Re: [UG-ADMINS] Re: PHP User Group Directory

Here's an idea to throw out there.

As a group organizer one of the issues I have is remembering to post the
events on the php.net calendar.  I know it's useful to do so because I've
gotten many new users who saw it in the php.net sidebar.  I don't like the
idea of setting up a reoccurring event on php.net because frankly our
meetings are sporadic.  Usually they are on the third or fourth Thursday,
but sometimes it's on another date based on speaker availability.

What I think we should start out doing with the new site is support a
standard for publishing the events.  Basically doing an iCal feed or
something.  I know a lot of groups are running on Meetup.com which does
provide an iCal feed.
See http://www.madisonphp.com/events/ical/Madison+PHP+Meetup+Group/

If we adopted this standard, that would allow groups to manage their events
on their own websites like normal, and either php.net or the new UG
directory could subscribe to these feeds and publish upcoming events.  This
would be a good way to identify groups that are active or not because if no
events have been coming through the feed either the URL has changed or the
group is dead.

Perhaps we start this out as a standalone UG directory and once the kinks
are worked out we could talk to the php.net folks and see if the management
of the event sidebar widget could be powered by our website.

What do folks think about this?

Cheers,
Andrew Shell
Madison PHP Meetup Group

On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 12:02 PM, Adam Culp <[email protected]> wrote:

> While I realize there is red tape associated with php.net, it is also the
> one place that pretty much all PHP devs look to as a source.  So, I think
> it would need to be there or at least linked to from there.
>
> Regards,
> Adam Culp
> 561-870-6361
> Twitter: @adamculp
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>
>
> On 07/13/2012 12:53 PM, Ben Ramsey wrote:
>
>> On 7/13/12 11:36 AM, Rafael Dohms wrote:
>>
>>> Over the years UG lists have come and gone, but mostly gone...
>>>
>>> I had a project to make a directory that would "police itself" and try to
>>> filter out inactive user groups. But that also never made it into the
>>> open.
>>> We have already gone over this once but got torn into bits and no action
>>> came out of it. Also, is anyone doing this behind the scenes?
>>>
>>
>> I'm not doing anything behind the scenes, but these things do come up
>> from time to time. Corey and I recently discussed off-list the idea of
>> having a Google Calendar that we give everyone on this list the permission
>> to edit so we can at least be kept aware of all the UG events going on
>> around the world. We haven't really done anything with it yet, though.
>>
>>  So i'm going to be my usual stubborn self and try to get this going
>>> again.
>>> I want to code a simple version of this and throw it up, but i rather get
>>> it in the right place first instead of trying to fit into another place
>>> later.
>>>
>>> As UG admins, where do you think we should have this?
>>> - stand alone (like PHP the right way)
>>> - phpc website
>>> - php.net
>>> - attached to those but standalone
>>> - standalone with a kickass API
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>> Depending on where it goes i, or we, can start it and kick it out very
>>> fast, but if its php.net there is more red-tape to go through.
>>>
>>> I kinda like the idea of a standalone url or subdomain of something with
>>> a
>>> API so that everyone else can use it, like Zend, EY, PHP.net.
>>>
>>
>> I definitely like and agree with the idea, especially with having an API
>> to allow others access to the information and the ability to keep it
>> up-to-date.
>>
>> We also have phpgroups.org. I would prefer either something at
>> phpgroups.org or a subdomain on php.net (i.e. ug.php.net).
>>
>> -Ben
>>
>>
>
>
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