Looking for alternatives to meetup.com
Hello PSF Community, as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries. Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds. These are some services I've found: * http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany) For BarCamps: * https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany) Some questions: * Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ? I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives. Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/
There's many features I wish Meetup included. For example, Eventbrite has great check-in mobile app for both iPhone and Android. For a many months at PuPPy we used Meetup for our announcements to members and directed event attendees to Eventbrite for RSVPs and check-ins. It probably created too much UX overhead for our members. I believe our turnout suffered because of this. But Meetup is great at social graph connections for new members. We've grown from zero in August 2014 to over 1300 members thanks to the good job Meetup does in connecting us with the community interested in Python in the greater Seattle region. We have now retired the experiment of using Eventbrite and going solely with Meetup. We hope to with the help of Meetup's good job of connecting us with individual interested in Python in our region to get to 2000 members in six months. ᐧ On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 1:34 PM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>* *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.*
Hi Marc, I'm agree with your approach to try to optimise PSF ressources. However, at least in Belgium, I must recognise that we have now more people since we've migrated on meetup.com. At least to me, I prefer to increase the potential audience of a meetup than reduce cost. Nevertheless, keep meetup.com and reduce costs shouldn't be incompatible: With the number of Python groups on their platform, we should have a big argument to negotiate a better group price. It isn't a good signal for them if Python groups leave their platform: the network effect should play in our favour to negotiate. What do you think? Ludovic Gasc (GMLudo) http://www.gmludo.eu/ On 18 Nov 2015 22:39, "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal@python.org> wrote:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
On Nov 18, 2015, at 4:59 PM, Ludovic Gasc <gmludo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Marc,
I'm agree with your approach to try to optimise PSF ressources.
However, at least in Belgium, I must recognise that we have now more people since we've migrated on meetup.com <http://meetup.com/>.
At least to me, I prefer to increase the potential audience of a meetup than reduce cost.
I agree. Moving my group off of meetup.com would be disruptive, since we’ve started to use some of their discussion board tools for group communication.
Nevertheless, keep meetup.com <http://meetup.com/> and reduce costs shouldn't be incompatible: With the number of Python groups on their platform, we should have a big argument to negotiate a better group price.
It isn't a good signal for them if Python groups leave their platform: the network effect should play in our favour to negotiate.
What do you think?
Ludovic Gasc (GMLudo) http://www.gmludo.eu/ <http://www.gmludo.eu/> On 18 Nov 2015 22:39, "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal@python.org <mailto:mal@python.org>> wrote: Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com <http://meeptup.com/> is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com <http://meetup.com/> is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ <http://www.eventbrite.com/> (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ <https://www.farornear.com/> (free) * http://attending.io/ <http://attending.io/> (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events <https://www.xing.com/de/events> (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ <https://www.barcamptools.eu/> (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com <http://meetup.com/>, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org <http://python.org/> wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com <http://meetup.com/> alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ <http://www.python.org/psf/> http://www.malemburg.com/ <http://www.malemburg.com/> _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org <mailto:PSF-Community@python.org> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community <https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community> _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Hi Ludovic, Apparently (http://www.meetup.com/about/) there are 9,000 meetups a day. Supposing each group meets once a week (and many meet less often, so this is clearly an underestimate) that would mean there are 63,000 meetup groups. So while I like your thinking, I suspect that we could not claim that Python groups are sufficiently popular to have much "clout" (credibility of threat in a negotiating position) with Meetup.com. Free events that I have organized through Eventbrite have usually been largely trouble-free, but usually they have been limited to low numbers (<50). One thing I like is the ability to have people pay a significant amount (say $100) which is refunded on attendance. This is a useful way to avoid too many no-shows (and at least make sure that you get some funding from the wasted places). I've organized conferences of up to 500 people with Eventbrite, but many of them had sufficient revenues to justify the cost of handling the administration of drop-out refunds, place substitutions and the like. Maybe we should talk to Eventbrite about some deal on reduced commissions, and particularly on the provision of a more "lightweight" user interface on the admin side. In my experience they are happy to listen to suggestions, at least, though clearly they are guided largely by commercial priorities. They might also be able to offer better ways of organizing meetings such as meetups. They acquired Lanyrd a while ago, and Lanyrd is a good Python company too, but I don't know whether that would win any credibility with the management. regards Steve On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 9:59 PM, Ludovic Gasc <gmludo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Marc,
I'm agree with your approach to try to optimise PSF ressources.
However, at least in Belgium, I must recognise that we have now more people since we've migrated on meetup.com.
At least to me, I prefer to increase the potential audience of a meetup than reduce cost.
Nevertheless, keep meetup.com and reduce costs shouldn't be incompatible: With the number of Python groups on their platform, we should have a big argument to negotiate a better group price.
It isn't a good signal for them if Python groups leave their platform: the network effect should play in our favour to negotiate.
What do you think?
Ludovic Gasc (GMLudo) http://www.gmludo.eu/ On 18 Nov 2015 22:39, "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal@python.org> wrote:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
I am a Co-organizer if PuPPy with Don Sheu. When I am on check-in duty I ask everyone if it is there first time attending PuPPy, if it is I ask how they found out. I would say 90% say meetup.com, often through email recommendations. The other ten percent come from referrals. Getting rid of meetup.com just doesn't seem reasonable at this time. Meetup does a wonderful job of marketing our meetup on our behalf without any effort on our end. When we stopped using meetup for our registrations our growth rate stagnated. - Alan Vezina On Nov 18, 2015 5:17 PM, "Steve Holden" <steve@holdenweb.com> wrote:
Hi Ludovic,
Apparently (http://www.meetup.com/about/) there are 9,000 meetups a day. Supposing each group meets once a week (and many meet less often, so this is clearly an underestimate) that would mean there are 63,000 meetup groups. So while I like your thinking, I suspect that we could not claim that Python groups are sufficiently popular to have much "clout" (credibility of threat in a negotiating position) with Meetup.com.
