Achilles’ Tortoise

Ever been to one of those technology user groups around town? Let me guess, you went for a couple of times, maybe had some interesting discussions, might even learned a thing or two, but have not been back since. Close?

That’s probably the experience that the majority of us can relate to. I, for one, certainly can. There are around 20-30 user groups in the city I live in and there is not a single one that I go to consistently. True, sometimes I am just too busy or too lazy to go, but most of the times I just didn’t feel that I could get a lot out of the experience.

Is there something that most user groups are lacking or am I just too picky?

Well, I’ll go ahead and gripe and you be the judge.

1) Many user groups lack substance; they tend to be a front for networking or other ulterior motives. Most professionals go to user group hoping to have the opportunity to learn from each other and exchange ideas/problems/solutions with their peers. If a user group stray away from the main goal, many professionals lose their interests. Sure, networking is certainly useful and welcome in such functions, but don’t forget what they come for in the first place.

2) Sometimes, more often than not, the presentations in the user groups are high-level, abstract, and academic. There is a big gap between what is presented and what participants encounter in their daily lives. Very often, user group participants cannot relate and apply what they learn from the presentations to their problems at work – they are always different. Therefore, you might leave there knowing a couple more terminologies, but still without a solution to your problem, and worse yet, without any “real” learning.

3) Most user group are for specialized interests. Linux, Java, .NET, Unix are just a few examples. Granted, it is cool to go and hang out with fellow Java programmers, but now days how many pure Java programmers are there? Most professionals I know have their hands in everything – software engineering, architecture, infrastructure, process management, leadership, project management, and the list goes on and on. Very often, we are interested in everything under the Sun, because solutions to the problems we solve often comprise innovations from multiple fields and dimensions. Going to a one-dimensional user group is often insufficient to my learning. What I want to learn is not how to use Java correctly, but how to use Java correctly with the rest of the technologies, under the context/domain I am in.

4) Lack of continuity. Real learning is a continuous process with feedback and re-enforcements. You don’t just go to a one hour presentation and come back with internalized knowledge. Sometimes a presentation goes really well and generates a lot of active discussions among participants, so they go back to work and apply what they learned, and figure out what works and what does not. At this juncture, it is critical for them to revisit the subject and enrich it with feedback from the real world experiences. This process is highly conducive to real learning. Unfortunately, most user groups tend to jump from topic to topic without connecting the dots or provide adequate room for reflection.

I have more but here are the main ones.  In the next post I’ll suggest a radical approach that looks at user group somewhat differently. Will it be something that you might be interested in going, more than a couple of meetings? I don’t know, you be the judge.