SUMMARY (see below for full details)
* Location: Station C :: 5369 Boulevard St-Laurent #430 (mile end) http://is.gd/3silg
* Time: 7:30pm - 10:00pm
* 2 presentations, contact jer if you want to present
* Presentation: NetBeans IDE and other tools for faster programming.
* Discussion: GPL and WP, paid themes/plugins, legality, sharing.
* Food and drinks: Please bring some snacks and drinks (alcohol welcome) to share with everyone.


Everyone at WordCamp Montreal wanted more smaller meetups between big events so here's the first one.

*** Don't forget to join our FB group to get updates about other events! *** http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=199180685044

LOCATION AND BELOVED SPONSOR, STATION C :: http://station-c.com
The location and gracious sponsor of our event is Station-C, Montreal's first and sexiest coworking space. They have a projector and chairs for ~30 people, so don't come too late or you might end up on the bean-bags.
note: The door can be tricky. Read the sign and use the intercom and say you're there for WordPress.
5369 Boulevard St-Laurent #430(mile end) - map link http://is.gd/3silg



EVENT FORMAT
Nothing is set in stone, but I think a good schedule idea is to have 2 presentations/discussions that each take about an hour. This will be similar to the WordCamp format but smaller and less formal. Going forward I'd love it if everyone could have a chance to present something they are into.

Developer meetup? This edition is to some degree targeted specifically at people who work with code around wordpress. Hopefully we can have different topics that appeal to different WP users as the months go on, but if you don't code this one might be a bit boring for you. Everyone is welcome of course!

WANT TO PRESENT? Anyone have ideas for talks they'd like to do this Thursday? Please contact me at jer [at] simianuprising.com and we can talk about it! If you won't be ready for this week then still let me know and I can schedule you in for another month and give you some time to prepare :)

LETS TALK ABOUT IT. While we're there for the first meeting I'd love to talk about formats and ideas for future meetups. So think about what you'd like to do at a WordPress meetup and bring your ideas.

PRESENTATIONS AT THIS MEETING

Programming Tools and IDEs: Unless we have excited and ready people for thursday I (Jeremy Clarke), will do a presentation about tools for writing WordPress code. I'll talk about NetBeans IDE ( http://netbeans.org/ ), a Free Software programming tool with excellent support for PHP that has changed the way I write my code. I'll show you guys how to set it up with WordPress and how I use it and why I think its the shit. I'll also talk about how I did things previously and simpler workflows. Hopefully we can have a discussion about other programming tools you guys like and help everyone get informed about the options that are out there.

GPL, Paid themes/plugins and WordPress: If we don't have a second topic I'd love to have a discussion together about what the GPL (open source license of WordPress) means for developers and users. Sylvain Carle will lead the discussion. What does it mean to sell themes and plugins? Is it legal? Why does sharing hurt so much? This was a topic that came up at WordCamp and it sounded like a lot of people were interested in talking about it more. If anyone wants to prepare some thoughts or a small presentation about it let me know, I know we have a lot of Free Software enthusiasts in Montreal, so anyone with a flair for presentation please step up :)

SNACKS AND DRINKS
A huge part of the cost of WordCamp was the food and refreshments. I think we can get around this with socialism (uh.. I mean, "sharing"). If everyone who comes to this meetup brings one bag/bowl/box of snacks then we'll all have stuff to munch on. If everyone brings a few drinks for themselves (or maybe a half-dozen, and they can share) then no one will go thirsty while they talk their mouths off about their favorite blogging software. Sound like a plan?

ATOMS & BITS
This edition of the MTL WordPress Meetup is also part of a global festival called Atoms & Bits taking place in several cities in Europe as well as Montreal. Other Montreal events include a NetSquared meetup (Net2 is about social media and social change) and the probably-complete PodCamp montreal that happened this weekend.
From their website: "atoms&bits are the smallest elements in our modern society. This is what the atoms&bits Festival is all about: how we change society bit by bit, atom by atom – organized through the Internet with real world results. a&b is a meet up for visionaries, tinkerers, activists, geeks, and artists – in short, everyone that celebrates a new culture of collective endeavor and do-it-yourself."
Learn more about Atoms & Bits here: http://atomsandbits.net/english