Free events that I have organized through Eventbrite have usually been largely trouble-free, but usually they have been limited to low numbers (<50). One thing I like is the ability to have people pay a significant amount (say $100) which is refunded on attendance. This is a useful way to avoid too many no-shows (and at least make sure that you get some funding from the wasted places).
I've organized conferences of up to 500 people with Eventbrite, but many of them had sufficient revenues to justify the cost of handling the administration of drop-out refunds, place substitutions and the like. Maybe we should talk to Eventbrite about some deal on reduced commissions, and particularly on the provision of a more "lightweight" user interface on the admin side. In my experience they are happy to listen to suggestions, at least, though clearly they are guided largely by commercial priorities.
They might also be able to offer better ways of organizing meetings such as meetups. They acquired Lanyrd a while ago, and Lanyrd is a good Python company too, but I don't know whether that would win any credibility with the management.
regards Steve
On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 9:59 PM, Ludovic Gasc <gmludo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Marc,
I'm agree with your approach to try to optimise PSF ressources.
However, at least in Belgium, I must recognise that we have now more people since we've migrated on meetup.com.
At least to me, I prefer to increase the potential audience of a meetup than reduce cost.
Nevertheless, keep meetup.com and reduce costs shouldn't be incompatible: With the number of Python groups on their platform, we should have a big argument to negotiate a better group price.
It isn't a good signal for them if Python groups leave their platform: the network effect should play in our favour to negotiate.
What do you think?
Ludovic Gasc (GMLudo) http://www.gmludo.eu/ On 18 Nov 2015 22:39, "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal@python.org> wrote:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
In a message of Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:34:15 +0100, "M.-A. Lemburg" writes:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/
In the USA, I think it is still hopeless. (It was a decade ago, when I last looked into it.) The problem was that meetup.com so dominates the field in the USA that a majority of Americans believe that, should they be looking for a group about X, they can check meetup.com, and, if they don't find a group, then that group does not exist. No further checking is needed. This means, if you want to attract new members, you have to have a meetup.com presence. And, this, of course means that the heuristic 'if it doesn't have a meetup.com, it doesn't exist' becomes more and more true. This must be rather nice for meetup.com -- despite many efforts, theirs is a monopoly which seems very hard to break. I talked to more than a dozen people who really hate meetup.com, and the message was the same --it was the only way to reach new potential members -- so it was more or less irrelevant to ask them if they would be willing to use a different service. The answer was 'in addition to meetup.com , i.e. to actually have the meetings -- oh yes, we do that. But we still have to pay the meetup.com fees for a meetup.com online presence, or else we would never attract new members. I'd be happy to see that this has changed. Laura
On 11/18/2015 11:16 PM, Laura Creighton wrote:
In a message of Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:34:15 +0100, "M.-A. Lemburg" writes:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/
In the USA, I think it is still hopeless. (It was a decade ago, when I last looked into it.) The problem was that meetup.com so dominates the field in the USA that a majority of Americans believe that, should they be looking for a group about X, they can check meetup.com, and, if they don't find a group, then that group does not exist. No further checking is needed.
This means, if you want to attract new members, you have to have a meetup.com presence. And, this, of course means that the heuristic 'if it doesn't have a meetup.com, it doesn't exist' becomes more and more true. This must be rather nice for meetup.com -- despite many efforts, theirs is a monopoly which seems very hard to break.
I talked to more than a dozen people who really hate meetup.com, and the message was the same --it was the only way to reach new potential members -- so it was more or less irrelevant to ask them if they would be willing to use a different service. The answer was 'in addition to meetup.com , i.e. to actually have the meetings -- oh yes, we do that. But we still have to pay the meetup.com fees for a meetup.com online presence, or else we would never attract new members.
I'd be happy to see that this has changed.
Hello from the Czech Republic, where meetup.com is not used that much. There are three cities with Python meetups: Prague - uses Lanyrd.com [0], and somehow manages to have good attendance Brno - Lanyrd [1] and Facebook. It seems it's mainly the Facebook event that draws in the people Ostrava - srazy.info [2] (a Czech service), and Facebook. (Plus a rudimentary Lanyrd entry just to show up on a shared calendar.) Again, Facebook seems to reach most people. In September, an expat looked at meetup.com and concluded that there are no Python meetups in Prague, so he founded one. There was one instance of that [3]. The Prague events are on meetup.com since then [4], but I don't think it makes that much of a dent in attendance. I guess the upshot is that instead of having one expensive service, you could have Facebook (which is pretty hostile for any kind of interaction other than being glued to their feed all day), or even put the info on several sites and update each one individually. [0] praha.pyvo.cz [1] brno.pyvo.cz [2] ostrava.pyvo.cz [3] http://www.meetup.com/czech-python-meetup/ [4] http://www.meetup.com/Prague-Python-Meetup-NaPyVo/
Good topic. Good thread. I'm not so sure it's as hopeless as it may seem to avoid meetup.com. As powerful and entrenched as meetup.com is, I would wager that a couple of orders of magnitude more people check plain ol' Google for events than check meetup.com. Google has recently added support for rich snippets for events, and does some really useful things with those snippets without a user even having to leave the search page. https://developers.google.com/structured-data/rich-snippets/events?hl=en Furthermore, where Google goes with structured Web metadata the others (Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu...) tend to follow eventually. I'd suggest that some combination of a meetup.com alternative for RSVP/registration hosting with a PSF-curated web page including snippet-enriched ( http://schema.org ) Python event descriptions could offer even more reach than meetup.com alone. -- Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com Author, _Ndewo, Colorado_ http://uche.ogbuji.net/ndewo/ Founding editor, Kin Poetry Journal http://wearekin.org http://copia.ogbuji.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji http://twitter.com/uogbuji
What about trying to negotiate a deal w/ meetup for a bulk buy? On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 9:53 PM, Uche Ogbuji <uche@ogbuji.net> wrote:
Good topic. Good thread.
