campfire-convo

Alan Audette: Doug, I missed the conversation. Was this on Twitter?
Josh Owens: And blog posts
Josh Owens: I think Doug is mostly referring to this: http://words.cdmwebs.com/let-s-start-with-why
Doug Alcorn: Let's Start with Why: http://t.co/nLU5KJysTw
– @cdmwebs
Doug Alcorn: For sure: ^^^^
Alan Audette: thx, I was pretty unplugged this weekend
Geoff Cornwall: Chris' post I thought hit it right on the head. (I was finally able to catch up last night on twitter / blog posts.) 
Doug Alcorn: It's kinda hard to have an extended conversation 140 characters at a time, but I'm really interested in what motivates you to participate
👊   THE BEAR   👊: bbq's are great places to have conversations
Josh Owens: indeed, they were!
👊   THE BEAR   👊: we should have more of them
Carin Meier: +1
👊   THE BEAR   👊: i'll do another one as long as burgers and sausages are good enough
Josh Owens: +1
👊   THE BEAR   👊: who knows, maybe cdmwobs and dougalcorn will even show up
Ben Stafford: Doug Alcorn:  I'm still trying to figure out best way to express thoughts.  Was tricky to follow Twitter conversation and I'm still a bit confused as to the main goals.  Is it to build a better tech community?  Increase exposure of tech community to non-tech community?  And, at the risk of offending Miss Manners, I need to figure out how to make it on Scott's invite list. :)
Josh Owens: woah
Josh Owens: for shame, BEAR
👊   THE BEAR   👊: you're on it
👊   THE BEAR   👊: i should set up an email list or something
👊   THE BEAR   👊: what's good software for that these days?
👊   THE BEAR   👊: cincytechbbq or something - i don't want to limit bbqs to being just at my house
Ben Stafford: Ha, thanks!
Josh Owens: an email list?  Mailchimp is my goto usually
👊   THE BEAR   👊: word
Ben Stafford: http://i.minus.com/ix8kSpghnwQMl.gif
Josh Owens: /plays trololo
Ben Stafford: My favorite troll face ->
Ben Stafford: http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/dempsey.gif
Josh Owens: If Prince William and Kate Middleton have a daughter and DON'T call her Princess Leia, they're wasting everybody's time. #RoyalBaby
– @DeathStarPR
Geoff Cornwall: So, I haven't been in Cincinnati probably as long as most of you (moved here from DC / worked a lot in SF / grew up just outside NYC). But I see the potential for a tech community that could be very unique from those in certain aspects, yet still maintain a lot of the core stuff Nate talked about at QC Merge. 
Alan Audette: I second Ben on everything, especially on the BBQ! I've never actually thought about why I do it, just love doing it & being  part of something so transformative
Ben Stafford: I also think it's a matter of figuring out what resonates with people regarding being active in the community.  For NYTM, it seems like their format (structured demos of working software) seems to work.  That *may* not be the thing that works here.  Obviously the social aspect seems to work here (web/tech drinkup), but demo stuff still seems to be silo-ed by specific technology.  Maybe something more community service related could be used to build community (whether it's building tech with open data, or going out to build a Habitat for Humanity home)
Geoff Cornwall: And I completely agree, BBQs (especially with home brewed beer) are the best place for these kind of conversations! (I'm pretty sure I saw that we have that skill set in our tech community too.)
Josh Owens: I think the goal was to add demos on to the Web/tech drinkup
Geoff Cornwall: I think that would be a huge plus for the web/tech drinkup.
Josh Owens: Chris Moore still won't give a straight answer if that is still his current thinking :)
Josh Owens: And the service related ideas are good imo too
Josh Owens: Ben Stafford: there was some light hackathon planning around a civic hackathon for cincy, this weekend
Josh Owens: https://github.com/OpenHack-Cincinnati/hackathons
Ben Stafford: Josh: Yeah, saw that (why I mentioned it), although it got a bit lost in Twitter conversation - there were a couple kind of parallel conversations going on.
Ben Stafford: I wasn't sure if points of conversation had moved away from OpenHack-Cincinnati on purpose or accidentally.
Josh Owens: Well, Chris Moore challenged people to blog more, so I did: http://thoughts.unicoder.io/building-communities-are-hard
Josh Owens: I think his why post was a general response to that and other tweets
Josh Owens: I think a demo environment could go a long way
Ben Stafford: Gotcha.
Josh Owens: in helping educate and unite some of the tech clusters
Ben Stafford: May just need to identify the "influencers" in other tech groups to get cross-technology demos to actually happen
Alan Audette: I think your right Josh. The demo environment needs to be less of "how it works" and more of "why we are doing it", to an extent
Alan Audette: easy to get lost in details of frameworks your not familiar with
Josh Owens: yeah, showing a how takes more than 5-10 minutes :)
Alan Audette: What are the other big tech communities around here? .Net & java obviously because of the mega-corps...
