In the interest of brevity, it's really a yes or no question. If you would like to elaborate I am interested in knowing why you attend user groups and what benefits they have over participating in online communities.
EDIT:
For clarification, I am using the term 'User Group' to mean any periodic meetings that you attend. For instance, I attend a monthly Linux users group at a local university.
Yes, I have. I haven't found them particularly useful to be honest. But I'm sure the experience varies widely from one community to the next.
Yes.
Benefits include:
Yes I did attend some UGs in my area. I see the UGs and the online communities as two separate things. The UGs are like a small conference. You don't get the same interaction with the online communities.
I only attend User Group meetings that have:
I don't have time for beers with programmers, but if I can learn something from a presenter who is there to teach something, then the experience is definitely worth it. As for internet vs. in person, you can't raise your hand and ask a question online. When you have a chance to stand there and chat with someone you get a lot more than a forum post or a response email would tell you, and in far less time.
Plus it builds professional connections, which is never a bad idea.
The Iowa .NET User Group, which I try to attend, is excellent. We've had some amazing speakers and I've learned a lot. I've also met other developers with vastly different skillsets, which presents learning opportunities as well.
In years past, I attended meetings of the Dallas .NET User Group and it was also excellent.
The benefit of UGs over online communities is the networking. You also get lots of free swag.
I try to attend UG meetings when I can. It's a great place to meet local devs, and the ones near me actually tend to get very high quality guest speakers, so there is often a good opportunity to get good exposure to some interesting technology. I wouldn't go as far as to call it training - but the exposure has been good at helping me decide whether some tech is worth studying on my own.
Yes. I have found them to be a great place to meet developers who really care about the work they are doing and are willing to spend their own time learning and networking. This is a very refreshing attitude compared to what I see with too many colleagues.
I recently stepped up to help run the Boulder JUG. Finding speakers is challenging, but it gives me an overview of what people in the area are thinking.
Yes, my boss makes me, I generally have to give a presentation and talk nicely to the customers.
Mileage varies, but generally its an opportunity for the users to talk to each other and become more aware of what the products can do - as one customer uses it for one task that others may not have thought of.
We also show them upcoming features so they have an idea of what their upgrade money is buying, and have the opportunity to ask the awkward questions, and suggest changes before the product is 'finished'.
We may be different in that we actively engage with our customers and expect them to be more involved in the products as a whole, we want them to use it to its fullest capability and help them do their work better. I've been to a few user group meetings for other products (generally 'finished' products) where the UG is simply a marketing exercise to get you to cough up the cash for the new version. Free food and half a day out of the office are possibly the only reasons I've gone to them :)
No. I'd really like to, but I have very little time available and they're never in a place and at a time that I can make it.
Yes, particularly when one or more of the following apply:
Yes. Getting speakers who actually develop the products I use has been a great asset in understanding how these things work. It is also great to network and see different ways that people are accomplishing some of the same tasks I have.
It's a nice place for networking and to get ideas from others projects.
I attend all meetings I can.
There are a few kinds of UG meetings:
The local University's LUG meeting, where they plan frantically for their next Install-A-Thon even though they don't actually make any decisions until the week before. Someone might get up and demo the new version of Gallery2, and someone will ask how to get MythTV to work on Hadoop. Someone will probably be recruiting for FIRST Robotics. You'll feel out of place because you're the oldest person there.
Beer and pizza with programmers. This is pretty much like the University's LUG meeting, except that everyone is 20+ years older and they don't have an Install-A-Thon to plan. They also outgrew stuff like MythTV years ago, so they'll be talking about how to get some crufty old hardware up and running with the latest version of OpenBSD. You'll feel out of place because you'll be the youngest person there, but you're likely to learn a fair amount more than you would at the University LUG meeting.
The Enterprise Java TLA-Compatible Solution User Group. You'll learn a lot of acronyms, and might even get to hear three or four 10 minute overviews of a few technologies presented by people who use their industry certifications as titles. This is probably held while you're still at work (6:30pm, perhaps, because these guys all get to work by 8am and leave at exactly 5), so you won't be able to attend. It's probably in a warehouse that has been converted into an Enterprise Meeting Center in a bad part of town and ten miles out of your way. If you're looking to hand out resumes, this would probably be a great place to be. If you're trying to figure out what new acronym you should learn more about, you might like this too, but don't expect to learn much more than a brief overview.
Yes, when the time/place is convenient. I have found them to be very helpful to see what others are working on and learn new techniques.
No, because the meetings are usually held in a language I don't speak well enough to understand technical discussions (French). If they were held in English I would go.
I do attend sometimes the local Linux User Group.
Benefits are: * I meet people I know but didn't saw a long time. * Sometimes interesting talks are held. * I build networks with people in the area that are into programming and stuff. * Often people mention interesting new things I test (last thing was the awesome-wm, I do use it now myself). * Discussions about things everyone is interested in, like tabs vs. spaces.
The best user group for developers in the Northeast is OWASP Hartford...