Re: Philly Lambda Charter / Splintering, was Re: Scala in Philly?

["Paul L. Snyder" <plsnyder@drexel.edu>]

On Thu, 03 Jun 2010, Kyle R. Burton wrote:

> My idea of what Philly Lambda is, is that it's centered around
> interesting technologies, inclusive of FP, but not necessarily with a
> focus on a particular, specific language or technology.  I would have
> expected it to host Scala - is there something about the group that
> didn't serve your needs or is there something else you expect to get
> out of a Scala specific group?  (I have some ideas of what, I'm just
> interested in your reasoning).
> 
> With this splintering off, I'm wondering if there may also be interest
> in a Clojure offshoot?

PLUG (the Philly Linux Users Group) has been quite successful at
avoiding splintering.  With LUGs, the fractures tend to be regional,
when a few people (or one person) gets tired of not being able to attend
and starts up a group in their own area.  Keeping the momentum up
for these groups can be a challenge, and they frequently atrophy.
Finding topics for meetings month after month, keeping websites up to
date, etc., can be pretty draining, and the subdivision results in a 
smaller pool of contributors to draw from.

So, PLUG employs the "embrace and extend" strategy.  Rather than
resurrect the defunct Chester County LUG, in 2006 PLUG West was formed
as a "chapter" of PLUG.  All the infrastructure (mailing lists, website)
was shared, and the community was strengthened rather than fragmenting
off.  Then the MontCo LUG dropped its separate identity and joined up
as PLUG North.

Perhaps this might be a good strategy here?  Try to keep the critical
mass centered around Philly Lambda to establish some shared
infrastructure and act as an incubator to support the different
subcommunities, with extra meetings for specific languages if there's
enough interest?  (λΦ.Clojure, λΦ.Scala, etc.)

My 0.5 of a nibble.

Paul