Community Building And User-group Organizing: Mike Hall Interviews Mike Busch
Community Building And User-group Organizing: Mike Hall Interviews Mike Busch
Meet Mike Busch, a facilitator for Code & Coffee in Chicago. Learn about the casual, ad-hoc meetup for developers that meets weekly at 7am at Starbucks. Join the group and experience the value of networking and learning from each other. #CodeAndCoffee #DeveloperCommunity #TechMeetups https://just3ws.github.io/interviews/mike-busch-general
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Hi, I'm Mike with UGtastic. I'm sitting here with Mike Busch, who is one of the facilitators for Code & Coffee here in Chicago. Hi Mike, thanks for sitting down with me. Can you tell me a little bit about what Code & Coffee is?
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
So Code & Coffee is a group of developers that meet up once a week and just basically hack on whatever the heck we like to hack on. So you'll find people doing all kinds of like, from beginners to advanced people doing Ruby, Clojure, JavaScript, C, crazy stuff, I don't know, like reading blog posts, writing emails. It's just a time to get together in the morning once a week with other people who are also developers.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
And how does one sign up for?
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
So our group is very, very ad hoc. It meets at 7am. So. The expectation is not that anyone should need to RSVP or commit to being there. Like if you wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning, I don't care if you really make it there. I hope that you do, but I can't like. Yeah, so it's very casual. Yeah, it's very casual. It's a weird expectation to like say, yes, you need to RSVP for this 7am thing. It's just too much pressure. Yeah, so it's where it's like in the evening, it might be a little bit more formal and structured. This is more. It's more like, hey, let's get together and kind of hack on stuff.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
Or even socialize.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
So one of the things about no RSVP is also very little. There's very little structure to a code and coffee. Like we don't have to organize speakers. We don't have to organize food and that. We just pick a coffee house and go there.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
We choose Starbucks because they have open Wi-Fi and that's all there. And it's centrally located here in Chicago. But. Aside from that, anybody could do this at any coffee shop.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
But isn't there a, there is kind of a loose affiliation or am I thinking of Geek Breakfast or something like that? I know that there's also a Geek Breakfast in Chicago. Okay, all right. I was confusing you. But there isn't, we, I don't do anything with Geek Breakfast.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
But is like Code and Coffee just a unique thing to Chicago or is there something that's different?
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
No. So Code and Coffee, my first experience with Code and Coffee was in Columbus, Ohio, where. Tim Wingfield organized that meetup. It's done mostly the same here as it was in Columbus. Tim just picked a coffee shop and told a bunch of people he'd be there hacking on Ruby stuff. So a bunch of us showed up. Tim sometimes chooses topics, which I don't do here in Chicago. But most of the time it's very free form.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
And both things. I tried to keep it with a lot of the way that Tim did his because I liked that.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
I missed that when I came here to Chicago and we didn't have our own group. Okay, cool. With comparing to, do you enjoy that the fact that it's less structured versus going to a user, do you go to any user groups? And I mean, was this, was this coming out of like, ah, you know, I go to a meeting and then I have to listen to these speakers or is it like, oh, I just want to get up and just do something when my head's fresh and.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
So I go to a lot of user groups or what I considered a lot of user groups. I know there are people who go to three or four a week and that's crazy, but whatever. Um, but yeah, so, so my group was much more about like just getting together very casually. I often find that at user groups, like I'm there and interested about the talk, but really I'd rather be just hacking with the, the people who are there. Um, and so this group is sort of like, just don't worry about any of that talk stuff and let's get right to like hacking and socializing and sort of networking with. And, and meeting new people sometimes gives you an opportunity to teach newcomers. Like it's a great way to engage the community without like having the pressure of a full out meeting to organize.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
And I think you, you joked, uh, that Corey Haynes said it was his favorite, uh, favorite user group or favorite, uh, morning activity. I did not joke. Corey has said that on Twitter and in blog posts. So it is, it's well documented.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
If I, if I didn't have such a community, I would definitely come down, but it is, uh, it always sounds like fun. You guys tweet and it's. It's people are saying, oh, I did, you know, hacked on this thing or did this thing for the first time. Uh, I, I see those in the Twitter stream a lot. It's definitely brutal to wake up at 7am in the morning. If you're like a nine o'clock AM person, uh, getting to work, that's, it's two hours earlier than normal.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
Um, one of our guys who was at the original meeting, Blake Smith, uh, he actually had to be up at 4. 30am to make it to the, to the, uh, train station by 5. 30 so that he could be at the meeting by seven.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Yeah.
Mike Busch
community building and user-group organizing
That takes commitment and I do not fault Blake for no longer coming. Like that's just ridiculous.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
Okay. Well, thank you very much for talking with me. Yeah. It's been fun.
Critical Insights
durable
"Code & Coffee is an ad-hoc, casual meetup for developers, which allows for a more relaxed and engaging atmosphere."
durable
"The lack of structure and formal organization allows for a more spontaneous and creative environment for learning and networking."
durable
"The group's focus on hacking and socializing over formal presentations makes it a popular choice among developers."