Josh Owens: .net, java, js, ruby, cocoa are the ones I know of
Josh Owens: that are around frameworks
Ben Stafford: I *think* the PHP UG is pretty healthy, but not positive
Josh Owens: oh yeah, and php
Ben Stafford: Gerard is a good connector with PHP
Josh Owens: We have stolen him into Meteor.js land now :)
Ben Stafford: Meteornapped
Ben Stafford: Luckily, I don't think PHPUG made him turn in his badge.
Alan Audette: meteroid
Chris Moore: It's not about the events, that's my point.
Chris Moore: We have those. I'm reluctant to start more until we talk about the why.
Chris Moore: That's what will bring it all together
Chris Moore: Events are just a part of it.
Chris Moore: Demos, hackathons, etc are reasons to get together and do things that work toward our shared vision
Chris Moore: Does that make sense?
Alan Audette: communication problem, what if we start with a hashtag? Might be the easiest way to get things rolling...
Chris Moore: I have no preference for the tool.
Chris Moore: Whatever allows us to have open dialogue is the most important thing.
Ben Stafford: I like the idea of not diluting/fragmenting with more events, but how do we grow community without events?  Or are you thinking that we use existing ones to unify?
Chris Moore: Also, why is the Cincy maker group private?
Alan Audette: just thinking about simplicity for now.. mvp
Chris Moore: @Ben Stafford: YES!
Chris Moore: bring them together. one REALLY BIG, REALLY loud voice
Chris Moore: instead of 100 smaller, quieter ones
Chris Moore: point the Enquirer at the firehose of amazing innovation activity
Alan Audette: we need a unified communication channel. Segmented events are good (ruby, php, etc.) as are meta-web (drink up). Biggest issue is the channel I htink
Ben Stafford: Right, it does seem like the obvious place that has momentum (at least in our fragment) is the drinkup.
Ben Stafford: But how do we get drinkup momentum to translate into growing and giving back to Cincinnati...
Chris Moore: By defining a purpose we all understand and can get behind
Chris Moore: When we all have the same goal, it's easy to convince others to join us
Chris Moore: What is YOUR reason for joining user groups, teaching, training, volunteering?
Chris Moore: Are we all on the same page? Then let's say that and get started.
Chris Moore: The things we do should move all of us toward that goal every day.
Chris Moore: Make sense?
Josh Owens: Chris Moore: the group was private when Chris Nelson made it
Josh Owens: maybe he can change it?
Josh Owens: I think most of us have at least one reason similar to your list
Josh Owens: for why we do it
Chris Nelson: It was originally the Maker Organizer group
Chris Nelson: I'll change it
Chris Moore: That's not good enough, Josh. If it were, we wouldn't being frustrated about demos right now.
Chris Nelson: Dammit. Privacy cannot be changed
Chris Moore: you guys:
Chris Moore: http://cdmwebs.com/s/Why_We_Wrote_a_Blog-20130722-132256.png
Paul Henrich: 7090567351_b001737434.jpeg
Chris Moore: We suck at part 2.
Chris Moore: Did you watch Nate's video?
Chris Moore: We have makers. Lots of great, creative ones.
Paul Henrich: In real life.
Chris Moore: We suck at telling people.
Paul Henrich: It was like 3d
Chris Moore: Let's get better!
Ben Stafford: Chris Moore: Makes sense to me, although it does seem like there still needs to be discussion about the goal.  From the twitter conversation, it seems like there are lots of goals (better startup environment, better funding environment) that people may have.  IMO, (and take it for what it's worth), the primary goal should be more altruistic - using our talents to make our larger community (Cincy) better  - whether that's improving STEM education, community service work, building open data APIs...  It's fine that those other goals exist, but I don't think they unify a tech community into growing.
Doug Alcorn: THE BEAR: I'm so bummed I missed the bearbbq
Chris Moore: YES!
Chris Moore: Ben is on it.
Chris Moore: If you could write that in one sentence, what would it be?
Chris Moore: It's more than "funding" and "startups" and "VC"
Ben Stafford: Hmm, let me try taking out every third word :)
Chris Moore: we have the talent and tools to *really* make a difference
Chris Moore: that's what I want to do
Ben Stafford: I think the less altruistic goals should NEVER be obvious - should only be a happy side effect.
Chris Moore: the brandery and the startup community is welcome to come along
👊   THE BEAR   👊: i don't care at all about funding or VC
Josh Owens: neither do I
Josh Owens: I spend my nights working on shit that won't ever earn me direct dollars
👊   THE BEAR   👊: and for me startups are just a byproduct of people doing cool shit, i don't care much about them either
Ben Stafford: Exactly, it fragments the potential audience
Ben Stafford: I love the enthusiam and energy of founders and people in that scene, but that scene is not for everyone.
Ben Stafford: Chris Moore:  Hard to to one sentence because I feel that it oversimplifies so many aspects.  If you just said "make Cincinnati a place we all want to live" leaves out way too much of the story.