I'm not so sure it's as hopeless as it may seem to avoid meetup.com. As powerful and entrenched as meetup.com is, I would wager that a couple of orders of magnitude more people check plain ol' Google for events than check meetup.com.
Google has recently added support for rich snippets for events, and does some really useful things with those snippets without a user even having to leave the search page.
https://developers.google.com/structured-data/rich-snippets/events?hl=en
Furthermore, where Google goes with structured Web metadata the others (Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu...) tend to follow eventually.
I'd suggest that some combination of a meetup.com alternative for RSVP/registration hosting with a PSF-curated web page including snippet-enriched ( http://schema.org ) Python event descriptions could offer even more reach than meetup.com alone.
-- Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com Author, _Ndewo, Colorado_ http://uche.ogbuji.net/ndewo/ Founding editor, Kin Poetry Journal http://wearekin.org http://copia.ogbuji.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji http://twitter.com/uogbuji
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Jacqueline Kazil | @jackiekazil
On 19 November 2015 at 14:04, Jacqueline Kazil <jackiekazil@gmail.com> wrote:
What about trying to negotiate a deal w/ meetup for a bulk buy?
This community thread was actually born from a Board discussion on that topic. It turns out meetup.com's approach to centralised group sponsorship for non-profits is to offer Meetup Pro (http://www.meetup.com/pro/) at the same per-group price they charge individual community organisers (i.e. $15 USD per group per month), but with the charges still going to the sponsoring organisation rather than the group leads. (I don't know what the normal corporate rate is for Pro, but it's presumably more than the community organiser rate) As such, while it would save the PSF and group leaders some overhead in processing the grant requests for Meetup fee reimbursements, it likely wouldn't save any money overall. and could potentially cost more, since: * some Python user groups are currently on the cheaper Basic plan, while the non-profit Pro rate matches the Unlimited plan * prices for individual group organisers apparently vary by region (although http://www.meetup.com/pricing/ will only show you local pricing based on geolocation, so I'd be interested to hear what other folks see on that page) * there are many user groups where meetup.com fees are currently covered by generous individuals, local businesses, or other organisations, and those groups would now have an incentive to to seek PSF fee sponsorship instead In relation to that last point, going down this path would also make the meetup.com proprietary lock-in problem even worse, since one of the purposes of Meetup Pro is to serve as a communications channel between the sponsoring organisation and the group organisers: http://help.meetup.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2141922-meetup-pro We'd either have to not use those features, or else end up in a situation where Python meetups were actively *disadvantaged* in their communications with the PSF by opting out of using meetup.com. The clumsiness of the status quo certainly isn't ideal, but the fact it leaves the choice of which meetup management platform to use in the hands of local organisers is a really nice feature we'd like to retain. Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia
Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far below: * Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people to the meetings and supports growth better than other services - this is perceived as the main benefit of meetup over other services. Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other services for the organization itself. While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month). Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or simplified setups (other than their standard setups). Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total number is not large enough to get them interested. We could save some money by using "master" accounts, since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings. * Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good discovery story as Meetup. Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might be able to talk them into a special deal. * Other services mentioned/found: * https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to have Google find events * use the Python events calendar together with the map mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/ I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum: http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... and especially liked this story from the thread: """ I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I see the gmail chat window with 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been invited to a Google+ event?” “No” “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the principal gave out our wardrobe instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just pics!” “Have you ever heard of Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” """ (taken from http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w...) Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes to organizing user group events, while the younger folks don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider. I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for alternatives. For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect would be the only reason to try it, since the organization is working just fine using plain old email. -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/
On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication, Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via robotevents.com (not under club control.) There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult. Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com. I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook, meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness. I really wish there was better competition int his market. -Doug On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far below:
* Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people to the meetings and supports growth better than other services - this is perceived as the main benefit of meetup over other services.
Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other services for the organization itself.
While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month).
Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or simplified setups (other than their standard setups). Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total number is not large enough to get them interested.
We could save some money by using "master" accounts, since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings.
* Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good discovery story as Meetup.
Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might be able to talk them into a special deal.
* Other services mentioned/found:
* https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to have Google find events * use the Python events calendar together with the map mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/
I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum:
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w...
and especially liked this story from the thread:
""" I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I see the gmail chat window with 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been invited to a Google+ event?” “No” “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the principal gave out our wardrobe instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just pics!” “Have you ever heard of Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” """ (taken from
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... )
Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes to organizing user group events, while the younger folks don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider.
I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for alternatives.
For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect would be the only reason to try it, since the organization is working just fine using plain old email.
-- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Would be great to have a tool that incorporated the much better utilities and mobile apps of Eventbrite with the discovery and social graph effectiveness of Meetup. Revenue could be derived from offering a voluntary contribution campaign drive like NPR and the like. That'd be a great startup to feature at PyCon Startup Row in May when we convene in Portland. ᐧ On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Douglas Napoleone < doug.napoleone@gmail.com> wrote:
On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication, Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via robotevents.com (not under club control.)
There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult. Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com.
I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook, meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness.
I really wish there was better competition int his market.
-Doug
On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far below:
* Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people to the meetings and supports growth better than other services - this is perceived as the main benefit of meetup over other services.
Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other services for the organization itself.
While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month).
Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or simplified setups (other than their standard setups). Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total number is not large enough to get them interested.
We could save some money by using "master" accounts, since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings.
* Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good discovery story as Meetup.
Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might be able to talk them into a special deal.
* Other services mentioned/found:
* https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to have Google find events * use the Python events calendar together with the map mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/
I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum:
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w...
and especially liked this story from the thread:
""" I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I see the gmail chat window with 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been invited to a Google+ event?” “No” “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the principal gave out our wardrobe instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just pics!” “Have you ever heard of Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” """ (taken from
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... )
Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes to organizing user group events, while the younger folks don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider.
I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for alternatives.
For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect would be the only reason to try it, since the organization is working just fine using plain old email.
-- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>* *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.*
Just a thought but what about a. Django based alternative that would leverage the power of Python from the core. There should be well enough creativity, talent, and knowledge collectively to really make something truly incredible for Python specifically! On Nov 21, 2015 4:52 PM, "Don Sheu" <don@sheu.com> wrote:
Would be great to have a tool that incorporated the much better utilities and mobile apps of Eventbrite with the discovery and social graph effectiveness of Meetup.
Revenue could be derived from offering a voluntary contribution campaign drive like NPR and the like.
That'd be a great startup to feature at PyCon Startup Row in May when we convene in Portland. ᐧ
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Douglas Napoleone < doug.napoleone@gmail.com> wrote:
On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication, Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via robotevents.com (not under club control.)
There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult. Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com.
I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook, meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness.
I really wish there was better competition int his market.
-Doug
On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far below:
* Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people to the meetings and supports growth better than other services - this is perceived as the main benefit of meetup over other services.
Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other services for the organization itself.
While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month).
Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or simplified setups (other than their standard setups). Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total number is not large enough to get them interested.
We could save some money by using "master" accounts, since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings.
* Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good discovery story as Meetup.
Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might be able to talk them into a special deal.
* Other services mentioned/found:
* https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to have Google find events * use the Python events calendar together with the map mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/
I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum:
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w...
and especially liked this story from the thread:
""" I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I see the gmail chat window with 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been invited to a Google+ event?” “No” “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the principal gave out our wardrobe instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just pics!” “Have you ever heard of Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” """ (taken from
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... )
Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes to organizing user group events, while the younger folks don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider.
I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for alternatives.
For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect would be the only reason to try it, since the organization is working just fine using plain old email.
-- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.*
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
The problem is people are finding our meetup and other Python meetups because they're being recommended them by meetup.com. For example, a large set of people who find our meetup are recommended our meetup because they're part of the Seattle JS meetup. I also noticed a change in new members when we briefly stopped using meetup for registrations: - August 2014 to March 2015 we used Meetup.com, consistently got emails saying 10-15 new members joined - Stopped using meetup for April to November, consistently received emails saying 2-5 new members joined - Went back to using Meetup in November, I am now consistently getting emails saying 10-15 new members joined Not using meetup, even though it has worse tools for managing events really makes an impact on new members. Having a Python hosted meetup page will cater to only people who really care about Python. The nice thing about meetup is it recommends our meetup to people who maybe wouldn't otherwise be looking for it, and that has brought us many great members. On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 10:13 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob@gmail.com> wrote:
Just a thought but what about a. Django based alternative that would leverage the power of Python from the core. There should be well enough creativity, talent, and knowledge collectively to really make something truly incredible for Python specifically! On Nov 21, 2015 4:52 PM, "Don Sheu" <don@sheu.com> wrote:
Would be great to have a tool that incorporated the much better utilities and mobile apps of Eventbrite with the discovery and social graph effectiveness of Meetup.
Revenue could be derived from offering a voluntary contribution campaign drive like NPR and the like.
That'd be a great startup to feature at PyCon Startup Row in May when we convene in Portland. ᐧ
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Douglas Napoleone < doug.napoleone@gmail.com> wrote:
On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication, Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via robotevents.com (not under club control.)
There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult. Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com.
I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook, meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness.
I really wish there was better competition int his market.
-Doug
On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far below:
* Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people to the meetings and supports growth better than other services - this is perceived as the main benefit of meetup over other services.
Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other services for the organization itself.
While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month).
Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or simplified setups (other than their standard setups). Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total number is not large enough to get them interested.
We could save some money by using "master" accounts, since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings.
* Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good discovery story as Meetup.
Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might be able to talk them into a special deal.
* Other services mentioned/found:
* https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to have Google find events * use the Python events calendar together with the map mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/
I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum:
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w...
and especially liked this story from the thread:
""" I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I see the gmail chat window with 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been invited to a Google+ event?” “No” “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the principal gave out our wardrobe instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just pics!” “Have you ever heard of Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” """ (taken from
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... )
Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes to organizing user group events, while the younger folks don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider.
I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for alternatives.
For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect would be the only reason to try it, since the organization is working just fine using plain old email.
-- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.*
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Please correct me if I'm wrong, as Python is NOT my expertise, but is it not possible to throw up a virtual enironment, add some frills (dev tools, added bonus tools/software dependant on personal interest), base Django Server, and other support technologies. Mix in command interface via some console term or possibly GUI to some extent. Mind you, I'm aware that takes work and man hours...but it could be Python Based and Python Technology Driven, and can grow and be molded to need, desire, and growth of language. Should be fairly cheap in resources to implement, or at least reasonable. On Nov 22, 2015 1:04 AM, "Alan Vezina" <alan@jydo.com> wrote:
The problem is people are finding our meetup and other Python meetups because they're being recommended them by meetup.com. For example, a large set of people who find our meetup are recommended our meetup because they're part of the Seattle JS meetup. I also noticed a change in new members when we briefly stopped using meetup for registrations:
- August 2014 to March 2015 we used Meetup.com, consistently got emails saying 10-15 new members joined - Stopped using meetup for April to November, consistently received emails saying 2-5 new members joined - Went back to using Meetup in November, I am now consistently getting emails saying 10-15 new members joined
Not using meetup, even though it has worse tools for managing events really makes an impact on new members. Having a Python hosted meetup page will cater to only people who really care about Python. The nice thing about meetup is it recommends our meetup to people who maybe wouldn't otherwise be looking for it, and that has brought us many great members.
