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2008 Year in Review

posted ‎‎Dec 24, 2008 11:51 AM‎‎ by David McKinnon

In September the Detroit JUG was reborn.  Since that time, our Yahoo group list has increased by 25%.  We now have over 200 registered subscribers.   Each of our meetings have been attended by 10 to 20 members. 

Nathan Hughes of ePrize donated meeting space in 2008 and has agreed to let us use the space throughout 2009.

We also have a site that is being actively maintained at http://sites. google.com/ site/detroitjug/ and we've registered www.detroitjug. comwhich currently serves as a doorway to the aforementioned.   

Both ePrize and RIIS sponsored meetings in 2008, so we could provide food and beverages.   

Our group is a member of the Manning and O'Reilly User Group programs.   These publishers donated books that were given away as prizes at meetings.  We've also had gifts donated to us by SitePen, JetBrains, ZeroTurnaround and of course Sun Microsystems.

Steve Goodhall, PMP has been to two meetings and photographed for us.   The photos from Srini's talk will be up soon. 

Both Kirsten Schwark and Srini Penchikala have provided content for the web site.   They have been great sounding boards and co-organizers for the JUG as well.  Their input and support has been invaluable.

Various mail lists and groups in the area have put up with me posting our meeting information to there sites.   The AAJUG, the Python User Group, the MiDevelopers google group, SRT and the Michigan Agile Enthusiasts yahoo group to name a few. 

Our presentations in 2008 were amazing, 
Why Groovy? by Kirsten Schwark  and
Application Architectures - Where We Have Been, Where We Are Going? by Srini Penchikala

We have had a few "geek celebrities" join our list and attend meetings.   

Kevin Dangoor of SitePen attended Jim Steinberger' s presentation and brought gifts from SitePen.  Kevin is creator of TurboGears and is a regular speaker at various user groups and conferences.   Kevin blogs at http://www.blueskyo nmars.com/

Dianne Marsh attended Kirsten Schwark's talk.  Dianne is co-owner of SRT Solutions in Ann Arbor. You may have heard her on some JavaPosse podcasts.  She is also a speaker at user groups and conferences and one of the organizers of CodeMash. www.codemash. org

Godfrey Nolan of RIIS in Royal Oak attended Kirsten's talk as well.  He also sponsored our November and December talks.  Godfrey is the author ofDecompiling Java .

Ilya Sterin is a frequent attendee at meetings and has been an active DetroitJUG member.  Ilya is the co-author of  XML and Perl . Ilya also blogs atwww.ilyasterin. com.

Srini Penchikala gave our December talk and co-organizes the Detroit JUG.  Srini writes for www.infoQ.com and will be a speaker for No Fluff, Just Stuff.   Srini is a Software Architect for FlagStar Banks.   Srini has been an amazing asset to our group.

Matt Roush of the Great Lakes IT Report joined our mail list and posts our meeting info on the GLITR calendar.

Jay Zimmerman of No Fluff, Just Stuff also subscribes to our list. 

2009

We already have the following presentations lined up for 2009,

January, What is Eclipse?  by Dennis O'Flynn 
February, JavaScript in Java Apps by Charles Lowell http://thefrontside .net/blog 
and in April a JavaFX workshop planned  with James Weaverhttp://www.javafxpe rt.com

I am going to actively pursue sponsorships in 2009.  I've opened an account with Credit Union One in the name of The Detroit Java User Group.    

If you would be interested in meeting regularly to go over User Group buisness please send me a note.  I think we could meet a half hour prior to our regular meetings. 

If you have ideas or suggestions for or about the group, please let me know.  If you want to contribute content to the website or want to volunteer, let me know that as well.   

I hope everyone has gotten something rewarding from the group.  I know I have and I've thoroughly enjoyed organizing the group and meeting everyone.   I've learned so much, I can't thank you enough.

Detroit JUG News - Rel.1.1

posted ‎‎Oct 11, 2008 11:36 AM‎‎ by David McKinnon

The Detroit JUG Newsletter – Release 1.1

 

Hello members,

 

The first meeting went well and there was a lot of positive feedback.   There were a few suggestions we will be trying out at the next meeting.   If you were not able to make it to the first meeting, please give the next one a try.   If you had trouble finding ePrize, let me know.

