Des Moines Web Geeks

DSM Web Geeks On Hiatus Indefinitely

admin — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:12:19 +0000

Quick and to the point, I’m putting DSM Web Geeks on hold indefinitely. I’ve had very little luck attracting contributors and have run out of time and energy to continue begging and pleading. I think we had some good sessions over the past few months, but just don’t see the group moving forward. 2009 is going to require focus and I frankly don’t have the energy to keep it up. I’m still interested in pulling together a collaborative group to meet and work on projects and maybe build some cool stuff and will let you know if and when that plan comes together.

I want to thank everyone who presented and attended and especially want to thank Impromptu, Clint Harvey and Matt Nuzum. If you have questions feel free to leave a comment. This site and the Google groups will still be ‘active’ and we’ll if things start up again down the road.

DSM Web Geeks Cancelled Tonight

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:30:45 +0000

We’ll resume meetings after the first of the year.

Next Meeting - November 3rd

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:45:21 +0000

We’re going to have a great meeting the night before the election! The founders of Sayso, a local web/SMS startup here in Des Moines will be presenting an overview of a tech startup in this fair city. The second half was to intended to be a a design showcase/show-and-tell. So please come prepared to talk about anything you’ve done - we can pull up sites or bring screens/comps on a thumb drive. This isn’t a critique, just a fun look at what folks are doing.

Upcoming event has been added.

Impromptu Studio Press

admin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:34:17 +0000

Congratulations to Impromptu Studio on more excellent press coverage. After a week of television coverage they were featured in a nice article in the Business Record. I serve on the advisory board for the space and it’s excellent to see the marketing and outreach plans coming together, and hopefully getting more bodies behind the desks. Also nice to see the DSM Web Geeks get a nod, we’re lucky to have the opportunity to showcase the space and to take advantage of the Shipton’s hospitality every two weeks. Kudos!

Next DSM Web Geeks Session - Monday Oct. 20.

admin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:36:35 +0000

If you hadn’t noticed we have meetings every other Monday at Impromptu studio. Our next meeting will be October 20, and Scott Philips from Drake University will be presenting a session on Drupal. The second session is up for grabs, if you have an idea or want to present something go for it.

Make sure and sign-up on Upcoming.org

Tonight’s Meeting - 10/6

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:20:41 +0000

Tonight’s presentation will be by James Mounsdon:

My presentation will deal with the different ways to make your website mobile friendly. I will cover using plugins for wordpress to help, as well as how to optimize with just html and css. Some examples to be used are the mobile version of ImpromptuStudio.com and a web application developed for the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Hope to see you there!

IPTV DTV Event

admin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:00:56 +0000

I was asked to shre the following event with the group, and I think some of you may find it interesting:

2008 Iowa DTV Symposium October 7 - 9
The 14th annual Iowa DTV Symposium will be held at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.
Speakers include include Chris Pirillo (Lockergnome), Andrew Baron (Rocketboom) and Benjamin Wagner (MTV News Digital). This is a FREE event.

More info and registration at http://www.iptv.org/dtv/2008/

Next Meeting September 8

admin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:54:54 +0000

Our next meeting will be September 8. RSVP on upcoming. Agenda will include yours truly giving a presentation on Wordpress basics and theming. I’d like someone else to lead the second-half discussion. I’m sure if no one volunteers beforehand someone will step up that evening. If not I’ll find some vacation photo slideshows to go through and we know no one wants that.

Something new at this next meeting will be a call for some outreach by the group members. Don’t worry it’s nothing to painful, I’m just asking you to bring a used web, development, design or other technical book to donate to a good local cause. So grab a dusty book from your shelves and drop it off for students of the Des Moines Public Schools’ evening Intro to HTML classes.

August 25th Meeting on Upcoming

admin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:38:11 +0000

Our next meeting has been added to Upcoming.org. RSVP and share with any groups you think may be interested. We’ve tried another day of the week to hopefully accommodate some of the folks left out by a Thursday meeting.

Next Meeting - August 25th

admin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:36:58 +0000

***UPDATED*** I screwed up this should have been Monday AUGUST, 25th per the discussion at the meeting

I’m looking at Monday, August 25th for the next meeting. We had a lot of people volunteer and I failed to adequately get everyone’s contact info. So if you or someone you know spoke up I’d love to hear from you. Here’s a list of topics, feel free to leave a comment, I’d like to have a plan in place by te end of the week so speakers can have a chance to prepare. Be advised I’ll try and pair ‘like’ topics (1 presentation and 1 discussion). Someone also mentioned breakouts as needed as well, we’ll see if we have a critical mass to support this for any super basic or super advanced topics - I’m not an expert in everything so I’ll rely on the wisdom of the audience to guide this.

Possible topics (presentations):
* jQuery Overview (Matt Nuzum)
* Web Basics/CSS Intro (Rob Glazebrook)
* User Interface Design for Today’s Web (Jeremy Harrington)
* Ruby on Rails - I’d like to hold off a meeting or two but definitely want to have some RoR-based topic soon
* ???

Possible discussion forum points:
* Project Show & tell (any)
* Rich Internet Apps/Strategies (Dan Shipton)
* Usability Testing, Analysis and Requirements Gathering (Jeremy Harrington)
* ???