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 10:13 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob@gmail.com> wrote:
Just a thought but what about a. Django based alternative that would leverage the power of Python from the core. There should be well enough creativity, talent, and knowledge collectively to really make something truly incredible for Python specifically! On Nov 21, 2015 4:52 PM, "Don Sheu" <don@sheu.com> wrote:
Would be great to have a tool that incorporated the much better utilities and mobile apps of Eventbrite with the discovery and social graph effectiveness of Meetup.
Revenue could be derived from offering a voluntary contribution campaign drive like NPR and the like.
That'd be a great startup to feature at PyCon Startup Row in May when we convene in Portland. ᐧ
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Douglas Napoleone < doug.napoleone@gmail.com> wrote:
On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication, Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via robotevents.com (not under club control.)
There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult. Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com.
I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook, meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness.
I really wish there was better competition int his market.
-Doug
On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far below:
* Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people to the meetings and supports growth better than other services - this is perceived as the main benefit of meetup over other services.
Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other services for the organization itself.
While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month).
Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or simplified setups (other than their standard setups). Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total number is not large enough to get them interested.
We could save some money by using "master" accounts, since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings.
* Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good discovery story as Meetup.
Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might be able to talk them into a special deal.
* Other services mentioned/found:
* https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to have Google find events * use the Python events calendar together with the map mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/
I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum:
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w...
and especially liked this story from the thread:
""" I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I see the gmail chat window with 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been invited to a Google+ event?” “No” “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the principal gave out our wardrobe instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just pics!” “Have you ever heard of Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” """ (taken from
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... )
Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes to organizing user group events, while the younger folks don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider.
I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for alternatives.
For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect would be the only reason to try it, since the organization is working just fine using plain old email.
-- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.*
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
You are woefully underestimating the amount of work it would take to create a site like meetup. You are also missing the point: Meetup recommends people who are part of related, but different meetups to join our meetup. This drives a good deal of people who weren't looking for our meetup to find it, show up, and be contributing members. There is a HUGE amount of value in the large user base that Meetup.com has. On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:21 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob@gmail.com> wrote:
Please correct me if I'm wrong, as Python is NOT my expertise, but is it not possible to throw up a virtual enironment, add some frills (dev tools, added bonus tools/software dependant on personal interest), base Django Server, and other support technologies. Mix in command interface via some console term or possibly GUI to some extent. Mind you, I'm aware that takes work and man hours...but it could be Python Based and Python Technology Driven, and can grow and be molded to need, desire, and growth of language. Should be fairly cheap in resources to implement, or at least reasonable. On Nov 22, 2015 1:04 AM, "Alan Vezina" <alan@jydo.com> wrote:
The problem is people are finding our meetup and other Python meetups because they're being recommended them by meetup.com. For example, a large set of people who find our meetup are recommended our meetup because they're part of the Seattle JS meetup. I also noticed a change in new members when we briefly stopped using meetup for registrations:
- August 2014 to March 2015 we used Meetup.com, consistently got emails saying 10-15 new members joined - Stopped using meetup for April to November, consistently received emails saying 2-5 new members joined - Went back to using Meetup in November, I am now consistently getting emails saying 10-15 new members joined
Not using meetup, even though it has worse tools for managing events really makes an impact on new members. Having a Python hosted meetup page will cater to only people who really care about Python. The nice thing about meetup is it recommends our meetup to people who maybe wouldn't otherwise be looking for it, and that has brought us many great members.
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 10:13 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob@gmail.com> wrote:
Just a thought but what about a. Django based alternative that would leverage the power of Python from the core. There should be well enough creativity, talent, and knowledge collectively to really make something truly incredible for Python specifically! On Nov 21, 2015 4:52 PM, "Don Sheu" <don@sheu.com> wrote:
Would be great to have a tool that incorporated the much better utilities and mobile apps of Eventbrite with the discovery and social graph effectiveness of Meetup.
Revenue could be derived from offering a voluntary contribution campaign drive like NPR and the like.
That'd be a great startup to feature at PyCon Startup Row in May when we convene in Portland. ᐧ
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Douglas Napoleone < doug.napoleone@gmail.com> wrote:
On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication, Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via robotevents.com (not under club control.)
There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult. Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com.
I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook, meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness.
I really wish there was better competition int his market.
-Doug
On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far below:
* Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people to the meetings and supports growth better than other services - this is perceived as the main benefit of meetup over other services.
Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other services for the organization itself.
While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month).
Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or simplified setups (other than their standard setups). Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total number is not large enough to get them interested.
We could save some money by using "master" accounts, since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings.
* Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good discovery story as Meetup.
Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might be able to talk them into a special deal.
* Other services mentioned/found:
* https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to have Google find events * use the Python events calendar together with the map mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/
I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum:
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w...
and especially liked this story from the thread:
""" I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I see the gmail chat window with 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been invited to a Google+ event?” “No” “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the principal gave out our wardrobe instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just pics!” “Have you ever heard of Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” """ (taken from
http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... )
Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes to organizing user group events, while the younger folks don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider.
I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for alternatives.
