Rebooting the Milwaukee Ruby Users Group?

[Alex Lemanski]

Hi All,

I am writing because cause I want to find out who, besides myself and
a couple others I have talked to, would be interested in seeing this
group come back to life. I would like to find out who else in the
Milwaukee area and in South Eastern Wisconsin is doing Ruby
development, and have us share our experiences. Up until this point I
have not run into many people in Milwaukee doing Ruby work, especially
professionally, which has been a bit of a disappointment to me. I
personally find that the most interesting things happening in server-
side web development are happening either within the Ruby community or
as a result of the Ruby community.

I would want to have the first meetup in either September or October,
and am looking at the second half of the month for a consistent
evening to meetup. I realize that it could cause some issues when the
holidays roll around, but there seem to be fewer meetups that we would
conflict with by meeting during second half of the month. I also have
a list of potential talk ideas that could give us enough content for 6
months if we can find people willing to talk on those subjects. I am
also open to any suggestions that people may have for talks and for
days that work well for us to meet.

What do you all think?

Alex Lemanski

[Geoff Lane]

I for one say "go for it". I think this will only work when/if someone
just does it. Previously there was a series of people (Starting with
George, later Roland & the Stark Crew) who scheduled meetings, made
sure there would be presenters, etc. So I think if you're willing to
do the work people will show up...

I personally vote for a downtown location, maybe Bucketworks or the
like, but in the end it's up to whoever steps in as the Benevolent
Dictator. :)

[Steve Duncan]

I'd be interested - I'm in the process of rewriting a site in RoR, and have lots of learning to do.

Steve Duncan | www.swduncan.com

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[Mike Dietz]

another option:  organize a carpool to chicago -- very active ruby user group  :-D

[josh mejia]

I'd be interested as well as a one or two other web developers located
in Racine. Monday and Wednesday nights work best.

josh mejia

[Bob Martens]

I'm currently looking to move to Milwaukee in the near-future (maybe,
lots has to fall into place first) and I currently attend http://ruby.mn
meetings quite regularly (even with the 2+ hour drive it takes). If my
family and I move, I'd be very interested in seeing this group come
back and would be more than willing to help in any way I can.

On Aug 4, 9:17 am, Alex Lemanski <alex.leman...@gmail.com> wrote:

[bittersweetryan]

I am very interested! As a relative newcomer to Ruby and Rails I'd
absolutely love to see this group startup again.

On Aug 4, 9:17 am, Alex Lemanski <alex.leman...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Joey Geiger]

Still here, still interested.

[Alex Lemanski]

Thanks everyone for you interest. If you guys could spread the word to
see who else is interested I would appreciate it.

I'll post more details as I have them. I'll start with my list of
idea's for talks.

On Aug 4, 9:17 am, Alex Lemanski <alex.leman...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bob Martens]

Just as a question, who is in charge of the website currently? I could maybe try and point some people there, but I was just wondering who is in charge.

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@boblmartens

[Bob Martens]

Just as an aside as well, and sorry for just brain-dumping on your guys without even being in the area, but one thing introduced at the monthly meetings in Minneapolis was just a general hacking night or time as well at each meeting for guys to get together and work on some personal projects as well. It helps when you have a few of the devs working on JRuby there, but I thought it was a neat idea.

[Arlen Walker]

On Aug 4, 2010, at 9:17 AM, Alex Lemanski wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I am writing because cause I want to find out who, besides myself and
> a couple others I have talked to, would be interested in seeing this
> group come back to life.

Count me in. I was looking at doing it anyway down at bucketworks this fall, around BarCamp time.

> I would like to find out who else in the
> Milwaukee area and in South Eastern Wisconsin is doing Ruby
> development, and have us share our experiences. Up until this point I
> have not run into many people in Milwaukee doing Ruby work, especially
> professionally, which has been a bit of a disappointment to me.

Most of my ruby projects at the moment are more portfolio than paid, but I've been seeing a few more job openings mentioning it lately, so that may be changing.

Have Fun,
Arlen

------------------------------
In God we trust, all others must supply data

[Geoffrey Lane]

It's hosted on my server. DJ Vogel originally registered the domain and controls the DNS as far as I recall.

-- 

Geoff Lane <ge...@zorched.net>

[cammerman]

I'm a complete Ruby noob, but I'd love to attend a local RUG to get
some real exposure to it, and what people are doing with in the
Milwaukee area. Second half of the month is perfect for me as well as
I'm involved with 2 other groups in the beginning of the month.