 

CURRENT GOALS

There are 179 members on our mailing list.   I’d say about 20 of those were created by a bot and will be deleted.   Members fit into the following areas,

 

  1. Members interested in all things Java
  2. Members interested in all things Software Engineering
  3. Members seeking to network  
  4. Members seeking presentation experience
  5. Members seeking all of the above

 

 The goal right now is to grow the group and our community.   Focus is being placed in the following areas,

 

  1. Organize consistent meetings / presentations.
  2. Grow membership and find member benefits.
  3. Keep communication flowing with the mail list and the wiki
  4. Foster member participation and development

 

 

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting is October 22nd at ePrize.   Jim Fromannarbor....I mean Steinberger… will be speaking to us on Dojo and DWR.    A full bio and description of the talk are on the way.     The meeting is scheduled for 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM.

 

- HELP WANTED -

Photographer Needed.   Email me if can bring a digital camera to the next meeting and are not afraid to snap a few photos.    A phone camera would be fine. 

 

 

MORE MEMBER BENIFITS

 

O’Reilly User Group Program

The Detroit JUG is now a part of the O’Reilly User Group Program.   So, you can get a 35% discount when ordering from O’Reilly.   Use the Discount Code DSUG.  

 

Marsee Henon from O’Reilly media has sent two copies of Dojo: The Definitive Guide to be used as prizes at our upcoming meeting.    The next time you are thinking of buying a book, help support your JUG by ordering from O’Reilly.

 

JetBrains User Group Program

Our JUG has also joined the JetBrains User Group Program.  JetBrains are the makers of IntelliJ  java ide.   Each month we can offer our presenters or a member a free product from JetBrains.    A big thanks to David Booth of JetBrains.

 

 

 

THE COLLECTIVE X SITE and THE WIKI

The Collective X experiment went nowhere.   That site will be removed.  

 

Srini has started up a wiki for us at http://sites.google.com/site/detroitjug/Home

Also, I’ve registered www.detroitjug.com  and you can get to the wiki from there.

 

Write something for the wiki and send it to Srini.   Consistent contributors will be granted rights to update the wiki.

 

The Detroit JUG Newsletter - Release 1.0

posted ‎‎Sep 25, 2008 7:16 PM‎‎ by Srini Penchikala

Hello Detroit JUG Members,
 
The Detroit Java Users Group is once again moving forward.  Thanks to everyone who has expressed interest and volunteered to help promote and grow the group. 
 
 
- Detroit JUG Meeting -
The first meeting of the year will be October 1st at ePrize headquarters in Pleasant Ridge.  Author  Jason Grembi will be speaking to us on Java Security.       I know our meetings are supposed to be the third Wednesday of the month but just consider this a "make up" for not having a September meeting.    
 
I have been in contact with Cengage Learning, the publisher of Jason's book "Secure Software Construction: A Security Programmer's Guide" .      They will try to get a copy of the book to me, so we can use it as a door prize.  
 
I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting.  I'll send out a remember closer to the date.  Cross your fingers that all goes smoothly.
 
For those of you that are "linkedin", I've created a group for The Detroit Java Users Group.   We need a logo though.  Feel free to create and send a logo if you are so inclined.   I'm not sure but purple may have become the offical color of the Detroit JUG.  
 
   
- Collective X - 
Srini Penchikala and I have started looking at the collaboration / networking site CollectiveX.   Go to our current url   http://detroitjug.collectivex.com   and sign up.   If it seems like it will work out, we might make it a permanent Detroit JUG fixture.
 
 
  - Ann Arbor JUG Meeting-
The next AAJUG meeting will be Tuesday, September 23rd at 6:30.    Dianne Marsh will be giving an "Introduction to Scala" .
 
I've been pretty busy at work, at home preparing for a new addition to the family and with this pet project I've been working on,  so I'm not sure that I will make it, but I highly recommend seeing Dianne Marsh speak.  Also, her blog is a great spot for getting the scoop on local group meetings and events.
 
Dave Evennou, the leader of the AAJUG has been very supportive of the Detroit JUG.  Today he put me in contact with Aaron Houston, Sun's Program Coordinator of Java User Groups and Technology Outreach.  Aaron is sending "Schwag...". 

 - News -

Please send me news, technical articles you are working on or anything you think would be of interest to members of the JUG.  I'll put it in the newsletter and we will try it out on the Collective X site.

Thanks again to everyone.

Regards,

David

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