Josh Owens: No, I was very put off by my brush with Brandery
Josh Owens: Ben Stafford: that is close to what I said on Sunday in here
Alan Audette: "It's more than funding, startups and VC, it's us"
Alan Audette: something like that?
Alan Audette: it's Cincinnati
Josh Owens: Make Cincinnati a more vibrant place for technology and people who love it, to thrive
Alan Audette: Play on QCMerge... It's moving Cincinnati forward
Chris Moore: Keep going
Chris Moore: It's been suggested that QCMerge is it. Queen City Merge.
Chris Moore: I didn't like it at first.
Chris Moore: The conference could just be a part of it
Alan Audette: Technology. Design. Innovation. Moving Cincinnati Forward.
Josh Owens: Making Cincinnati Flourish
Chris Moore: Keep going!
Chris Moore: /plays yeah
Geoff Cornwall: Who's your primary audience for 'telling'? 
Chris Moore: everyone else
Chris Moore: everyone who isn't at user groups
Chris Moore: at conferences
Chris Moore: let's show them what we can do
Geoff Cornwall: Here in Cincy, or outside?
Chris Moore: tell them about flying drones with computers
Chris Moore: not about the code, not right away
Doug Alcorn: I'm personally really interested in getting people (in Cinci) who aren't currently engaged with tech to become so
Chris Moore: Start with Cincy
Alan Audette: To those in Cinci, "Come join us". To those outside: "Look what we have going on"
Chris Moore: build a fanbase
Ben Stafford: I think we have to be careful about making it sound "declarative" and like we're the only ones doing good things.  Something along lines of: Using our "tech" talents to benefit our community.
Chris Moore: let them help us tell the story
Chris Nelson: Doug A: yes, me too
Alan Audette: I think its ok to be declarative, as long as its not exclusionary
Alan Audette: we're saying what we stand for, and why we exist
Doug Alcorn: yes, Alan Audette
Ben Stafford: It is a very fine line
Josh Owens: Alan Audette: I agree with you
Alan Audette: most good things in life are
Chris Moore: People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Chris Moore: Why do we do what we do?
Chris Moore: Why do we take personal time to run user groups? 
Josh Owens: Making Cincinnati flourish through innovation because we love our city
Chris Nelson: I (we) believe that the best way for Cincinnati to continue to become a vital, thriving community is by building a community of makers and creators
Chris Moore: This is where @Michelle Taute might be able to really help
Chris Moore: She's good at hearing what we're saying and making it powerful.
Chris Nelson: maybe, she's good at words
Chris Moore: Ry Walker: read the transcript
Josh Owens: yeah, this is a dangerous trap, crafting words
Josh Owens: He can't can he?
Josh Owens: visitors don't get to see the logs
Geoff Cornwall: But it's not just b/c we love a city. You build community b/c it makes people flourish. 
Ry Walker: yeah no transcript link :(
Chris Moore: not at all, it's probably the most powerful thing we can do.
Chris Moore: crap, sorry
Chris Moore: I'll gist it maybe?
Josh Owens: Chris Moore: just add him to the room
Josh Owens: Chris Moore: we did this same exercise at Gaslight a long time ago, it was hard and frustrating, at least for me
Chris Moore: we made it: https://github.com/gaslight/handbook/blob/master/about-gaslight.md
Chris Moore: it IS hard and frustrating, but it has to happen
Alan Audette: "We're driving innovation through an amazingly talented community. We're moving Cincinnati Forward."
Chris Moore: I like it!
Alan Audette: Possibly make the first part more specific, maybe not
Michelle Taute: I think before you talk to people you have to know:
Chris Nelson: Dig it
James Smith: ship it
Chris Moore: Let's wait for Michelle
Peter Kananen: "amazingly talented"
Chris Nelson: ridonkulously talented?
Ben Stafford: I'm not 100% happy with the word "innovation" as it often gets aligned with startups, but I don't have an alternative.  Could get to like it.
Chris Moore: let's take it back
Ben Stafford: Innovation still works for open govt data, etc.
Alan Audette: maybe replace "through" from "from"
Chris Moore: If I learned anything from Mad Men: "If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation."
Josh Owens: I like "through"
Alan Audette: agreed moorechris
Josh Owens: some people call that :trollface:
Ben Stafford: Chris Moore: Agree, point taken
Josh Owens: haha
👊   THE BEAR   👊: If I learned anything form Mad Men it's how to drink a lot at work
👊   THE BEAR   👊: oh wait, i learned that while sharing an office with gaslight
Ben Stafford: I need to figure out how to work at work after today's conversation :)
Josh Owens: Ben Stafford: lost cause, just drink and speak platitudes
👊   THE BEAR   👊: *pours some brown liquor*
Ry Walker: someone post a link to a transcript
Josh Owens: one sec, working on it
Ry Walker: gotta know what will prevent Ben from working :)