This week was a notably abysmal week for the cloud computing initiative in Phoenix. Actually the whole month of February and March seem to be just plain bad. Let me explain.
Back in late November, following the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles, some people at Neudesic came up with the plan on seizing the opportunity with Windows Azure, Microsoft’s new cloud computing initiative, and starting a national organization of user groups around this technology. That’s not all that bad of an idea and makes good business sense for a consulting company like Neudesic to jump ahead and beat the competition.
Where the plan started to falter, at least here in Phoenix, was that a user group based around a Microsoft technology isn’t going to survive without Microsoft’s support and participation, especially with something the likes of cloud computing which is just barely getting defined by Microsoft.
On top of this, rather than starting this effort as a grass-roots campaign to build excitement over the upcoming launch of Windows Azure, it instead became a corporate initiative, which is where things start to break down. Once a company gets behind it, or in this case multiple companies including Microsoft, problems occur because marketing gets involved and there are all sorts of communication that one would think would happen, but really never seems to. Which leads us to the beginning of February.
While Microsoft was gracious in letting us use their offices for the first couple of meetings, this was never a long-term deal, which left us to try to find our own space. With marketing and other groups involved in these user groups now, there are teams of people trying to find us a location. Our first location turned out to be…Microsoft. Yes, the space that we were supposed to leave behind became available to us for one more time in February. This was great except for two things:
- We were only given a couple of days notice that a meeting was going to happen.
- It was for the same night that the Phoenix Connected Systems group was supposed to meet and it was news to them that the space was available.
Obviously the best thing to do would have been to get the respective people together to talk through these issues, but that couldn’t happen for so many reasons that I was never clued into what those reasons were. Instead, the space was booked for cloud computing, bumping connected systems, and the invitations were sent out.
This is where I got involved. Trying to be a good community person, I wasn’t about to bump the Connected Systems group since I have a great respect for the guys trying to get that group going. So I cancelled the meeting and bumped cloud computing in favor of Connected Systems. Everyone was happy again. Instead, I decided that we’d try to use the Neudesic conference room since it’s small and cloud computing still has a small group, it would have worked out. The new meeting was scheduled for Thursday, February 26.
Next, somewhere around Monday, February 23, we finally booked meeting space through the end of the year at a new location. They had great space available to us, and we could meet on the first Thursday of every month through the rest of the year. Great…but a logistical problem. The February meeting is scheduled for February 26, and the March meeting is scheduled for one week later. Ok, not a problem. We still have a small group. Let’s bump the meeting to the next week. We can do this, and we do. We change the invitations and send them out.
Now we enter March, and as I get ready for the meeting, I discover that our new location is not in Phoenix like I thought, but instead it is down in Chandler. For those not familiar with the Phoenix metro area, that’s about a 1.5 hour drive from where I’m working, and about 2 hours from where I live. I guess that I wasn’t paying attention when they were mentioning new locations and I thought that we were trying to stay downtown. I make a stink about driving that much, but I’m still committed to do it.
Now we arrive to Thursday, March 5, our meeting night. I work at my client all morning and early afternoon. I had lots of meetings. Then I jumped into my truck at about 3:05pm to begin the drive down to Chandler. I wanted to get down there, beat the traffic, get the laptop and presentation all set up, and be able to welcome and mix with the 4 or 5 people that have RSVP’d for the meeting. Traffic was a pain in a couple of places, but I found the meeting location and walk in.
The new location appears to be a start-up incubator for small web designers. It’s pretty cool on the inside. Teams of developers sitting around tables with scrum boards all around them full of tasks. It’s a quiet environment and people are working hard. I do some observations and like what I see. I call the marketing person that I’ve been working for and get the name of the contact. I notice that their lone conference room is busy and looks booked for the evening, so I’m a little concerned.
I asked someone for help and eventually found my contact, who promptly looks at me and asks, “You’re starting sometime after 6, right?” The time right now is about 4:30pm and the invitations said 5pm. I’m not enthused. He then asks, “Can you start your future meetings later?” Really not enthused now.
My contact gives me a quick tour, leads me to the main room where all of the developers are, and says: “Here’s where you’re meeting.” Apparently, our space was the big room where everyone was working. And when I say working, there wasn’t much movement on anyone packing up as 5pm approached and heading home, clearing out, and making room for a user group. Instead, there were quite a few people arriving and setting up to start working. Really, really, really not enthused now.
I decide to give it the benefit of the doubt and pull out my laptop and start getting that set up while taking in the entire scene. Again, if I were working there, it might have been cool. But in trying to build a cloud computing community here in Phoenix, not so cool. The noise level of the people trying to do their business, the open area, kids running around, and lots of distractions at that time. Really, not so cool. In the end, after observing for a few minutes, I just decided that this wasn’t going to be a good night and packed up. I thanked my contact for his assistance and just told him that I’d move the meeting elsewhere. I waiting around until after 5pm to see if anyone showed up for the user group, but I didn’t see anyone. Then I headed back on the freeway to face traffic on my long drive home.
So where does this leave the future of the Phoenix cloud computing user group? Not sure. I guess that we have quite a few logistical issues and support issues that we have to work through. Suffice it to say we’re going to come back and thrive from this letdown, because I’m not going to be the one that gets blamed for letting this thing die. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of this initiative and I never really wanted the assignment, which is why I stayed away from it when they were looking for anyone to take it, but in the end I did accept the responsibility for this group, and I will make it succeed. It’s just going to take some time, and probably a lot more time and work than I’ve had available lately in order to get this thing going.
What’s next for the Phoenix chapter of the cloud computing user group? Rebuilding. We’ve hit rock bottom and have failed on every front, so now the only way forward is to rebuild. First, we need to find a stable location where we can meet. Second, I need to have a serious heart-to-heart with the local Microsoft office to get them onboard with this initiative, because I can’t wait for them to decide to jump in and get committed. Third, we need to work on the content and get a better and more organized direction. Fourth, we need to reach out and start connecting with everyone who may be interested and give them a reasonable value proposition for why they want to participate in this user group. We’ll do all of those, but it’s going to take a little while to get there, so please be patient with me as we re-tool. But be certain that we will be returning…and we’ll be returning very soon.