig meeting in Fort Lauderdale last summer.

Adrian Wible and his "agile" helpers organized the room into groups of about six people. With some coaching, they ran a couple of project iterations using 3x5 cards with "requirements" that the teams had to estimate, prioritize, plan, and develop within a 30-minute iteration using a pile of LEGOs.

Over the past 12 months, we have held 66 meetings with almost 3,000 attendees, as well as the South Florida Code Camp with over 600 attending the day-long free event with 12 tracks, 71 sessions, and 50 speakers.

For more information, visit our web site at http://www.fladotnet.com.

The Fort Smith .NET User Group

In January 2008, a small group of software developers in Fort Smith, Arkansas got together to discuss starting a local .NET user group. The developers wanted the group to serve two main purposes: First, it should provide an environment in which local Microsoft .NET developers can learn about .NET and related technologies. Second, it should provide members with networking opportunities with other developers in the area.

The Fort Smith .NET User Group officially kicked off in February 2008 with a presentation by Raymond Lewallen on behavior-driven development. Since then, the group has met monthly and continues to draw more than 30 members per meeting. Members range from individuals who program as a hobby to corporate developers who have been developing with .NET for years.

In July, the group added a much briefer second presentation to each meeting prior to the main presentation, providing an opportunity for members to quickly show off a new tool or technology in a relatively nonintimidating way. Plans are also in progress to start a second monthly meeting focused specifically on developing a real-world project using accepted best practices such as unit testing, continuous integration, separation of concerns, etc. This will provide a much more hands-on approach to learning and will allow for more personal mentoring as well. The group also hopes to someday help out the local community by providing software development services for no charge to local charities.

Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group

The Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group (GNHLUG) is an umbrella organization supporting local chapters of Linux user groups and groups supporting free and open source software (FOSS) throughout the Granite State.

GNHLUG hosts as many as seven meetings a month. GNHLUG supplies a centralized resource for five Linux user groups that meet in Nashua, Peterborough, Durham, Hanover, and Concord, and two special interest groups: the Ruby/Rails SIG in Portsmouth and the Python SIG in Manchester. In addition to our regular monthly meetings, we sponsor several outreach presentations at local schools, businesses, and libraries and related events like hamfests and computer swap meets.

GNHLUG hosts the web server shared by all the groups at http://www.gnhlug.org and a number of mailing lists that can be found listed on that site.

Inland Empire .NET User's Group

Located in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the Inland Empire is a geographic island, and getting to user group meetings in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties from there can be difficult. The Inland Empire .NET User's Group was founded 5 years ago by James Johnson, with the goal of creating a thriving .NET development community, where local networks could form and employers in the Inland Empire could come to recruit talented and professional developers. The Inland Empire .NET User's Group (IEDOTNETUG) is well supported by various sponsors and a great place to meet and socialize with other Inland Empire developers. IEDOTNETUG has a lot to offer, from pertinent cutting-edge presentations to fantastic raffle prizes. Members and meeting attendees consist of beginners to seasoned professionals who meet in a welcoming environment of camaraderie; members tend to have open discussions and pose lots of questions to presenters.

Each year, the IEDOTNETUG holds its Most Valuable Member Awards, recognizing the most active members of the group who, based on their involvement and participation in the community during the past year, accumulate points. Members receive points for a wide range of activities from simply RSVPing and attending a meeting, to going to another user group's meeting, giving a Code Camp presentation, or earning a Microsoft certification.

The IEDOTNETUG also offers free ASP.NET development training to the community and is working on curriculums for database development and Silverlight development. These two new classes will begin in fall 2008.

The IEDOTNETUG meets on the second Tuesday of each month at Riverside Medical Clinic, 7117 Brockton Ave., Riverside, CA 92506. Meeting time is from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. For additional information, please see the group's web site at http://www.iedotnetug.org.

LA Flash User Group

Founded in March 2003, LA Flash is the largest and most active Adobe user group in the world, with over 3,000 members, regular monthly meetings, and several recurring events (including JobStock, AnimFest, Budding Talent Night, and LAFlashapaloozastock). LA Flash is devoted to the development of the greater Southern California Flash industry and its incredibly talented members.

Always free, LA Flash meetings feature talks from great speakers on a wide variety of Flash Platform topics and an amazing networking platform to help individuals in this disparate region build their careers. LA Flash also features a really powerful and active web presence, at LAFlash.org, which includes vibrant forums, blogs, event calendars, and job boards. The development of the LAFlash.org web site is the topic of AdvancED Flex Application Development: Building Rich Media X (from friends of ED), widely regarded as the most advanced book on Flex available.

Regular meetings are the third Wednesday each month, at the Rich Media Institute in Venice Beach: http://richmediainstitute.com/about.