For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect would be the only reason to try it, since the organization is working just fine using plain old email.
-- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.*
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Yes, I could agree I'm probably missing the point on the MeetUp aspect as I never been accused of being social! However, I do have full appreciation of the amount of effort, work, and code that goes into what I'm suggesting. Grossly simplified...absolutly! On Nov 22, 2015 2:11 AM, "Alan Vezina" <alan@jydo.com> wrote:
You are woefully underestimating the amount of work it would take to create a site like meetup. You are also missing the point: Meetup recommends people who are part of related, but different meetups to join our meetup. This drives a good deal of people who weren't looking for our meetup to find it, show up, and be contributing members. There is a HUGE amount of value in the large user base that Meetup.com has.
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:21 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob@gmail.com> wrote:
Please correct me if I'm wrong, as Python is NOT my expertise, but is it not possible to throw up a virtual enironment, add some frills (dev tools, added bonus tools/software dependant on personal interest), base Django Server, and other support technologies. Mix in command interface via some console term or possibly GUI to some extent. Mind you, I'm aware that takes work and man hours...but it could be Python Based and Python Technology Driven, and can grow and be molded to need, desire, and growth of language. Should be fairly cheap in resources to implement, or at least reasonable. On Nov 22, 2015 1:04 AM, "Alan Vezina" <alan@jydo.com> wrote:
The problem is people are finding our meetup and other Python meetups because they're being recommended them by meetup.com. For example, a large set of people who find our meetup are recommended our meetup because they're part of the Seattle JS meetup. I also noticed a change in new members when we briefly stopped using meetup for registrations:
- August 2014 to March 2015 we used Meetup.com, consistently got emails saying 10-15 new members joined - Stopped using meetup for April to November, consistently received emails saying 2-5 new members joined - Went back to using Meetup in November, I am now consistently getting emails saying 10-15 new members joined
Not using meetup, even though it has worse tools for managing events really makes an impact on new members. Having a Python hosted meetup page will cater to only people who really care about Python. The nice thing about meetup is it recommends our meetup to people who maybe wouldn't otherwise be looking for it, and that has brought us many great members.
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 10:13 PM, RottinRob . <rottinrob@gmail.com> wrote:
Just a thought but what about a. Django based alternative that would leverage the power of Python from the core. There should be well enough creativity, talent, and knowledge collectively to really make something truly incredible for Python specifically! On Nov 21, 2015 4:52 PM, "Don Sheu" <don@sheu.com> wrote:
Would be great to have a tool that incorporated the much better utilities and mobile apps of Eventbrite with the discovery and social graph effectiveness of Meetup.
Revenue could be derived from offering a voluntary contribution campaign drive like NPR and the like.
That'd be a great startup to feature at PyCon Startup Row in May when we convene in Portland. ᐧ
On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Douglas Napoleone < doug.napoleone@gmail.com> wrote:
On the 'kids these days' part, my Son's after school robotics program (he is 11) uses snapchat (set up by the kids) for social communication, Slack for team communication/collaboration, Facebook for communicating with parents, and ole meetup.com for managing the team meetups, regional events, and competitions. The regionals are managed via robotevents.com (not under club control.)
There has been repeated discussion on getting rid of at least one of these, and meetup.com in particular as that one has real cost behind it, has overlap with robotevents.com, and is the biggest pain to administrate. Even for a semi-private group, this proved to be difficult. Two years ago they removed the group, and signup dropped to almost nothing (12 new signups on avg per year down to 3 for that year). For a middle school club. Google is plugged into meetup.com much better than it is for facebook, and not at all for slack, and the school websites are garbage. Most parents and kids were finding out about the program through google, which was finding out about it from meetup.com.
I have signed on to help out with some of the tech stuff to automate things. Going to 5 different interfaces (slack, school website, facebook, meetup.com, mailchimp) just to update a schedule is madness.
I really wish there was better competition int his market.
-Doug
On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:33 AM, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@python.org> wrote:
> Thank you for all your feedback. I've collected the results so far > below: > > * Meetup has great discovery story, it brings in more people > to the meetings and supports growth better than other > services - this is perceived as the main benefit of > meetup over other services. > > Some groups only use meetup for announcements and other > services for the organization itself. > > While Meetup does have a big following in at least US, > UK, Canada, Belgium, it's not that popular in other countries. > Examples: Czech Republic, Germany (though it's getting > stronger). This is probably also a reason why Meetup > is cheaper in those countries than others (e.g. in Germany > the unlimited plan costs USD 4.99 per month). > > Meetup is not willing to give us special rates or > simplified setups (other than their standard setups). > Even though there are plenty Python groups, the total > number is not large enough to get them interested. > > We could save some money by using "master" accounts, > since each Meetup account can host up to three meetings. > > * Eventbrite is good for RSVPs and check-ins, it also looks > more professional than Meetup, but doesn't have such a good > discovery story as Meetup. > > Since Eventbrite is very much a Python company, we might > be able to talk them into a special deal. > > * Other services mentioned/found: > > * https://ti.to/ (free for free events, used by PyCon UK) > * https://nvite.com/ (free for free events) > * use Google rich snippets (structured meta data) to > have Google find events > * use the Python events calendar together with the map > mashup: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar > + http://lmorillas.github.io/python_events/ > > I also found an interesting thread on a Meetup forum: > > > http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... > > and especially liked this story from the thread: > > """ > I walk into the family room, and my teenager is on the lap top. I > see the gmail chat window with > 30 ‘friends’ at the left hand margin. I ask “Have you ever been > invited to a Google+ event?” “No” > “Have you ever been invited to a Facebook event?” “Yes, once the > principal gave out our wardrobe > instructions for our homecoming game.” “Do you use Facebook much?” > “Hardly, ugly site, isn’t that > for old people?” I prefer SnapChat and Instagram” “Argggggg. Just > pics!” “Have you ever heard of > Meetup” “Not really Dad, is that the stuff you do on Tuesday nights?” > """ > (taken from > > http://www.discussmeetup.com/forum/general-questions-how-tos-tips-tricks/i-w... > ) > > Given such experience, it may well be that we "older" people > only perceive Meetup as being the holy grail when it comes > to organizing user group events, while the younger folks > don't even get to see these events, unless they are also available > on FB, G+, Instagram, etc. Perhaps something to consider. > > I guess in the short term, we're better off encouraging sharing > Meetup accounts to lower costs and continue to look for > alternatives. > > For a meeting I'm running with Charlie Clark in Düsseldorf > (Python Meeting Düsseldorf), we've so far tried to stay away > from Meetup and invested a lot of time into all the other > channels you have to serve. For us, the marketing aspect > would be the only reason to try it, since the organization > is working just fine using plain old email. > > -- > Marc-Andre Lemburg > Director > Python Software Foundation > http://www.python.org/psf/ > http://www.malemburg.com/ > _______________________________________________ > PSF-Community mailing list > PSF-Community@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community >
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSVP for my Python user group, meeting 12/9 at Redfin *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/events/226728440/>*
*CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.*
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
On 22 November 2015 at 22:15, RottinRob . <rottinrob@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, I could agree I'm probably missing the point on the MeetUp aspect as I never been accused of being social! However, I do have full appreciation of the amount of effort, work, and code that goes into what I'm suggesting. Grossly simplified...absolutly!
