By Chris Novell

At the November General Meeting, we will have a few SIG (Special Interest Group) leaders tell about their SIGS. The SIGS were the topic at another General Meeting two years ago. At that meeting, all the SIGS were described and the consensus was that it was a very worthwhile and informative meeting. Even so, the November meeting will be different in that only five SIGS will be covered. By taking this approach, each SIG leader will be able to spend more time discussing his SIG, members and visitors may be able to digest more of what is covered, and we may even spend some time discussing what other SIGs might get created.
Here is the lineup, as described by the SIG leaders themselves (what better way to let them share their enthusiasm?).

John Lansdale, OpenSource SIG
The electric light bulb is a technical problem. How to generate the power, run the wires, configure switches, etc... Lighting is an application. Now that you’ve got your computer setup and running how are you going to apply it? Thinking another way, now that you know the computer’s capabilities, what can you light?
Our SIG talks mostly about web applications. OpenSource, existing ones we can use right away, new ones we can write ourselves. It’s a lot easier than it used to be.
Some specific topics are Content Management Systems (Drupal, Joomla, others), Wikis, E-stores, social networks, Web 2.0, XAMP - PHP, Java, Java script, Ajax, Perl, XML, web services, version control.
If you are a web entrepreneur, a developer of any language, an IT Director whose view of the forest is blocked by all the trees, in public relations, libraries, education, or just want to learn more, this is the place. No qualification other than imagination. We’re not on any program, you can start anytime. Bring a laptop or not. Several of us are experienced developers in a variety of languages, but not necessarily the one we're studying. We’re playing with electricity and lighting.

Drew Kwashnak, Linux SIG
Linux has grown up from its hobbyist roots and has made great inroads into enterprise and consumer markets in the past few years. At the DACS Linux SIG we try to make sense of using Linux with open discussion, demonstrations and recounting personal experiences. We are building a Linux server to use as a platform for demonstrations, experience and providing hands-on experience to attending members.

Richard Corzo, Mac SIG
In my Macintosh SIG session during the November General Meeting I'll make
a presentation on "Mac Orientation 101". For someone potentially new to the Mac, I'll explain some of the desktop components: the menu bar, the dock, the Finder, Spotlight, the Apple menu, and System Preferences and how they relate to Windows features that some users may be more familiar with. I'll show where to find applications and how to start them, and how they're typically installed and uninstalled.

Chuck Fizer, ASP.Net SIG and C#VB.Net SIG
The purpose of the ASP.Net SIG is to explore the usage of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 IDE in the development of web pages that embody application logic along with page cosmetics. This involves using C# or VB .Net language compilers. It also involves Javascript browser client program development as well. The Javascript code is integral to the overall application program and is used in conjunction with the C# or VB .Net server code developed on the VS IDE. This SIG starts at 4PM at the suggestion of others who thought it was a good reason to leave work early once a month for technical enlightenment (Now I question the validity of that logic).
The purpose of the C#VB.Net SIG is to explore programming constructs of each language. C# and VB .Net are object oriented programming languages driven by classes and for beginners, confusion. This programming paradigm like Java is a large technical step forward beyond the traditional procedural programming languages of yesterday, such as VB6, C, Asm, Cobol, etc. This SIG discusses the methods of class object oriented programming and uses actual production program code in technical illustrations and discussions.
Both SIGs encourage questions for which we struggle to provide concise and accurate answers.
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P.S. We will “randomly” (wink) select another SIG to review during the program.
Can you guess which one it will be?

P.P.S. Just like they do when the first movie is a success and is followed by a sequel,
In the spring we will have SIG Night 2.