The Little Rock .NET Users Group

The Little Rock .Net Users Group (LRDNUG) has been meeting on a monthly basis for over 4 years. Each year it keeps getting better. We have had several technology expos with great speakers from across the country. We are currently planning on mini code camps in the near future to offer more in-depth training for our members.

The mission of LRDNUG is to come together as members of the programming community to share experiences and knowledge within the Microsoft .NET platform. We meet the second Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Bank One Room of Pulaski Technical College, 300 W. Scenic Drive, North Little Rock, Arkansas, 72118.

We invite anyone who is in the area and interested in using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET to come to a meeting and see for themselves the benefits of interacting with other programmers.

Perth .NET User Group

The past year has been an excellent one for the Perth .NET User Group, with average attendance at our regular monthly meetings having approximately doubled compared to the previous year. Our meetings are predominately .NET focused, but we try to cover many aspects of the software development process, as well as new and emerging technologies and tools. Our regular meetings consist of a one-hour presentation followed by a bit of networking over pizza and refreshments. The majority of this year's presentations have been given by local members, with the number of people attending somewhere between 35 and 50 (which is good considering the size of Perth).

An initiative that has been very successful this year is the user group library that we have put together. This now consists of over 100 technical books for use by members, and this has been made possible by the generous support of major publishers such as Apress. Having seasoned developers providing input on the selection of books is a great way for junior developers to "short circuit" some of the learning curve that grows ever steeper in our industry.

This year, we threw a community launch to coincide with the launch of Visual Studio 2008, consisting of four half-hour presentations, lots of giveaways, and of course plenty of pizza!

User groups are indeed a great way for people to learn and network with their peers in the local community, and support from companies like Apress helps to make them possible.

PDXPHP

PDXPHP came to life in 2004 and has been growing and evolving ever since. We provide a community forum for programmers, designers, and web enthusiasts alike to meet and learn about the PHP scripting language and related technologies.

To learn more, visit http://www.pdxphp.org and plan to attend one of our monthly meetings.

Polish SQL Server Users Group

Polish SQL Server Users Group (PSSUG), with over 500 registered users, is one of the biggest of all user groups in Poland. This year we organized over 55 meetings across the country, and we were present at all IT conferences, not only those in Poland. The last conference, SQL Server Energy Launch, took place 22 November 2009 in Katowice, and we had over 100 attendees. At least 30 people gather every meeting, with attendance in the Silesia region reaching over 50!

Our goals for the next year are to open new sites (in two-to-three cities), take part in conferences and organize at least three, and find new speakers.

Southeast Valley .NET User Group

It all started on a cold (75 degree) day in Chandler, Arizona, back in January 2008, when a few developers talked about wanting a lunch for local technology professionals to meet and chat. From that discussion Tech Lunch South and the Southeast Valley .NET User Group was formed.

The Southeast Valley .NET User Group started with the goal of providing a convenient location for .NET developers in the southeast part of the valley to meet. We wanted to make it easier for people of Tempe, Chandler, Case Grande, Mesa, and Queen Creek to get together to network and learn.

Since the creation of the user group, it has been our mission to

• Facilitate a discussion environment for .NET developers and IT professionals focusing on building real-world solutions using the Microsoft .NET platform.
• Provide the opportunity for members to share knowledge and participate in advanced technological discussions with other local community members and other industry-recognized leaders.
• Help to get the Southeast Valley .NET developers together.

In its first year, the Southeast Valley .NET User Group has helped to put together two conferences in the Phoenix area, with the help of their sponsors, bringing out 600 developers for one and 200 for another. Our monthly meeting attendance has grown from 13 to an average of 30.

For more about the Southeast Valley .NET User Group and upcoming events, please visit us on the Web at http://www.sevdnug.org.

The Suncoast Oracle User's Group

The Suncoast Oracle User's Group (SOUG) is dedicated to the local community of Oracle DBAs, developers, and users in the Tampa Bay Area. Our regular meeting time is the fourth Thursday of the month. However, some months our activities will bring us together at different times and places.

In May, we had our third annual Tech Day featuring keynote speakers Steven Feuerstein and Bradley Brown. The SOUG Tech Day has a track for DBAs, developers, managers, and middleware. Some topics for the day were "Weird PL/SQL," "11g New Features for Developers," "11g Tuning for DBAs," "Database Management," "Starting a Successful Business," and "Application Integration." We greatly appreciate our sponsors for helping keep Tech Day free to attendees.

Our Summer Social was held in June this year. We get together at a local restaurant to socialize, exchange Oracle experiences, and enjoy a wonderful dinner.

In October, we have plans for a mini Tech Day. This will be a single track day starting with Oracle representatives who will bring us a message from Larry Ellison. The remainder of the day will be a technical presentation from a nationally known name in the Oracle community.

The end of the year will bring us together for our annual December Holiday Social. Visit our web site for information about our activities: http://soug.acomp.usf.edu/index.php.