Almost six years ago now (whoa!), I was a regular agitator in the Washington, DC PHP Developer's Community (DCPHP). The community was probably a hundred people with skills ranging from total newbs who couldn't spell PHP to contributors to major open source projects. At that point, we consisted solely of a monthly presentation-style meeting and a mailing list.

And without fail, traffic on the mailing list started getting.. aggressive.

To be clear, there was nothing wrong with the group, that's just how email goes.

Email is a lossy way to communicate. You don't see the smiles or frowns, hear the tone of voice, or see the frustration that elicited that response. And misinterpretations are going to happen. Now take software developers - a culture known for being direct (aka blunt) and sometimes inappropriately so - and trouble is guaranteed.

At last month's DCPHP meeting, we did our first Code Review.  I wasn't sure how it would go or even if anyone would participate but when I put out the call for code samples, one of our long-time and respected members stepped up.  He provided us with a nice little ~100 line PHP class that was relatively self-contained but obviously part of a larger application.  All in all, a great example.

Obviously, one of the things that gets people worked up about Code Reviews - or showing their work in general - is that other people will look at their work.

To be blunt:  Well, duh.  That's the point of a Code Review.

In the last few years, the DC Tech Community has undergone a number of changes.  One of the most dramatic has been how we've moved from completely disconnected handfuls of people here and there to a real community.  We have designers, developers, marketers, a handful of lawyers which - I firmly believe - we need to have some mix of to have a successful community.

But the group that is the nearest and dearest to my heart is the DCPHP Developers' Group.  It wasn't one of my first groups - only really been active for 3.5+ years - but it's the one where I've made a point to get involved and help grow the community.

Towards that goal... yesterday, in the dark of night (aka 3pm EDT), we launched the new DCPHP Developers' Community.

This coming week - on Wednesday 14 January, to be specific - I'm presenting at the DCPHP Users' Group giving a one hour session on the ins and outs of web2project.  Here's the synposis:

Although web2project is a fork of dotProject, simply calling it the next version ignores how far its come in the last year. The system has undergone massive improvements in permissions, system performance, User Interface, and numerous things not visible until you get under the hood. We'll take some time to review the most obvious changes and then get down to the aspects that will make the system fun and useful for you.

What!?  You don't live in/around DC but you're still interested in the session?  No problem!

In fact, there's something even bigger and better coming...

Disclosure: Although I am a shameless promoter of the DCPHP Community, my only formal role is one of the three moderators on the mailing list. Other than being a member of the group, I have no title, investment, or financial/legal ties to any of the groups involved. I just believe firmly that success for the conference and the community means bigger success for the community... myself included on both sides of that equation.

Last week saw the third DCPHP Conference happen on George Washington University. This post covers the second day of the conference and was written after everything was done. The first day of coverage is available here: 2008 DCPHP Conference - Day 1.