[Alex Lemanski]

I posted the ideas I have had for talks
http://groups.google.com/group/milwaukeeruby/web/potential-talks. Let
me know what you guys think. Do they sound like things you'd be
interested in hearing about? Are any of them things any of you would
be willing to give a talk on? Are they too high level, or would they
be a good start? I

I am open to any ideas, and to any constructive criticism regarding
all of this.

Please share your thoughts.

Thanks,

Alex

On Aug 4, 9:17 am, Alex Lemanski <alex.leman...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bob Martens]

I added one to the list, is that alright?

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[Alex Lemanski]

Bob, that's perfect. I definitely won't be able to make this happen
all by myself, and I'll take all the help I can get.

In the short term the one item I'll need to the most help with is
finding speakers. There are a few things I am comfortable talking
about, but there are a lot of things I still have yet to get
comfortable with in the ruby world.

On Aug 6, 11:11 am, Bob Martens <boblmart...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I added one to the list, is that alright?
>

> > milwaukeerub...@googlegroups.com<milwaukeeruby%2Bunsubscribe@goog legroups.com>
> > .

[Bob Martens]

As an idea, there is also the idea of opening it up to not-specific-to-Ruby talks as well such as agile, software craftsmanship, time management, etc. Not sure if there are groups already doing that, but an idea.

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[Mathias Gauger]

Correction: I just bought us a month meetup membership at Bucketworks,
which we can use when we want to hold our first meeting.

-- Matt

On Aug 6, 12:38 pm, Bob Martens <boblmart...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As an idea, there is also the idea of opening it up to not-specific-to-Ruby
> talks as well such as agile, software craftsmanship, time management, etc.
> Not sure if there are groups already doing that, but an idea.
>

[Mathias Gauger]

I'm interested as well. I'm willing to front the cost for a meet-up
membership at Bucketworks: http://bucketworks.org/membership if we can
get this going ASAP.

What day of the last 2 weeks of the month works best for everyone?
(Since Alex said the second half of the month is better to not
interfere with other meetups)

-- Matt

On Aug 6, 12:38 pm, Bob Martens <boblmart...@gmail.com> wrote:

> As an idea, there is also the idea of opening it up to not-specific-to-Ruby
> talks as well such as agile, software craftsmanship, time management, etc.
> Not sure if there are groups already doing that, but an idea.
>

[Joey Geiger]

Monday, Thursday, Friday

[Bob Martens]

How is Bucketworks as a co-working facility?

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[Bob Martens]

I won't make it for the first meeting and don't know what my work schedule is going to look like, but I would like to make it to the meetings as well.

[Grant Rettke]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 9:17 AM, Alex Lemanski <alex.l...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What do you all think?

Consider having non-Ruby "guest presenters" whose presentations you
all would find interesting.

The only other outlet for something like this is the Milwaukee Geek
Book Club, or Barcamp.

[Grant Rettke]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Mike Dietz <mike....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> another option:  organize a carpool to chicago -- very active ruby user
> group  :-D

That is a good option. When the Chicago Lisp User Group was up and
running it was pretty fun.

[David Putnam]

There are some other groups that I am aware of specifically targeting
your other topics. The Milwaukee Agile Meetup (http://
www.milwaukeeagile.com/) (meets at the Miller Inn on the Second
Tuesday of each month) and the Milwaukee Software Improvement Network
(http://www.milwaukeespin.com/) (meets at various locations on the
Third Thursday of each month). However, both of these groups tend to
stay technology agnostic.

I am currently trying to pick up Ruby and Rails and am interested in
seeing this group get back together.

David

On Aug 6, 12:38 pm, Bob Martens <boblmart...@gmail.com> wrote:

> As an idea, there is also the idea of opening it up to not-specific-to-Ruby
> talks as well such as agile, software craftsmanship, time management, etc.
> Not sure if there are groups already doing that, but an idea.
>

> > > > milwaukeerub...@googlegroups.com<milwaukeeruby%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>

> > <milwaukeeruby%2Bunsubscribe@goog legroups.com>
> > > > .
> > > > For more options, visit this group at
> > > >http://groups.google.com/group/milwaukeeruby?hl=en.
>
> > > --
> > > Sincerely,
> > > Bob Martens
>
> > >http://bobmartens.net
> > > @boblmartens
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "MilwaukeeRubyUsersGroup" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to milwau...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > milwaukeerub...@googlegroups.com<milwaukeeruby%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>

[David Putnam]

Not sure what happened to the agile link but I'll try again.
http://www.milwaukeeagile.com/

On Aug 9, 7:38 pm, David Putnam <dave.put...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There are some other groups that I am aware of specifically targeting

> your other topics. The Milwaukee Agile Meetup (http://www.milwaukeeagile.com/) (meets at the Miller Inn on the Second

[David Putnam]

Not sure what happened to the agile link but I'll try again.
http://www.milwaukeeagile.com/

On Aug 9, 7:38 pm, David Putnam <dave.put...@gmail.com> wrote:

> There are some other groups that I am aware of specifically targeting

> your other topics. The Milwaukee Agile Meetup (http://www.milwaukeeagile.com/) (meets at the Miller Inn on the Second

[Alex Lemanski]

That is something I am considering, especially the with the NoSQL
movement, but I do want the focus to be Ruby ecosystem.

