User Groups are community-driven meetups, or recurring gatherings who discuss OpenSearch topics, share knowledge, present related solutions, and network with the wider open source community.
OpenSearch Project User Groups are meant to facilitate in-person collaboration, knowledge sharing, success stories, best practices, and resources. OpenSearch User Groups follow a code of conduct that promote an inclusive, respectful, welcoming environment driven by open collaboration. User Groups may be structured differently across the world based on the user group leader’s style, regional needs, and User Group specific needs.
- Frequency: Each User Group needs to hold a meetup minimum once every 3 months. Consistency is a key to the success.
- Topics: UG/Meetups over-arching topic should be OpenSearch, and related technologies, open source is always a preferred. The community can deem what of interest during the planning of each meeting.
- Goals: Presentations and talks should be about technology, community, and helping one another grow. User groups are not intended to serve as sales channels. Making contacts is a benefit to organizing, joining, and participating in User Groups, the primary goal is for everyone to participate with the intent of sharing knowledge about the solution and fostering a sense of community.
Meetings can vary, but most will have key activities including presentations, discussions, Q&A time, networking, and potentially more hands-on participation when available. A meeting could have a combination of the above, depending on how each organizer and community plans their events out.
Experience tells us that the best time to host a meeting is after office hours, usually on a weekday. Please work to ensure meetings do not run too late so the participants can travel home safely and get enough rest for the next day. Meetings typically range from 1 to 3 hours, depending on the needs of the local community and how each organizer plans out the event.
All OpenSearch Project User Group meetings are intended to be free to attend.
For the most up-to-date listing of User Groups, please visit the OpenSearch Project Meetup Network landing page.
Interested in speaking at an upcoming event? Have ideas to share with others in your local user group? Want to become a User Group co-organizer? Reach out on the #user-groups channel on OpenSearch Slack.
All hosts and participants involved in OpenSearch Project User Groups are expected to follow the OpenSearch Project Code of Conduct.