IT User groups in Israel (not just .Net)

April 29, 2004 Roy Osherove

I was recently introduced to the fact that there are a lot more technology centered user groups in Israel that I thought. The good news is that they span many technologies - from Java to Interex (which is a totally new word to me). The bad news is that most of them seem to be as organized and maintained as a bunch of hippies on the beach.

I'll post the complete list here shortly, but first - How I got it.

I was recently approached by email by a person named Gabor Szabo(Does not sound Israeli but he's form Israel).

Gabor is the manager of the Perl User group in Israel, which is one of the more organized groups here. He approached me because he somehow found a link to www.ildotnet.com and figured I was the person to contact in regards to User Groups in Israel. Oh well. Could have done worse ;)

Anyway, Gabor is trying to organize a global “IT User Group Open Day“ here in Israel, to be attended by members of all the IT user groups. For that he wanted to find all the user groups there are in Israel and contact their admins.

Tha's how he found me. Although I told him I am not the person to talk to regarding management of .Net user groups, I said I would connect him to other UG leaders, something which I have not done yet, but this is a start of that move.

The “IT User Group Open Day“ thing is something that already exists in Australia. Gabor liked it and thought he'd try to implement it here. Hard work, but who knows. Maybe we can make it.

Here's a description for the event:

IT User Group Open Day represents an excellent opportunity to talk to members about their group's activities and the numerous benefits associated with membership. Visitors will be able to find out how user groups can help prepare for a career, develop an existing career, make them worth more as a permanent or contract employee, or simply put them together with others that share their interests and knowledge

Gabor has also opened a mailing list for UG leaders for organizing the event. Here is the mailing list.

One of the things he posted on this mailing list was all the User groups in Israel he could find. Here it is. Some of these arn't even good links or lead to dead sites with not maintenance seen anywhere. Can't say I'm surprised. Even my ILdotNet.com baby is not doing so great (which, BTW, I may have some great news about this one in the near future!).

For this I am including a list I compiled using Google

with UG names and some URLs. If there are more name/URL

pairs I'd appreciate your input (including individual links

to the .NET groups if there are)

If you know people from these groups, you are welcome to invite

them either in a private e-mail or by announcing our mailing list

on a public forum.

Linux - http://www.linux.org.il/

Linux - IGLU - http://www.iglu.org.il/

Linux - Haifux - http://www.haifux.org.il

Linux - Telux - Tel Aviv

Linux - JLUG - Jerusalem Linux User Group