On Aug 9, 7:17 pm, Grant Rettke <gret...@acm.org> wrote:

[Alex Lemanski]

Based on my current weekly availability (Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday), and what others have mentioned I propose we start off with
Mondays. I am thinking, for now, the 3rd Monday of the month. At that
point we can see how it works out for everybody.

If we can find 1 or 2 people to give a talk(s) for September (which I
think is the earliest we can probably make this happen), that would be
the 20th. With that said, are any of you more experienced Rubyists up
to the challenge of putting together a talk for the September time
period, to help us to off the ground?

--Alex

On Aug 6, 2:59 pm, Mathias Gauger <matt.gau...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm interested as well. I'm willing to front the cost for a meet-up

> membership at Bucketworks:http://bucketworks.org/membershipif we can

[Alex Lemanski]

Also, even if you are like me and are more of a novice at the present,
but have an area where you do have some experience comfortable, and
are comfortable share that, I would interested in having you share
that.

--Alex

On Aug 10, 4:56 pm, Alex Lemanski <alex.leman...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Based on my current weekly availability (Monday, Tuesday, and
> Wednesday), and what others have mentioned I propose we start off with
> Mondays. I am thinking, for now, the 3rd Monday of the month. At that
> point we can see how it works out for everybody.
>
> If we can find 1 or 2 people to give a talk(s) for September (which I
> think is the earliest we can probably make this happen), that would be
> the 20th. With that said, are any of you more experienced Rubyists up
> to the challenge of putting together a talk for the September time
> period, to help us to off the ground?
>
> --Alex
>
> On Aug 6, 2:59 pm, Mathias Gauger <matt.gau...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I'm interested as well. I'm willing to front the cost for a meet-up

> > membership at Bucketworks:http://bucketworks.org/membershipifwe can

[John Miller]

Not sure how interested the folks on this list would be in this, but I use Ruby extensively as a security researcher. I could put together a talk that explores some of the non-web uses of Ruby, including the Metasploit Project and other exploit development, binary protocol integration, and external library interfaces (FFI). I don't do much Java work, but there are some interesting security aspects of JRuby I could expound on as well.

If this sounds like an interesting (meta-)topic for those looking to reboot this group, I could probably have a presentation ready for September.

--John

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[Matt Gauger]

Could we put something together for the third Monday of August then? (August 16th) Even if it isn't scheduled talks, just a meet and greet at Bucketworks?

- matt

--
Matt Gauger
http://mattgauger.com

The Bucket Brigade will be closed on August 9th, and from August 25th to August 29th. We will not be available during that time.

[Alex Lemanski]

This coming Monday, I am unfortunately not available, but if other's
would like to get together. I am down with that.

Alex.

On Aug 10, 7:12 pm, Matt Gauger <matt.gau...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Could we put something together for the third Monday of August then? (August
> 16th) Even if it isn't scheduled talks, just a meet and greet at
> Bucketworks?
>
> - matt
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 5:15 PM, John Miller <j...@ethackal.com> wrote:
> > Not sure how interested the folks on this list would be in this, but I use
> > Ruby extensively as a security researcher. I could put together a talk that
> > explores some of the non-web uses of Ruby, including the Metasploit Project
> > and other exploit development, binary protocol integration, and external
> > library interfaces (FFI). I don't do much Java work, but there are some
> > interesting security aspects of JRuby I could expound on as well.
>
> > If this sounds like an interesting (meta-)topic for those looking to reboot
> > this group, I could probably have a presentation ready for September.
>
> > --John
>

> Matt Gaugerhttp://mattgauger.com

[Chris Powers]

If a meeting comes together and you need speakers, please let me know.
I've been using Ruby/Rails professionally for 4 years and would be
happy talking about any front-end/back-end topic the group would like
to hear about. I live in northern IL, but I should be able to make the
drive up pretty easily.

Chris

[Alex Lemanski]

Chris,

I definitely think we'll be interested in having you come up at some
point to give a talk.

Alex