Location..

Thu Oct 13 09:29:25 PDT 2005

On Thu, Oct 13, 2005 at 12:31:04AM -0700, Michael T. Halligan wrote:

> >That would be a great idea except I think most people who would
> >attend are in the Silicon Valley region.  If near BART is a key
> >criterion, why aren't there a lot of successful user groups in SF and
> >the East Bay?  Or are there, and we just don't hear much about them?
> 
> Hrm, I wonder. Perhaps the answer to this set of questions is..
> There's more to do in SF? I hang out with a good circle of techies
> rather regularly, but  it's more in the form of alpha geeks drinking
> scotch at good restaurants and arguing  over design issues.

Well, my rule of thumb stereotype is that the truly hard-core monkish
types, and the early-career "I could learn a lot from a user meeting"
types are more likely to live in or very near the Silicon Valley.  A lot
of the mid-career, married-and-maybe-with-children types live a more
work-life balanced humdrum existence farther East, where there are still
plenty of jobs, but you can maybe afford your own place, and your kids
won't grow up in the warping disneyland of Los
PaloAlthertonViewpertinoGatos Hills.

My hunch is that in the East bay, you'll see a little less passion,
which means less leadership, to form a user group out that way, to
compete with similar groups in the Silicon Valley.

Though, who knows?  Maybe someone ... I suppose I could ping this list
... could see what the interest level is ... I know there's been that
occasional SIGbeer in Oakland ... how's the turnout there?

But, yeah, if there was a meeting place in San Francisco, preferably not
far from the BART, I for one, would be more inclined to show.

I think of Silicon Valley as the "campus" and a lot of us Sophores and
Juiniors have moved "off campus" to live among the townies.  The only
problem is this metaphorical college town stretches to 70 miles on a
side ... so, if you want to bring the whole tribe together, you can't
just use the Appledome, even if it is conveniently located adjacent to
the Engineering Quadrangle.

-danny

-- 
http://dannyman.toldme.com/