User Group Connect has a new URL

“User Group Connect 2013” has a new URL. You can find us at ugconnect.ca

If you don’t know about UGC, it is an opportunity for User Group’s in Ottawa to get together and for the Ottawa technology community to get together to meet some of the 30 or so User Groups in Ottawa.

On Saturday February 9, from 10am to 4pm, join us in the lounge at Shopify, 126 York St. The entrance is at the back of the building, from the parking lot.

Accessibility problems – Unfortunately, this location is not wheelchair accessible. It has stairs, and the washroom is up a flight of stairs.

Also, you can still reach the User Group Connect site at the old URL.

World Usability Day 2012 in Ottawa

(From the CAPCHI newsletter)

CapCHI is proud to present two presentations on Tuesday November 6th, in celebration of World Usability Day 2012 (officially on Thursday November 8th).

Date: Tuesday November 6th, 2012

Time: doors open at 6:00 pm; talk begins at 6:30 pm

Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa, ON, Canada

1. “Mixed-media Computer Human Interfaces“, presented by Tim Moore, PhD CHFP, Ergosum Ltd.

2. “The Gist of NIST“, presented by Lorraine Chapman, Director of UX Research, Macadamian

Here is the CAPCHI web site:

–  http://www.capchi.org

Gaming day for OCLUG this Saturday

Hi
It’s game day, and Software Freedom Day, for OCLUG tomorrow, Sat Sep 17.
11 am to probably 3pm.
Room T117 at Algonquin College on Woodroffe – that’s in building T.

BZ Flag server v2.0.x will be provided on the local LAN.
There will be some other games for kids, and mine will be there.
There will be some software demos, at least one for ‘R’.

OGRE March meeting – Redis

Ever find memcached is just too limited?

Apparently Redis is the newest. It allows you to store key-value pairs, lists, sets, and even perform set operations, and have them go to disk or expire. I think Jonathan did the show and tell? There are client libraries for a bunch of languages.

Review: Ottawa Android Developers Group

The Ottawa Android group met at 6:30pm at The Code Factory. More people should know about this group. It was a lively meeting with useful information every minute.

These are a few of my favourite groups

Ottawa has a wonderful software scene! I especially like the following groups, and go often, for the technical talks and networking.

• OCLUG – Ottawa Canada Linux User Group
  • I have been going for several years. It’s the biggest of these groups, not often below 20 people, sometimes up to about 50. What else is good? Lively discussion at the Beer SIG after, active email list, dedicated board, both new and experienced people feel welcome, academic members, wide range of interesting topics.
• OGRE – Ottawa Group of Ruby Enthusiasts
  • This group generally has a full house of about 20 or so people in their smaller intimate space at Shopify, and the buffet brings out people early for active discussions. More goodness? Active mail list with actual code, latest trends in software development, both Open Source and commercial products discussed, short presentations with live demos at the meetings, pros and newbies, developers and designers.
• Agile Ottawa
  • This group has easily the nicest space in Ottawa software groups, sharp full-length technical presentations on Agile Software Development and related topics and generally a very good bar talk after. More! Active LinkedIn group, easily the highest ratio of bloggers to readers in any group in the city, consultants and developers, experienced and new, Scrum or Kanban or personalised process, out-of-town presenters.
• CapCHI
  • The Capital Computer Human Interface group has polished academic and industry presentations, with generally 20 to 30 people. Light snacks facilitate the before-meeting. What else is fantastic? Discussions after at the bar, grad students + professors + government + industry, developers and designers, software and hardware.
• Ottawa Scrum User Group
  • A group I’ve only dropped in on twice, but already one of my favourites with great audience participation in casual, focused talks on mostly the Scrum end of the Agile Software Development movement. More betters? Developers + hiring managers + a couple of consultants, government and hi-tech, students and experienced developers, newbies to master Scrum leaders. The before-menu varies but there’s lots.

The terms “beer” and “bar” refer to a gathering in a chattering place where some people imbibe, but you don’t have to. I have enjoyed lots of groups in the city, but prefer locations I can easily reach by bus, so I may be missing some of the best.

Click on “Ottawa Groups” at the top of the page for meeting details.

December Agile joint meeting

The Agile Ottawa and Ottawa Scrum groups are having a joint meeting at QNX this month.

Tues Dec 14, 6pm for networking, meeting at 6:30pm, at QNX, 175 Terence Matthews Crescent, Ottawa, Ontario.

Ottawa Android developer group

I added the Ottawa Android developer group to the “Ottawa Groups” page.

Thanks, Chris!

Agile Ottawa Nov meeting – Steffan Surdek

I always enjoy going to the Agile Ottawa meetings.
I enjoyed the talk and got a lot out of it.

The presenter was Steffan Surdek. He is a co-author of the IBM Press
book “A Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum”, that we are reading at my workplace, Exar Ottawa.

Points I felt important to me:

• Improve your conference calls by making sure everyone knows everyone’s voice.
• “Rob here. I agree with …” – say your name each time you speak
• Help staff get to know each other
• Provide pictures and video of yourself on the internal web site
• Use more voice calls
• No, most companies can’t afford to bring teams together from China to Ottawa. One or two people in each direction is a realistic limit.
• Share the pain of 12 hour time differences. Meet or phone in their work hours, not just yours.
• Share information. Write down what happened, and what especially was decided, and wikify it.

It was great to have a chance to chat with Steffan after the meeting. Thanks for sticking around, Steffan!

Agile Ottawa: Nov 9 – Tips for a smoother running sprint

Location: Adobe’s offices on Preston St, just south of the 417

Time:
– Networking: 6:00-6:30pm
– Presentation: 6:30-8:00pm
– Heart & Crown afterward

Presenter: Steffan Surdek

Steffan is one of the co-authors of the IBM Press book “A Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum”. I have read this book and it succinctly covers all the main topics you will need to address with Agile teams in multiple locations. I look forward to meeting Steffan and hearing his presentation.

November meeting details and outline of the presentation.