Transforming Ottawa Computing Group into something more Social

Ottawa Computing Group started as a technology and computing enthusiast social club. The idea was to bring your computer and work on your project and talk about it at the same time. People helped each other work on their projects and show off what they were doing. However, I noticed that this was actually somewhat rare.

What I noticed is how often people went off topic whether it was psychology, philosophy, automotive, photography and technology of course. People came together to have interesting discussions and the computer was sitting there being unused save for a very few.

The meetup lost it’s original purpose and it’s time I take it into a different direction. I’m hoping this will attract more people to the meetup and widen the breadth and variety of specialists. I want the group to be the most freeform meetup that is available allowing people to do essentially whatever they want.

We’ll only be bridged together by a coffee shop or at least a Zoom online meeting for now. I’m very excited to hear what people have to say about this and would like to have my members share their ideas either commenting on this blog post or on Meetup.com.

Ottawa Computing Group

I’ve just founded a meetup group in Ottawa, ON for programmers and hackers to work together or alone on whatever projects they’re endavouring in.

From the meetup description:

“Writing the next hot Android App or making a mundane Web App? Bring your laptop and hack away at your next computing project. Everything is welcome whether is traditional software development or administrating your personal website server. If you can do it on a laptop, than you're welcome to join.

You can both hide in your corner quietly typing away or sit in a group with your portable rigs on table and discuss your next big computing adventure.

This group has no focus on the type of technology being worked on, whether it's a basic web project or artificial intelligence or machine learning. Bring your ideas with you and share them with the group.

Non-hackers are welcome to join if they want to be thought how to code, we're all open for learning opportunities. Just ask anyone if they're willing to teach you new skills. If you're stuck on some tricky part of your project, ask your peers for help.

We will be meeting weekly in various coffee shops in the downtown area. If we get big enough, we can have groups in the suburbias of Ottawa.

Feel free to be late to the party or come in a bit earlier. Leave whenever you're tired at staring at your screen or have a more important date coming up.”

Hoping to meet you exciting people and see projects beyond my comfort zone!