Arjan’s World

this concerns mainly my one other reader in the Netherlands, but since it’s about community building,  you might be interested in creating or joining groups in your area. Therefore this is written in English.

Recently I have been trying to set up an initial Alt.NET meeting here in the Netherlands. You probably have heard about Alt.NET by now. If not, you should definitely check out the wealth of available sources. Start for example by looking into Del.icio.us items tagged alt.net, or read the unofficial coining of the term alt.net as done by Dave Laribee’s in April 2007, for starters.

Last week there was supposed to be a meeting where a couple of us would gather, have a drink, and have an agile chat about the form we want to continue our meetings in the future. Our southern neighbors in Belgium have started earlier this year, see the Dutchaltdotnet googleGroup. As far as I can judge they already have quite a big group of people that gathers regularly.

Never assume!
A couple of reasons (illness, my assumption that people would subscribe to the Google group) lead to an initial meeting date, but no further communication on location etc. ensued. Alt.NET is all about community, interaction, fun and learning. Since the Netherlands are twice as big as Belgium and I see no reason why there would be less  .NET developers and architects here with a passion for their craft, my deduction is that there is a big market for Alt.NET here.
So here goes my plea: get involved if you’re only the least interested. Even if you don’t know jack about all this Alt-stuff, but you have a keen eye for improving the way you work and are just eager to learn new stuff.  And don’t worry: if I don’t underestimate you, there is more to learn than you realize!

What to do now?
Of course it doesn’t hurt if you drop a comment here or send me an email. I have gathered emails of all people that showed an interest so far. My intention is to send a reminder to them and point to the Google group that is in use so far.

But more important: it would not be wise if one person is the sole connector in this chain, so go out and subscribe to the dutchaltdotnet Google group!. You will be notified if something happens, you can start your own discussion, or whatever you like. Well, you know how newsgroups work, don’t you

See you soon!