Mark Withington is Meetup's Organizer of the Week for August 20 - 26, 2007

Join us as we travel back up to bean-town (Boston, MA) home of the Red Sox and our esteemed Organizer of the Week.

His dedication mixed with unfailing good humor produced prodigious results. Meetup plays an important role getting members out from behind the screens within his chosen topic's community.

Going on his fifth amazing year with Meetup, I'm proud to introduce you to The Meetup Organizer of the Week for August 20 - 26, 2007: Mark Withington and the Boston PHP Meetup

Take it away, Mark!

1. Tell us about your personal history with PHP.
   
   

   
   

   I became involved /infatuated with PHP and Open Source Software about 6 or 7 years ago. Open Source is (courtesy of our friend Wikipedia) is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the design and production of goods and knowledge. The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions. This allows users to create software content through incremental individual effort or through collaboration. It is also one of the "Ten Flattening Forces" cited within Thomas Friedman's best selling book, "The World is Flat". Probably most notable of OSS is the Linux operating system, however, it has a far broader impact, playing a strategic role at companies like Google?, Sun?, Novell?, and IBM?. In fact, nearly every company today (whether they realize it or not) is leveraging OSS - be it the Apache web server driving their website, or the Firefox browser on the desktop or some PHP/Python/PERL Cron scripts running within their IT departments in preparation for the following business day. OSS is in the enterprise.

   
   
   

2. Your Meetup is easily one of the longer-lasting groups, originating in 2002. What's your secret for keeping your membership growing and their interest piqued?
   
   

   
   

   With out a doubt, the key is having a topic/presentation for folks to discuss/listen to. You "gotta give em a reason to get off the couch and attend a Meetup". It takes very little effort to coordinate. Usually if you're a coordinator you've got a whole gang of things you'd like to talk about...reach out to experts/speakers who can answer your questions and invite them to speak - you'll be amazed of your "reach" when you send an email to someone and ask them to present a topic at your Meetup.

   
   
   

3. You are also the facilitator for the BostonPHP, offering everything from podcasts to local job opportunities. Do you consider Meetup to be the 'face' of BostonPHP?
   
   

   
   

   Meetup has great brand recognition. I used it initially as a "just add water" meeting system, but have kept it active (even after forming BostonPHP) because we get a ton of folks coming in the front door courtesy of Meetup. You folks have done a great job!

   
   
   

4. Is it difficult to get the BPHP members out from behind the screens?
   
   

   
   

   See my answer number 2. If you have a good topic and a speaker you'll draw them in. We've had as many as 70+ folks show up for some of ours.

   
   
   

5. Walk us through a typical Meetup.
   
   

   
   

   
   
   • Coordinate a topic speaker
     
   • Post it on Meetup
     
   • Welcome the guests speaker the night of the meeting
     
   • Tell the folks about exciting stuff coming up
     
   • Let the speaker work their magic
     
   • Make sure the meeting doesn't go too long
     
   • Go out for drinks around beer:30
   
   

6. When you're not engaged with PHP, where can we find you? (work, family other hobbies, your life in a nutshell)
   
   
   

   You mean there's something to life beyond PHP and OSS? I own my own consulting company [shameless plug] http://www.PLMresearc... which specializes in (surprise) PHP, OSS, and business process design. All other time is split between family, cycling, tennis, golf, skiing, eating and sleeping.

   
   

7. If you could add or change any of the current Meetup tools, what would be on your wish-list?
   
   
   

   I'll let you know, but so far it's doing everything I need.

   
   

8. You'll be celebrating your 5th year with Meetup in December, any big plans for the future of the group?
   
   
   

   We're going to continue with the formula and try to hit the 100+ mark...stay tuned.

   
   

Be sure to share your congrats with Mark in the Organizer's Forum!