The Manchester Geek Scene

In my introduction last week, I mentioned my familiarity with the technology scene in Manchester.
It struck me that it is almost hidden, a sort of underworld that the majority of Mancunians are unaware of. It’s quite a substantial community with a tempo, attitude and growth all of its own.

With Manchester normally so territorially proud, locals may also be surprised to learn that it works closely with similar communities in Liverpool, Leeds and beyond. Whilst Government ‘quangos’ discuss a Northern super-city, some of us are out there ignoring county and regional boundaries already.
Anyway, I thought it might be nice to make some introductions as I’m sure at least some of you would be interested in becoming more involved.
I thought long and hard about how best to describe all the groups on the scene. I considered an analogy with the music scene placing some groups into “punk” or “new wave” categories to help you all relate, but discovered the result was absurdly patronising. I tried to produce a Venn diagram showing the interactions and realised the overlaps were more complex than could be easily shown in just two dimensions. I pondered the idea of walking you through a month of going to all these events, but the result was exhausting to read.
Instead I’ve opted for laziness. Here’s some links – it’s not an authoritative list, so I apologise if I’ve left anybody out. Feel free to add your own geek group in the comments.
The Formal Groups
We have a few local organisations that are formalised with a legal form and an objective.

• Manchester Digital – Manchester’s very own trade association for “Digital and New Media businesses”. There is a fee to join, and their events are rarely free, but if you want to know who is who in the city, they’re worth knowing. Plus, they actually know how to make money from being geeks. Always a good trick to learn.
• Manchester Digital Development Agency – the City Council try and support digital industries directly, and this office picks up EU and Regional funding to help communities in Manchester become more tech-savvy. They let many of the groups below use their space, so they’ve become a hub in the heart of the city for many on the scene.

Talk the Talk
Do you wear a shirt and tie on a Saturday? Do you think trainers are people who help you get through your 6am workout rather than things you wear? Do you really want to be just like us cool developers but all your t-shirts have little polo players on them rather than witty-but-obscure jokes? Here’s some ways to help you get with the cool kids.

• NW Startup 2.0 – it costs to attend, but is the only event that regularly pulls the big names from the South to come and speak to us. When they turn up from London, we show them some love and then steal all their best ideas. Allegedly.
• Co-working & OpenCoffee – There isn’t a URL just at the moment, just keep an eye on upcoming.org for announcements. There are a ton of freelancers working in Manchester and her suburbs, so once a month 20 of them (mostly developers) come together and spend a day working in the same space and discussing ideas that others in the group might be interested in working on. In the middle of the morning, the doors are opened and venture capitalists, developers, designers and others turn up for an hour or two of networking. Then the doors are closed and they are devoured by the freelancers after they’ve been cooked in a big pot, but that’s our little secret, OK?

The Trendy Crowd
Believe it or not, geeks are trendy. Contrary to popular belief we do not spend all our time sat at home reciting Pi to 400 digits in our head or memorising bus timetables – that’s just Saturdays. We like having a drink, chatting, sharing ideas and being in the company of other geeks. Here’s some more social groups.

• GeekUp – web developers, designers, software engineers and general geeks meet up once a month and drink and sometimes do short talks. There are get togethers in Liverpool and Leeds as well. There is even a rumour of one in Holland – scientists believe geekery and a laid-back attitude to drugs could one day destroy civilisation, so the authorities should probably stop that.
• NorthCrew – Whilst I know these guys I have no idea what they’re planning, but it seems… big. Watch closely, and raise the alarm if you smell smoke.
• Girl Geek Dinners – are you a girl? Interested in Geeky things? Fancy dinner with other girls who are similar? Well isn’t it your lucky day…
• Manchester BSD Group (currently moving its web home, Google it in a week) – You know those parodies of geeks being unshaven, wearing t-shirts and trainers despite no longer being teenagers, and drinking real ale and cider? That’s BSD UG. I should know – I organise this get together. It started as a gathering of Unix systems administrators and descended into drunken joviality involving like-minded people.
• FSUK (no web home right now) – Why do you hate freedom, comrade? The FSF who have their own little branch here in Manchester want to know. Supporters meet regularly to talk about how to smash the system of commercial proprietary software. Matt Lee is their local “Political Officer”
• WordPress User Group (hosted by MDDA) – I bet you have an urgent need to tell the World about how cute your cat is. Or perhaps you just want to share the story of your travels, work or hobby with friends and others. Regardless, the tool de jour for bloggers is WordPress. This little group helps you learn more about what you can do with it.

The Developers
Manchester was the birthplace of the “electronic digital stored program computer”. You might not know what that is, but it could be argued it established the tools and ideas needed to create the modern programming industry. Unsurprising then that there are numerous developers in the city who meet regularly. Here are some of the bigger groups, but their work might seem a bit baffling unless you know why this is dangerous:

void main(){
while(1){
fork();
}
}

Yes I did, I really did just publish a piece of C on the MEN site – what’s more, a piece that if compiled and executed would bring the machine to a grinding halt (really, don’t do what I just did and run it – my machine needed a reboot).

• Manchester .NET User Group – If you’re using a modern Windows computer, you almost certainly have software installed that was programmed in .NET and this group meets regularly to share tips, tricks and tactics.
• ManLUG – Manchester Linux User Group, dedicated to the artistry of open source computing. If you don’t know what open source is, stay tuned – I’ll be introducing you to the friendly bits soon.
• AgileNorth – a very fashionable trend right now is something called ‘Agile development’. You probably don’t care unless you’re a developer yourself, but these guys are part of a movement that will have an impact on all the software you’ll use in the next 20 years.
• North West Ruby User Group – there is a little-known jewel in programming called Ruby (see what I did there?). Once a developer gets near it, they are sucked in by its innate beauty and power and inspired to try and change the World in 10 lines of artistry. Or at least, I was.
• Leeds Ruby Thing – a little like the NWRUG, but in Leeds and seemingly unable to give themselves a proper name
• Northwest Drupal User Group – a group dedicate to a content management system that is getting a lot of love from developers and users alike right now

Conclusion
I hope bits of the above intrigues at least some of you. At the least it should make clear just how vibrant a community we have here, and we can only hope it gets bigger, better and stronger.
Most of the groups are free to get involved with, and open their doors warmly to like-minded people. If you turn up, will you meet people who remind you of characters from the IT Crowd? Perhaps. Will you enjoy yourself? Very probably. Are we going to take over the city with our home-built robot army and crush you all unless you’re very nice to us? I couldn’t possibly comment…