Pittsburgh: Most Webbable City
Okay so that’s a little cheesy, but seriously there is a lot going on in Pittsburgh concerning Web, Art, Design, and Development. Over the last 10 years Pittsburgh has developed into a hotbed of niche communities. I only wish I could represent them all in this post but I only know what I know. It seems there’s a group for just about anything. Which is great! As knowledge workers we no longer have to suffer alone slowly sinking in solutions that are just out of reach. There’s a strong community ready to help support the every day web warrior.
Last night just further confirmed in my eyes that we’ve got to have one of the best communities in the country. It’s seems like every month I’m learning about another niche technology group that’s been meeting for several years.
More than Meets the Eye
So if you’re keeping tabs and are looking for something to do stop by any one of these fine user groups. Again this is NOT a complete list. Only things that I’ve run into.
Organizations - Meetings - Gatherings
- Flash Users Group
- Refresh Pittsburgh
- Pittsburgh Dev House
- Hack PGH
- PHP Users Group
- E-Learning Guild
- Drupal Users Group
- Pittsburgh SEO Group
- Pittsburgh Internet and Marketing SEO Group
- BlogFest
- Cold Fusion Users Group
- Artist Imaging Resource - Screen Printing
- Dr. Sketchy
- Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators
- Pittsburgh Film Makers
- AIGA
- Tweet Ups
- Drink and Draw
- Pittsburgh Web Design Meet Up
- Build Guild
- DorkBot
- PGH Coding Dojo
- Geek Night
- Western PA Linux Group
- Java User Group
- .Net User Group
- PCUG
Annul Events
- FlashPitt
- Web Design Day
- Podcamp Pittsburgh
- Art and Code
- Handmade Arcade
- Pinball Championship (okay it’s not art or code, but come on that’s awesome!)
- AIGA Portfolio Reviews
- Various Gallery Crawls
- 3 Rivers Arts Fest
These are just the things that I’m aware of in the Web, Art, and Design scene and it’s growing every day. If you want to see what’s happening, need advice on a project, or just want to talk shop with other people who understand “you do computers?” and “dis one deer draws perty pitchers n’at” is not a accurate description of what you do for a living get involved.
Tags: Art, Design, Events, Organizations, Pittsburgh, User Groups, Web
January 27th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Great list, Josh. And you’re right - there’s a remarkable amount of activity in our small city. Impatient with the status quo, Pittsburgh’s DOERS have really made the environment into what they want and need, and it’s exhilarating to be a part of it with people like you.
January 27th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Great list!
The URL for PGHPHPUG is http://www.meetup.com/Pittsburgh-PHP-Developers-Group/. It’s actually PGHPHPDG but that’s harder to say
There’s also the Pittsburgh Web Design Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/pittsburghwebdesign/
And Pittsburgh Entrepreneur Meetup: http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/58/
January 27th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Thanks Colin. I’ll get it posted. PGHPHPDG is pretty tough to say.
ps the php elephant is AWESOME!
January 27th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for mentioning the Pittsburgh SEO Group we’re working hard on the next meeting which should be mid March.
Keep up the good work!
January 27th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
No problem. Good luck with the group.
January 27th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Don’t forget Build Guild! http://pittsburgh.buildguild.org/
January 27th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Google CEO said that Pittsburgh has the most effective tech council in all of America
http://article.wn.com/view/2009/09/23/Google_CEO_Pittsburghs_economy_a_model_for_others_to_follow/
January 27th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Some others
DorkBot
http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotpgh/
PGH Coding Dojo
http://www.pghcodingdojo.org/
Geek Night
http://www.pghgeeks.org/
Build Guild
http://twitter.com/buildguild_pitt
Western PA Linux Users Group
http://www.wplug.org/
there is also a JAVA and .NET Users group but I don’t have links
January 27th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
Wow I didn’t know about these. Thanks for the links. I posted them up above too
January 27th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
Thanks for the link. I posted it up above.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
[...] Pittsburgh bloger Josh Sager about the scope of the Pittsburgh technology community check it out at his blog. We really do have a great tech [...]
February 16th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Thanks to Colin and Josh for getting the PHP User Group on the list.
I was inspired by so many other groups to start that up and be a part of such an esteemed set of communities.