Farset Labs: Flacknite

[bolster]

Hello all, 

Quick heads up from us at Farset Labs that we're running another 24hr event; this time were taking the foot off the 'pitch' pedal and just getting down and dirty with the technical stuff.

I know we've got a fair number of mobile games dev's and several artists/designers, along with several hardware hackers, so I just wanted to extend a personal invitation to the Android group. More the merrier!

Also, since we've only recently started, we're interested in beefing up our event calendar, and one of the things we were thinking of doing was a regular Android meetup; and I thought you lot would be the best guys to ask about it.

How regular would you like such get togethers to be? What time/day of the week works?

Bolster

[Gareth Fleming]

Thanks for the post Andrew, and the invitation. I'd heard of Flacknite on the grapevine and I'm not a little pissed off that life is, once again, conspiring to make sure I won't be able to make it this time round (although, I plan to sneak in at some point with my son in tow just to make an appearance). 

As for the meetups, firstly, it's nicety hear that someone else is thinking about it. It's more than likely an issue with organisation (or lack thereof), but we've yet to find enough momentum for purely Android related meetups to make them feasible. Again, I'm more than willing to put that down to organisational failure than lack of interest. I would be eager to piggyback a more organised group (that's you) to get something off the ground :)

There are a *lot* of groups that meet regularly on one topic or another and adding another one may start to spread people's scant resources of time and fucks-to-give a little thin. What would you think about a one-off Android-focused developer meet to gauge interest? Are there any other regular groups meeting out of Farset Labs into which something specifically Android related could be injected for one evening, again with a mind of gauging general interest?

Cheers,

Gareth

 

-- 

Gareth Fleming

Sent with Sparrow

[Andrew Bolster]

Gareth, 

I agree with all your points (and you're more than welcome to pop down any time the space is open, which is mostly 1000-2200.

As for 'regular events', we're a month and a week old; we haven't settled into a pattern yet :D

Something I was throwing around my own head was having a regular $UG night, and to rotate it through the different user groups, so one fortnight it'd be the much-discussed-never-acted-upon python user group, next it would be android, then java, then linux, then something else etc etc. That way there's enough of a mix that its still interesting to those people that can make it everytime, but the 'specific' events are separated enough that it doesn't get boring.

Thoughts?
Regards
Andrew Bolster

No trees were killed to send this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without a messy bloodbath.

[Colin Mitchell]

Andrew et al

I'm game for a meetup. I think the best way to start is to just try and grab a bunch of interested people - use word of mouth to get a 'list' together and aim for a single initial meeting to see what people want, along with some space to talk about actual coding.

My personal pref would be to use it to counter the fact that I'm on my own during Android coding - so I can't turn to someone and ask 'what's the best way to do this?' etc, so I'd like space to aks those kinds of questions.

Cheers, Colin

[Gareth Fleming]

Andrew, I agree that meet ups in meat space are more likely to be successful if they are not single-subject focused. A general geek meet with feel 

advertised content would, in my view, cater very well for this. I'd be very happy to be of any use in that.

I don't think regular, scheduled meets best serve the needs of developers who have immediate questions about the piece of code they are currently struggling with. User group meetings are better for introducing wider subject areas and social interaction. 

Colin, I think this forum better serves your needs. I completely relate to what you're saying. Please feel free to post any questions you have to the forum. I think you are more likely to get timely replies to any queries. Also, drop into ##belfastandroid on irc.freenode.net for realtime discussion. Ad-hoc meets can always be arranged here or in the IRC channel. 

[Colin Mitchell]

Gareth

What's a good Mac IRC client? Haven't yet delved into the freenode underworld....

re using this forum for questions, I'll give that a try.

Dont disagree with your sentiments - let's aim at least to get a few bodies in a room (live ones preferably)

Cheers, Colin

[Gareth Fleming]

I'm using colloquy on the mac for irc.

-- 

Gareth Fleming

Sent with Sparrow

[Andrew Bolster]

Regarding the IRC styuff, we're actually developing a fair community in #farsetlabs on freenode.

Also #android on freenode is always quite busy.

I'll look about putting together an event plan. Will follow up soon. In the mean time, I hope you'll all be able to attend flacknite :D

Regards
Andrew Bolster

No trees were killed to send this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without a messy bloodbath.

[Gareth Fleming]

You see what happens when someone who's organised gets involved :) 

Sounds like a plan. Thanks.

I'll try and make an appearance on Saturday. I'll just keep my idea on ice until the next one ;)

[Andrew Gribben]

I missed the whole conversation, but I guess I'll see you guys on IRC.

Andrew