About Us:
BOSSWHACK.Org is a group of technical people who meet each month in Bellevue, WA
to discuss open source web development. Meetings are devoted entirely to
substance; with no dues, elections, or agendas. There's no white board in front
of a conference room, and no pre-arranged speakers -- there are plenty of user
groups which do that. What makes us different is that we focus on what you
want to talk about. Each individual in attendance is encouraged to participate
-- in an open forum round table fashion. Thus, each attendee influences the
direction of the discussion; by asking questions, sharing thoughts, describing
what they're working on, and looking for. When somebody knows an answer, they
are encouraged to pipe up and interject that information right then to the
entire group. Other attendees often chip in and elaborate -- the objective being
to arrive at an even more complete and usable solution, or multiple solutions.
This group promotes unfettered information exchange.
Meeting Structure:
We start out by introducing ourselves, and just like magic, the knowledge begins
to flow. It's an environment that's geared towards those who want to sharpen
their technical skills. People show up here because they want to learn to solve
their own problems -- rather than pay somebody else to do it for them. Newbies
who want to become more technical will feel very welcome -- and their questions
are a valuable contribution. Likewise, advanced webmasters who openly
disseminate their knowledge will learn even more during the process. An ideal
number in attendance is in the single digits -- anywhere from 3 to 9 people. So
just pick up some coffee or dinner if you like, and bring it to the table at 7
PM. No reservations are ever necessary. Just say, "Honey, I'll be home late
tonight. I'm going to a BOSSWHACK.Org meeting."
Topics of Discussion:
Our interests lie in PHP, MySQL, Apache, HTML/JavaScript, Linux, security, web
browser issues, graphics, color coordination, registrars, DNS, hosting -- and
related technical topics involving web development in an open source
environment. Our scope of interest is broader than that of most user groups,
which tend to focus on only a single technology. In the web arena, a newbie
today can be way out front tomorrow.
Wi-Fi Connection:
Bring along your notebook computer to use King County Library System's free
Wi-Fi Internet onramp at the mall.
History:
Maintained by Unix administrator David Brownlee, a regular at the Seattle
PHP User Group (domain lapsed) -- which is so useful that he wanted something similar on
the East side -- but with the broader focus of Open Source Web Development.