NYCPHP Meetup

[New York PHP]

Happy New Year; 2004 Wrap-up and What's Next in 2005
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First I'd like to thank everyone for a great 2004, and wish a happy new year to our community.  In 2004 New York PHP was able to give our community many well received presentations, sponsorships of software projects, and open source initiaves.

In cooperation with NYC*BUG, we wrapped up the year with a very successful New York Technical Community Holiday Party that brought together hundreds of the area's top IT professionals and began a new era in technical community cooperation.  Thank you to all those who helped make it such a success.  Another event is already in planning for the spring; keep updated by going to http://www.nytchp.org.

And 2005 will be another great year for New York PHP and the AMP Community.  With a great lineup of meetings, initiatives, and software projects, 2005 will continue to break new ground for Open Source.

This January we have an exclusive look at ActiveGrid's new grid technology, and the start of our Search Engine Optimization series.  You won't want to miss this meeting, as we kick off another year at New York PHP.

See below for meeting details and please note that EVERYONE must RSVP (http://www.nyphp.org/rsvp.php) for this meeting, since there was no December meeting.

Once again, thank you to everyone in 2004 and everyone that will be making 2005 another successful year for New York PHP.

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Hans Zaunere
President, Founder
New York PHP
http://www.nyphp.org



New York PHP January Meeting
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        When: January 25th, 2005 at 6:30pm *sharp*
       Where: 590 Madison Avenue, Room 1219 (12th floor)
Post-Meeting: TGI Fridays at Lexington and 56th

NEW RSVP POLICY:
You must RSVP within 30 days of the meeting you will attend and must RSVP for every meeting.

This means you likely need to RSVP!  Please http://nyphp.org/rsvp.php to check your RSVP status.  If there are any questions, contact us at http://nyphp.org/contact.php

As another year of AMP Technology opens, we're proud to have special guest ActiveGrid and the start of the Search Engine Optimization Series, presented by NYPHP's resident SEO John Andrews. Join New York PHP in its third year as we get an exclusive look at ActiveGrid's new technology, and John kicks off the SEO Series, explaining the magic of search engines and how PHP helps shape the dynamic web.

ActiveGrid Technology Overview
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California based ActiveGrid recently introduced an enterprise PHP platform. With strategic partners such as MySQL and key media recognition by Yahoo!, ZDNet, cnet and others, ActiveGrid's technology enables large companies with the critical components of scalability, stability, and reliability, while using open source and LAMP.

With the introduction of the Grid Application Server, ActiveGrid leverages the experiences of technology leaders and brings PHP and the LAMP platform to new heights. By combining the best of open source and commercial ideals, Transaction Grid Computing provides functionality and flexibility never before seen in LAMP or commercial enterprise platforms.

Join Founder & CEO Peter Yared and VP of Marketing & Business Development Jeff Veis to get an exclusive look at the technical workings of the Grid Application Server. Peter and Jeff will also be doing a live demo of the ActiveGrid Application Builder, the graphical next generation development environment currently in development and slated for Open Source release in February.

As CTO at NetDynamic, a leading J2EE application server company, then CTO of Sun's Application Server Division, and CTO of Liberty Alliance, Peter brings enterprise insight to PHP and ActiveGrid.

Don't miss this New York PHP exclusive presentation, as ActiveGrid takes open source to a new level with PHP, and sponsors free drinks after the meeting.

SEO Series, Part I
Website optimization, Search Engine Optimization and PHP
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Website optimization is a process of optimizing a website to achieve specific objectives. Websites have traditionally been optimized for search engine placement using SEO tactics, and for eCommerce using marketing and copywriting tactics. Lately more and more businesses are turning to optimizers as a means of achieving new goals of branding, dissemination, and competitiveness - especially Return on Investment (ROI).

Unfortunately, new websites are rarely designed with appropriate optimization goals in mind. Usually website optimizers have to redesign, rebuild, or heavily modify existing sites to achieve optimization goals. For PHP-based websites, this can create serious challenges for the programmers and designers. For non-PHP sites, it usually means adding server-side features, and PHP is the tool of choice for today's top professional optimizers.

John Andrews is an independent professional Website Optimizer with 9 years of experience planning and building goal-oriented websites using LAMP technologies. This introductory presentation will establish a framework for understanding the needs and goals of website optimization, and set the stage for further discussions as NYPHP begins to optimize the NYPHP.org website.

Through a series of presentations, John will prepare the PHP programmer, site designer, or webmaster for the kinds of challenges that can be expected should a site be considered for optimization. He will demonstrate common problems, as well as typical solutions implemented by professional optimizers. He will discuss on-page factors, and highlight how some "best practices" are actually hostile to the search engine spiders and crawlers. He will show the potential for site-based factors, and demonstrate the importance of off-site factors for specific goals.

John will emphasize certain PHP programming methods which can help prepare a site for the actions most often pursued by professional website optimizers, making the optimization process less stressful and more fun for all involved. Several examples will be provided from the NYPHP website, as well as others.

Help kick off another amazing year for New York PHP and the AMP community. Learn solutions to the often daunting tasks of enterprise and large scale deployments, and get a leg up on the little known but vital aspects of web development, design, and SEO.

As PHP moves into the next generation of Internet computing, join New York PHP to see how it's solving enterprise problems and optimizing your site for search engine exposure.

Thanks to Dan Krook and Platinum sponsor IBM for providing a great presentation space with seating for plenty.

As a service to our community, New York PHP meetings are always free and open to the public.

Come prepared with a business card to enter book raffles.

        When: January 25th, 2005 at 6:30pm *sharp*
       Where: 590 Madison Avenue, Room 1219 (12th floor)
Post-Meeting: TGI Fridays at Lexington and 56th

Join us after the meeting for good food and discussion!

As always this meeting is free and open to the public.

NEW RSVP POLICY: RSVP online at http://nyphp.org/rsvp.php

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New York PHP
http://www.nyphp.org

AMP Technology
Supporting Apache, MySQL and PHP