postgres, postgresql , , , , 4 Comments

User Group Idea: The After-party

sombrero

User group meetings are fundamentally places for people to meet each other. My user groups have rituals – we start off by asking a silly question of everyone as an ice breaker, we introduce our speakers with something personal, and we end every meeting with a trip to a local pub. This is the after-party, an essential part of the user group experience.

I’ve been to some conferences that don’t properly plan for the after party. I’m sure some of you have too. And it’s a bummer! You just spent 6-8 hours with a bunch of people, learning stuff — and now you want to go somewhere and really *talk* about it.

The same thing happens during user group meetings. People came there because they were interested in the topic – and the people that knew something about that topic, or maybe just interested in finding like-minded people.. and after the presentation and discussion is done, they want to connect directly with the other people that are there.

The best way to facilitate this is to have food, something to drink (and it doesn’t need to be alcoholic, but that *does* tend to help people loosen up), and an unstructured, social environment that helps people talk to each other. Pubs are set up for this (tables, some amount of comfortable ambient noise, booze and usually food), as are coffee houses. Even someone’s living room will do!

Just remember – a user group meeting is about getting people together to meet each other, not just to hear a great speaker, or even to learn a particular skill. My goal is always to enable conversation and connections between individuals, because that’s the community-glue that will keep a group together and thriving long after the original inspiration fades.

postgres, postgresql , , , , 2 Comments

Snow Leopard and PostgreSQL: installation help links

snow_leopard_yvonne_n_1968

A few reports of issues have been raised on the mailing lists around upgrading to Snow Leopard. There have been some good tutorials and hints posted on blogs that aren’t in the planet.postgresql.org roll, so here are a few things that might help you out:

Photo courtesy of yvonne_n_1968, under a Creative Commons license

twitter

twittering on 2009-10-02

  • finally found a use for this teapot: coffee. #
  • @rbuels i feel sad that cpan -i Teapot::Coffee failed. but that made me smile anyway. #
  • today, there is nothing that a few well-placed ssh keys cannot solve. #
  • @Mettadore LOL. there's gotta be an app for that. #
  • RT @mgkimsal: PostgreSQL job in Raleigh area – dm or email @mgkimsal for more info. #
  • @krat how big? if fairly small, pg_dump/pg_dumpall works good. #
  • thanks @kartar for pro nagios 2.0 book which just totally solved my problem. 🙂 #
  • .@rikkikite thanks for the shoutout in your roundup post (http://bit.ly/CriGt) today. so much going on right now! #
  • .@dukeleto oh just wave that googlewave.com address around like that, why don't you! #
twitter

twittering on 2009-09-29

  • @btmspox oh yeah, & mountain biking. learned the "brake hard w/front brakes before obstacle == endo" lesson first time out, a couple times. #
  • @notbenh definitely! can I sign you up for February? Or we could do a dec 17th session. esp if there's interpretive dance. #
  • quintessential portland weather: sunny AND raining. #
  • @jkuramot i would like to put this: http://bit.ly/lTQOL on the front of that bike and take it for a spin! #
  • awesome! RT @StevenWalling: Just signed up for @OpenSQLCamp Portland. #
  • catching up on TAL #
  • @rebekahgolden there's a full-color poster and activity sheet that i hope you find from that first pic. #
  • i feel the sniffles coming on. :/ #
  • @mattly wow. i didn't know that. i'll justify it with the, you know, 8 block walk over. #
twitter

twittering on 2009-09-28

community, complaints, conference, leadership , , 1 Comment

Responding to offensive presentations at conferences

How to handle WTF conference presentation moments.

How to handle WTF conference presentation moments.

On a couple mailing lists I participate in, people have raised the question: “When something offensive occurs during a conference presentation, what’s the right response from the audience and/or conference organizers?”

Unfortunately, at least one of these discussion lists is private, so I can’t directly quote the individuals who posted. But the content was worth sharing, so I’m summarizing the group’s thoughts in my own words below.

Here are some of the suggestions for handling offensive, unprofessional or inappropriate presentation content:

  • Train session monitors for a conference to contact the conference chair in the event of an issue, so that the conference chair can make a decision on whether to stop the talk or directly address the issue immediately (or later)
  • Conference chairs/committees make it clear to presenters up front what the expectations are (Presentation be rated G/PG-13/R, none of the “seven forbidden words” allowed, no commercial pitches, etc) — and there were dissenting opinions about this (esp G-rated issue — examples were given of things that were G-rated but also incredibly offensive depictions of women and minorities)
  • Screening presentations ahead of time (typically not something that open source conferences are able to do because of the habits of our presenters, and the rapidly evolving nature of the topics, but possible for a subset of presentations)
  • Audience members could address something that is offensive during Q&A (and audience members are encouraged to operate under the assumption that the speaker unintentionally offended)
  • Leave room for judgment on the part of conference organizers when developing community standards, as conferences are an “intentional community” and are free to set standards which are more or less strict than other conferences/communities
  • Bake a WTF cake, and serve it to the presenter (WAY underutilized tactic)

One theme that emerged was the need for some kind of immediate response that communicated both to the audience and the speaker that something was wrong. However, many situations require individuals to use their best judgment in responding, and stopping a talk should likely be left to the discretion of a conference chair.

Also, treating the speaker as though they have made an honest mistake and did not intend to offend anyone (I have yet to experience a situation where this was not the case, personally) is always the right way to start a conversation about it.

Photo courtesy of SanFranAnnie, under a Creative Commons License