As many of you are well aware, I think very highly of the new tech community that is starting to bud here in the DC area. But I often wonder, as others do, do we lack cohesion. By this I mean that I see many fragmented groups in the area, all doing good things and having nice events, but they all seem to fall on the same night …
I wonder if theses fragments are holding back the larger growth of the community. I mean just this week, on Wed night there were two really good events, one I attended and one I did not. The one I was at was the DC New Media Technology groups happy hour at Lotus Lounge. It was great, but at the same time across town was the Washington Blogger Meetup at RFD. See what I am getting at ? We have so many great groups blossoming in the region. There is the Social Media Club, Refresh DC, The DC Bloggers Meetup, and so on. I am curious if there shouldn't be some type of overarching organization ?? I know this is a hard topic, but if we continue to step on each others toes, we will remain in the current state we find ourselves in today.
I think one good step would be for everyone who is planning on having an event check out the DC Tech Events maintained my Ross Karcher. He has even gone so far as to set up Facebook and LinkedIn groups and also a Twitter feed to follow as well. Maybe organizers can swing by and see a good open night for their event ? I know sometimes this is not feasible, but I cant help but think that if we could all get on the same page we can start to reign in some of those fragments and build a more cohesive community.
Photo: By picadillywilson
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Jimmy,
Give me a call
I agree with what you are talking about and I have a couple people working on a solution. I’d like to involve you in that solution 
Best,
Nick
You bring up very good points. These aren’t new ideas–I’m not sure if you’re aware but a bunch of us got together a while ago for a similar purpose, with Peter as one of the core organizers (I don’t take nor deserve credit). I will say that, as “Ross points out, there was a lot of difficulty in attempting to work together.
I’m not sure what Nick is working on right now, but I think whatever we do we ought to solve the core problem you bring up here first–conflicting dates. Then, if at all possible, it’d be great to try to bring a voice to our scene…regardless of how spread out it is.
Thanks for continuing to cover things and bring attention to both our successes and areas for improvement.
@jared
Thanks for stopping by, appreciate your feedback.
I just read Ross’s post and he is dead on, I agree. What is the “DC Tech Community”. Each of us has very different views, naturally.
I am not so naive that I think these are new ideas, rather my current thoughts form what I see. I am rather new to this scene and can only speak form that vantage point.
I am not sure what has been done before, I only want to try to help move us forward. I have met many of you, Peter incuded, and everyone is just great. There are visions, ideas, etc. I do not mean to step on toes or … well you know, just want to help. That is what is great about this medium, everyone has an outlet.
Jimmy — Absolutely, well said. And even within the DC tech sphere, there are overlapping tech/politics events going on as well. Would love to see more integration and resource-sharing… not to mention, have as many interested in going & knowing, empowered with that information.
Nick, Jared, Jimmy, Peter, Ross, et al. — let me know how Jess3 + I can help
All the best -L.
Jimmy,
If you feel this way then you should tell the organizers of events. All they have to do is talk to each other and check Ross’s list (and maybe Upcoming or Meetup) and the problem goes away. Ross deserves kudo’s for doing such a great job of organizing events.
Note that Silicon Valley, the area that many from our community aspire to re-create, does not even have a central calendar like the one that Ross has created. We are ahead of the game, not behind, when it comes to being on the same page.
Like minds naturally gravitate toward each other. Let’s create, build and innovate, not create bureaucracy where it isn’t needed.
Robert
Now that I think about it, in June I created a google group for intra-group coordination, announcements, etc: http://rossnotes.com/content/dc-tech-events-discussion-group
At the moment it only has two members, half of which are named Ross.
I like Socializr for posting and cross-polinating events inside a community of folk with overlapping and aligned, but not absolutely equal, interests. It’s a sweet little application. It doesn’t require any extra work to orchestrate the umbrella community; each group self-manages; each individual participates at their choice.
For an example of how I use it, go to http://socializr.com and search on my name: Jessie Newburn. I’m going to post this note on Ross’ blog, too.
Good stuff and thanks for that link to the calendar very helpful…
When you think about it, this is exactly the same problem we have with our feeds, emails, books to read, shows to watch… It is simply information overload.
Sure an overarching calendar for planning might ease the difficulties but this is a problem that is hard to get rid off… even if every single event was well planned and nothing overlaps, can you really make it to every event? Probably not. You will still have to pick and choose…
TiVo records overlapping events but unfortunately it doesn’t create more time for me to watch all of them
…
Thanks you for this post.
Speaking from my experience with Drupal Meetups, attending folk are very interested in other tech events going on and are typically involved in one or the other.
So it’s in every organizer’s interest to choose the best available date with the least overlap with simliar events.
I think the way to go is checking in on a central calendar when planning an event _and_ making sure your event is on the calendar once you decide.
We should agree on one calendar and champion it – on our websites, when talking to friends etc.
I’d suggest DC Tech Events – it is the most complete place at the moment it seems: http://dctechevents.com/
Alex
This is my vote for http://dctechevents.com – I will link to it on my blog.
@alex
Thanks for stopping by and your comments. I agree with you. Like @emad I will be putting up the dc tech events calendar as well.
Lets try to spread the word to all the various factions out there .
Thx
jimmy