Putney 30-03-08

From Bob's Basement

Back by popular demand. Project meets for the London geek community. That's what we'd like to think anyway.

In brief, we met-up, discussed somethings that needed discussing, had a good pub lunch, did our own thing for a while then went home. The opinion was that the meet went very well and everyone who attended was pleased to see us all back at the place where BB was born. That's right my (Bob Plonker's) work.

We went round the round table discussing current projects and then moved onto a summary of BB past, BB present and the future of BB. The plan for the future, lets say the next 12 months generally speaking looks a little like this.

• Continue with projects; this is how BB started and projects will always be an important part of BB.
• Less documentation; the general consensus was that BB group and project documentation had always been a thorn in our side. Documentation like this meeting summary will be kept to a sensible but practical minimum.
• Tutorials / workshops /presentations; whatever you want to call them. We will introduce hands on tutorials into our London meetings. We are all newbs at something and none of us know it all. Regularly check our homepage for new meeting tutorials.
• Host user homepages; how ghey does that sound; in a nutshell. A lot of us have solo (non group) projects on the go and/or have our own geek homepage we like to work on to keep our skills sharp. Or we just don't like MediaWiki. Whatever the reason, BB will now promote user hosting. Providing mySQL database and scripting support. Basically everything you need to get your site with us and for free, or get a site online if you don't already have one.
• Day trips; yup, we are going to start organising trips out. We are all very socialable after all. If you know of a geeky trip let us know or organise your own. It's that simple. If you want to go somewhere looking like billy no mates. Contact us and we'll come to :D
• Membership drive; often talked about, we need one. Do I need to explain this, I don't think so. I would like to lower the membership bar, basically to anyone who would like to come along. I think we could do with some newbs, some fresh blood if you will.
• Venue security; if we are going to have an influx of new members. Venue security will become a problem. The general rule is, if you want to bring someone, you have to vouch for them and they are your responsibility. At the same time security of the venue is every bodies responsibility. The back office will be cordoned off and the desks will get locked up to make this that much easier. Napster is also going to set-up a hardware firewall to seal off the office network completely.
• New Venue; I'd like to move us out of the basement. Keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground. I'd like to move from Putney to Roehampton, which shouldn't affect travel times. But I have to get a new part-time job under my belt first. If anyone has any possible venues please let us know. Almost anywhere can be a venue.
• Canterbury chapter; the group meets and runs pretty independently due to it's distance from London. Why not make it an official chapter. Discussions continue...
• Extra online 'facilities required; or not as the case maybe when it comes to hosting. Available all along but I'd forgotten. If there's a service you want, please let us know. We may already offer it.
• BB stash; no this isn't for drugs. An area to leave stuff so other members can borrow. Can be anything. The stash may be virtual, watch this space.

That's all folks. Fancy popping down than let me know. Doesn't matter what you know, or who you know.

Bob Plonker