TL;DR: The network effects of lock-in based platform designs are hard to overcome, but there are glimmers of hope in the increasing technical sophistication of local governments. Long version: A useful piece of background info for any work in the social networking space is Metcalfe's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law This was originally used in the context of phone and fax networks, and is summarised as "the value of the network increases with the square of the number of the devices connected to it". A phone network with only one device connected isn't a network, while one with 100 devices connected is on the order of *100* times more valuable to its collective userbase than one with only 10 devices (since its 10 times more valuable for each participant, and there are 10 times as many participants). It's debatable whether the simple "value is proportional to the square of the number of nodes" is accurate, but the general principle of a non-linear relationship between the number of participants and the aggregate value of the network holds. It's those network effects which are then responsible for most of the barriers to entry for new services in connecting people to each other. Returning to the specific case of community user groups, at the individual meetup level (if the meetup is actively trying to grow), that means the choice of organisational tools boils down to 3 major considerations: * usability for the meetup organisers * lowering barriers to entry for new attendees * improving discoverability for potential attendees in the area Meetup.com arguably represents the state of the art in relation to the last two considerations (at least in countries where English is the primary spoken language), which then creates a self-reinforcing cycle, where groups want to be on Meetup to benefit from the last two aspects, and hence the first aspect becomes "Are we going to use anything else *in addition to* meetup.com?", rather than being able to readily opt out of meetup.com entirely. This means that even a more comprehensive solution that brought in a more capable ticketing system like Eventbrite's, an improved social media management platform like Hootsuite, and improved calendar integration with things like Facebook Events, Google Calendar and Office 365, would still have to figure out how they were going to overcome meetup.com's network effects. That's not to say it couldn't be done, though. If I was going to try to build something like that, I'd start by talking to local governments, especially council libraries, find out what systems they were currently using to collect and communicate event data, and see what might be involved in enabling them to consume meetup.com data feeds. That would create the opportunity to leverage the growing influence of "open government" groups by working directly with folks for whom ensuring the vibrancy of the local community *is* their day job (or at least part of it). Get these kinds of "HyperLocal" information aggregation platform widely adopted to the point where a lot of folks are getting their local community meetup information from sites operated by their local government rather than directly from commercial sites, and you've decoupled the data entry network of group organisers from the data consumption network of group attendees, breaking the network lock-in effect, and opening up the group organisation tools market to increased competition again. A bit of hunting on Google shows Portland's Calagator as a basic example of this idea: http://calagator.org/ That's a fairly basic calendar feed aggregator, though, clearly designed for an already technical audience: https://github.com/calagator/calagator/wiki/Supported-Import-Formats A more well developed version of the idea targeting a more general audience would be Brisbane's community events calendar: http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/whats-on/type And specifically for a technical audience, there's the Digital Brisbane events calendar: http://digitalbrisbane.com.au/Events However, neither of the latter two examples is open source as far as I know, and neither republishes meetup.com data feeds. This is the kind of poking around that suggest that there's a *huge* amount of untapped potential in more effective collaboration between the open source community and local governments, even though actively pursuing that isn't going to appeal to everyone as a possible career path. Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia
Actually, I'd counter that to some degree. I often use Meetup to search because they often have clearer information around how active the group is, when the last meeting was etc etc. It's often more helpful than a general wiki page, or articles "about" meetup groups, or do I search for user group or interest group. Probably, I do both. But I find Google doesn't always give me what I'm looking for, but an active meetup group does. On 19 November 2015 at 13:53, Uche Ogbuji <uche@ogbuji.net> wrote:
Good topic. Good thread.
I'm not so sure it's as hopeless as it may seem to avoid meetup.com. As powerful and entrenched as meetup.com is, I would wager that a couple of orders of magnitude more people check plain ol' Google for events than check meetup.com.
Google has recently added support for rich snippets for events, and does some really useful things with those snippets without a user even having to leave the search page.
https://developers.google.com/structured-data/rich-snippets/events?hl=en
Furthermore, where Google goes with structured Web metadata the others (Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu...) tend to follow eventually.
