A gem of an idea - 27stars creates West Midlands IT networking group

An innovative meeting has been set up in the West Midlands aiming to bring together the biggest group of cutting-edge web developers outside London or Silicon Valley.

The West Midlands Ruby User Group was founded by IT entrepreneur Karl Doody to enable knowledge-sharing through presentations, talks and programming together.

Mr Doody, the 26-year-old managing director of 27stars Ltd, said: “The impetus for our group has been the willingness of Ruby on Rails programmers to work together. We tend not to view each other as competitors, but collaborators – helping one another to see just how much we can achieve with the very latest technology.

“I thought it would be great to bring together the professionals working in the region, to exchange ideas and share best practice. Our free monthly meetings welcome all ages and abilities and people from different programming backgrounds, interested in finding out more about Ruby on Rails and how it can be used.”

The group gets together on the third Wednesday of each month and the next meeting takes place on Wednesday 17 February at 7pm at the Express Holiday Inn, Lionel Street, and anyone interested in joining can find out more from www.wmrug.org

The event will include a short talk on ‘Pair Programming’, and a discussion about the volunteer-designed alternative Birmingham City Council website – www.bccdiy.com – which is being created by a group of like-minded developers.

Ruby on Rails is an open source web development language used by major online brands such asTwitter, yell.com, the BBC and many online retail sites. At the leading edge of web application development, Ruby is seen as a much faster and simpler system for programming.

27stars specialises in creating interactive solutions to meet its clients’ needs. The company produces intuitive interface designs and expert technical development for the private and public sector.