papers we love -> kcmo

this past tuesday marks (what might turn out to be) kc's first papers we love chapter meeting. i don’t have much to say here other than i am really appreciative of those who came out to give feedback for how/where/when it should be ran. our next meeting is scheduled for september 17th, so please come out if you want to learn about computer science (and other things) with friends 🙂.

as of now, based on the feedback and discussion at our first meeting:

• we meet every other tuesday at 7:00PM at the south kc plaza public library.
• no one really likes FB as an organization/communication channel, and there isn’t much excitement for meetup.com either.
  • until we can see if something like telegram or signal group chats work, we might defer to meetup.com for at an easily discoverable online presence.
  • i am simultaneously going to look at solutions like GetTogether, which is ~FOSS version of meetup.com.
• we’re going to stick with the traditional PWL format, i.e. one person per meeting will have a paper to present.
• we have a good idea of what papers make good candidates and even discussed ones that we might cover sooner rather than later.

it is worth noting that this group remains unofficial. while we will abide by the PWL code of conduct, i am refraining from forming an official chapter with PWL proper because i want to make sure a chapter is feasible in the long run for kcmo. the group agreed on this general view and roughly with the litmus test i’ve presented: if the group can reliably meet with a healthy number of attendees (i put this at 6 minimum, preferably ~10) for around 3 months, then i think it has the capability to survive without overly invested organizers (i.e. other "founding" members and myself). i am cautiously optimistic, but kc is ultimately a commuter town, which makes organizing interest groups particularly hard from what i’ve seen with other organizations. a huge percent of workers commute in and out of the suburbs, and the moment the clock hits 4PM it often a race back home to beat traffic.

for our first meeting, only 3 other people showed up. to those of you (Natty, Noah, Hedon), i am particularly thankful. i’m also very happy to say that hedon is more than willing to join on as an organizer, which makes my job easier by a whole order of magnitude. the headcount for the next meeting is much more promising at around 8-10 people with this past tuesday a glaring exception to the surveyed availability due to conferences and previous plans.

we also already have a paper chosen out for the 17th. hedon will be presenting on "Magic: The Gathering is Turing Complete", a fun and novel paper to get this group started. ⬛