I'd suggest that some combination of a meetup.com alternative for RSVP/registration hosting with a PSF-curated web page including snippet-enriched ( http://schema.org ) Python event descriptions could offer even more reach than meetup.com alone.
-- Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com Author, _Ndewo, Colorado_ http://uche.ogbuji.net/ndewo/ Founding editor, Kin Poetry Journal http://wearekin.org http://copia.ogbuji.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji http://twitter.com/uogbuji
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- -------------------------------------------------- Tennessee Leeuwenburg http://myownhat.blogspot.com/ "Don't believe everything you think"
As an aside, we started using meetup in August of 2013. We had membership of about 75 and meetings of 5-8 people at the time. Fast forward 26 months and we've grown to just shy of 1,000 members and monthly meetings of 60-80 people. I'd say most people find us because of meetup. On Nov 18, 2015 11:09 PM, "Tennessee Leeuwenburg" <tleeuwenburg@gmail.com> wrote:
Actually, I'd counter that to some degree. I often use Meetup to search because they often have clearer information around how active the group is, when the last meeting was etc etc. It's often more helpful than a general wiki page, or articles "about" meetup groups, or do I search for user group or interest group. Probably, I do both. But I find Google doesn't always give me what I'm looking for, but an active meetup group does.
On 19 November 2015 at 13:53, Uche Ogbuji <uche@ogbuji.net> wrote:
Good topic. Good thread.
I'm not so sure it's as hopeless as it may seem to avoid meetup.com. As powerful and entrenched as meetup.com is, I would wager that a couple of orders of magnitude more people check plain ol' Google for events than check meetup.com.
Google has recently added support for rich snippets for events, and does some really useful things with those snippets without a user even having to leave the search page.
https://developers.google.com/structured-data/rich-snippets/events?hl=en
Furthermore, where Google goes with structured Web metadata the others (Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu...) tend to follow eventually.
I'd suggest that some combination of a meetup.com alternative for RSVP/registration hosting with a PSF-curated web page including snippet-enriched ( http://schema.org ) Python event descriptions could offer even more reach than meetup.com alone.
-- Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com Author, _Ndewo, Colorado_ http://uche.ogbuji.net/ndewo/ Founding editor, Kin Poetry Journal http://wearekin.org http://copia.ogbuji.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji http://twitter.com/uogbuji
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
-- -------------------------------------------------- Tennessee Leeuwenburg http://myownhat.blogspot.com/ "Don't believe everything you think"
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 11:08 PM, Tennessee Leeuwenburg <tleeuwenburg@gmail.com> wrote:
Actually, I'd counter that to some degree. I often use Meetup to search because they often have clearer information around how active the group is, when the last meeting was etc etc. It's often more helpful than a general wiki page, or articles "about" meetup groups, or do I search for user group or interest group. Probably, I do both. But I find Google doesn't always give me what I'm looking for, but an active meetup group does.
So, I run the Madison, WI Python meetup. We have a smaller community here so our meetups tend to run 10-20 people a month but we have ~250 members on meetup.com (http://www.meetup.com/MadPUG/). Our only administrative cost is meetup.com's fees (89.94 USD for 6 months unlimited). I've brought up the idea of transitioning from Meetup to using Eventbrite for "ticketing" and the python.org mailing list that had been created for the greater Madison area a few years ago (long before I showed up and started organizing MadPUG). This garnered mixed reactions because some people like to see who and how many people are going to an event before RSVP'ing. Personally, I'd love to be able to ditch Meetup. As an organizer there are a ton of things I don't like about it. At this point, I pretty much only use it as an organizer too (since I'm too busy to attend other local meetups). Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anything that works any better, at least not for this area.
to.to worked really well for PyCon UK this year. N. On 18/11/15 21:34, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks,
oops... that should be ti.to N. On 18/11/15 22:56, Nicholas H.Tollervey wrote:
to.to worked really well for PyCon UK this year.
N.
On 18/11/15 21:34, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks,
Some costs could be saved as three meetups can be on one account. PyMNtos has a dummy master account called Python Minnesota and shares the meetup with Django Twin Cities and student Python group at the U of MN as well. On Nov 18, 2015 3:40 PM, "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal@python.org> wrote:
Hello PSF Community,
as many of you know, meeptup.com is pretty much the standard when it comes to organizing user group meetings - at least in the US, the UK and probably also some other countries.
Now, meetup.com is also a rather expensive service to use and with the PSF funding the fees, I'd like to investigate, whether encouraging use of alternative services wouldn't result in a better use of the PSFs grant funds.
These are some services I've found:
* http://www.eventbrite.com/ (free for free events) * https://www.farornear.com/ (free) * http://attending.io/ (free) * https://www.xing.com/de/events (free for free events, much like eventbrite, used often in Germany)
For BarCamps:
* https://www.barcamptools.eu/ (again, mostly in Germany)
Some questions:
* Do you know other such services ? * What's your experience with these ? * If you're running a group on meetup.com, would you be willing to move to a different platform ?
I think it would be good to collect this information on a python.org wiki page to better guide new user groups to meetup.com alternatives.
Thanks, -- Marc-Andre Lemburg Director Python Software Foundation http://www.python.org/psf/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
participants (17)
-
Alan Vezina
-
Don Sheu
-
Doug Hellmann
-
Douglas Napoleone
-
Ian Cordasco
-
Jacqueline Kazil
-
Laura Creighton
-
Ludovic Gasc
-
M.-A. Lemburg
-
Nicholas H.Tollervey
-
Nick Coghlan
-
Peter Farrell
-
Petr Viktorin
-
RottinRob .
-
Steve Holden
-
Tennessee Leeuwenburg
-
Uche Ogbuji