Comments on: TECHcoffee – “running club” meets “study hall” http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/2006/06/11/techcoffee-running-club-meets-study-hall/ software development and testing Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:51:01 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jason Huggins http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/2006/06/11/techcoffee-running-club-meets-study-hall/comment-page-1/#comment-702 Jason Huggins Tue, 13 Jun 2006 04:58:21 +0000 http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/?p=34#comment-702 Ade, thanks for the Extreme Tuesday link... thanks also for the other lessons... Yeah, I agree that having it some place public (in my case a coffee shop) will be easier to organize (drinks and wifi already provided)... All I have to do is advertise it and show up. :-) Ade, thanks for the Extreme Tuesday link… thanks also for the other lessons… Yeah, I agree that having it some place public (in my case a coffee shop) will be easier to organize (drinks and wifi already provided)… All I have to do is advertise it and show up. :-)

]]> By: ade http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/2006/06/11/techcoffee-running-club-meets-study-hall/comment-page-1/#comment-699 ade Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:51:12 +0000 http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/?p=34#comment-699 The main lesson (which I've only recently learned) is that you must have a large and diverse set of convenors organising the sessions. This means that the loss of any one organiser is not fatal. It also means that you have a mechanism for bringing in 'new blood.' More importantly it means that there's a greater chance that one of your pool of organisers will have the energy and enthusiasm to initiate things every week. With GeekNight (at least in London) we had a couple of people who got too busy to run these sessions and so nothing happened for a very long time. Having a diverse group of organisers (e.g they shouldn't all be working at the same place) mean that a busy period or intense project doesn't effectively wipe out all your organisers. A really great example of a successful group that is mostly self-organised is the Extreme Tuesday Club: http://www.xpdeveloper.net/xpdwiki/Wiki.jsp?page=FrontPage The wiki acts as a central point of organisation, the mailing list enables people who want to do something special to drum up interest and hosting it in a public place like a pub means that people free to wander in off the street. The main lesson (which I’ve only recently learned) is that you must have a large and diverse set of convenors organising the sessions. This means that the loss of any one organiser is not fatal. It also means that you have a mechanism for bringing in ‘new blood.’

More importantly it means that there’s a greater chance that one of your pool of organisers will have the energy and enthusiasm to initiate things every week. With GeekNight (at least in London) we had a couple of people who got too busy to run these sessions and so nothing happened for a very long time.

Having a diverse group of organisers (e.g they shouldn’t all be working at the same place) mean that a busy period or intense project doesn’t effectively wipe out all your organisers.

A really great example of a successful group that is mostly self-organised is the Extreme Tuesday Club: http://www.xpdeveloper.net/xpdwiki/Wiki.jsp?page=FrontPage

The wiki acts as a central point of organisation, the mailing list enables people who want to do something special to drum up interest and hosting it in a public place like a pub means that people free to wander in off the street.

]]> By: Jason Huggins http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/2006/06/11/techcoffee-running-club-meets-study-hall/comment-page-1/#comment-698 Jason Huggins Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:10:35 +0000 http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/?p=34#comment-698 ade, true... but I found I could never attend the TW GeekNights because of other commitments (dinner, putting my son to bed, etc.) Also, at least in Chicago, many ThoughtWorkers couldn't attend because they were out of town on projects... TechCoffee does take the spirit of GeekNight, yes, but puts more emphasis on the "and others" in the phrase "ThoughtWorkers and others"... Also, by having it in a coffeeshop (or similarly public place) it's easier for folks to come and go as they please. On that note, I've noticed that it's been awhile since most of the offices have had a GeekNight... Are there some other lessons learned there (you're in London, right?) that I should know about? ade, true… but I found I could never attend the TW GeekNights because of other commitments (dinner, putting my son to bed, etc.) Also, at least in Chicago, many ThoughtWorkers couldn’t attend because they were out of town on projects… TechCoffee does take the spirit of GeekNight, yes, but puts more emphasis on the “and others” in the phrase “ThoughtWorkers and others”… Also, by having it in a coffeeshop (or similarly public place) it’s easier for folks to come and go as they please. On that note, I’ve noticed that it’s been awhile since most of the offices have had a GeekNight… Are there some other lessons learned there (you’re in London, right?) that I should know about?

]]> By: ade http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/2006/06/11/techcoffee-running-club-meets-study-hall/comment-page-1/#comment-697 ade Mon, 12 Jun 2006 06:37:15 +0000 http://www.jrandolph.com/blog/?p=34#comment-697 Did you mean something along the lines of this: http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/GN/Home You could always set up a GeekNight Chicago. --ade Did you mean something along the lines of this: http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/GN/Home

You could always set up a GeekNight Chicago.

–ade

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