Meetup announcement:
The Hands-On WordPress meetups (the second meetup of the month) will move from second Tuesdays of the month to fourth Tuesdays of the month.
Tonight’s meetup:
- Who is WordPress Austin?
- Where are we going?
- How can we improve things? What can we do that’s different? What do people want to see?
Who are we?
- WordPress Austin established March 2007
- 880 members through the WordPress Austin group on Meetup.com (meeting announcements)
- 307 members on the WP Austin Google Group (discussion and questions about WordPress)
- 2 meetups a month: 1st and 4th Tuesdays
- This website: wpaustin.com
Website could be improved:
- Allow registration on website
- Give registered users profile pages
- Weekly roundup of what members are writing on their blogs
- Continue with postings of meetup summaries
Your ideas? Brainstorming…
These are some ideas that came out of our discussion, as people brought them up. It’s a rough list to be sure. Please add your own ideas or feedback on these in the comments for this post.
- All of our ideas on the google group don’t get searched by google in a way that’s searchable outside of the group. Would be great to have the discussion archived under WP Austin. However, the google group option does allow nice functionality including search functions, email or web access. How best to handle this?
- Videotape meetings and post on website; registered members can view. Also livestreaming. We have been livestreaming many of our meetings but some still need to be posted. We need to make sure the links to slideshows, videos etc get posted on the WP Austin site.
- How do we generate meetup topics? Could we use the website to generate ideas/wishlists?
- Discussion forum? Needs development time, moderation.
- What are the goals of the organization? Maybe we need to consider this question…
- We like the idea user/member created content. Build an audience for our topics/conversations on Facebook, Twitter etc.
- Do we want original blog posts from members or do we link to other blogs?
- We can build up the WP Austin group and our reputation.
- We don’t publicize our site. Our online presences (google group, WP Austin, meetup, etc is spread apart and not connected). How do we fix these things and tie everything together? Need to bring content channels together.
- Can we get away from Google Groups?
- Code snippets, tips
- Places to volunteer!!
- Blog AND Forum
- What is uniquely WordPress Austin? What can we offer that isn’t just reinventing the wheel?
- Burning question list… what do we want someone to answer?
- Resource database and Q&A
- Voting on what topics do we want, opportunities to break away to do smaller topics; really important for the user to make decisions and steer the direction of the site, the meetups. We have a great and vital community!
- Membership directory – put that into profiles, everyone can put their specialties in their profile; needs to be searchable
- Don’t forget the beginners!! Beginners’ corner of website?
- Open mic night… membership all contributes ideas on a topic, such as plugins, themes, etc. Five minute presentations on how to solve problems, etc.
- If we bring in new content, we need to be able to index it in an effective and agreed-upon tagging system
Please use the WP Austin Google Group to discuss these ideas more! And if you weren’t at the meetup, feel free to chime in!
Austin WordCamp 2012 – May 19, 2012
It will take place on the AOMA campus on Westgate. Tickets will not exceed $20 and that includes a t-shirt and lunch.
We will have a general track and a bloggers’ track.
Everyone on the WP Austin meetup group will receive a message soon seeking volunteers. You will hear more details about location, signup, speakers/topics. Clark Wimberly will be doing the website which will launch in time for SxSW.