Welcome to the Melbourne Alt.NET group

Welcome. This is intended to be the home of the Alt.NET group for Melbourne. While Brisbane, Perth and Sydney have all had groups for some time now, Melbourne has gone without. So finally we will attempt to get Melbourne Alt.NET up and running.

So what is Alt.NET all about? The following is from the global Alt.NET site:

• The type of developer who uses what works while keeping an eye out for a better way.
• You reach outside the mainstream to adopt the best of any community: Open Source, Agile, Java, Ruby, etc.
• You’re not content with the status quo. Things can always be better expressed, more elegant and simple, more mutable, higher quality, etc.
• You know tools are great, but they only take you so far. It’s the principles and knowledge that really matter. The best tools are those that embed the knowledge and encourage the principles 

We are a group of people who are passionate about improving the way we develop software. We recognise there is no single solution, but instead there are multitudes of alternatives that can be applied to different situations. Our community is a place for sharing these alternatives, so that together we can learn, teach, and encourage new ideas.

Generally I foresee the group running much like the other Australian groups, with particular themes, topics and various presenters. This would involve monthly evening meetings, at a time and venue to be decided. For anyone interested in attending and making this happen in Melbourne, please just indicate your interest using the poll provided.

If you have any ideas or suggestions I'd love to hear from you. Just leave a comment here or find me (Andrew Bienert) at Twitter. As things progress I will post further details, so just subscribe to keep up to date.