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Anatomy of a Virtual Self-
     Study Group
       The 99% Solution




                          about.me/babon
Overview
Defining the Problem
● Talent shortage / skills gap

Offering a Solution
● The virtual self-study group

What Skills to Focus On
● The Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston

                                 about.me/babon
Defining the Problem
  Talent shortage / skills gap




                            about.me/babon
Talent Shortage
Top Three Hardest Jobs to Fill
● Skilled Trades
● Engineers
● IT Staff


Source: ManpowerGroup's 2012 Talent
Shortage Survey

                                 about.me/babon
The Skills Gap
● The majority of U.S. workers (55 percent)
  report they are under pressure to develop
  additional skills to be successful in their
  current and future jobs.

Source: Accenture Skills Gap Study,
November, 2011



                                    about.me/babon
The Support Gap
● Only 21 percent of U.S. workers say they
  have acquired new skills through company-
  provided formal training during the past five
  years.

Source: Accenture Skills Gap Study,
November, 2011



                                    about.me/babon
Offering a Solution
 The virtual self-study group




                          about.me/babon
Innovation



 "Innovation requires an eye."

                                 Tom Kelley
                                 Founder
                                 IDEO
Innovation Opportunity
Maximizing "Downtime"
There are more than 700 hours in a month.

Today's "Meetup" less than 7 hours.

How can we maximize non-Meetup time?




                                  about.me/babon
The 99% Solution
Let's meet virtually!

No scheduled Meetup time.

  Meet in your own place.
  Proceed at your own pace.




                              about.me/babon
How a Virtual Meetup Works
Decide on a topic (technology).
Purchase the same textbook.
Make a commitment to ...
● read one chapter per week
● complete the exercises
● post a link to the completed work

Boston PHP Message Board

                                  about.me/babon
Virtual Self-Study Groups
Started January 1, 2011

PHP Percolate!

Season 1 -- January thru April, 2011
Season 2 -- May thru August, 2011
Season 3 -- September thru December, 2011
Season 4 -- September thru December, 2012

                                about.me/babon
Virtual Self-Study Groups
jQuery jAM

Season 1 -- September thru December, 2011
Season 1.5 -- April thru June, 2012
Season 2 -- November thru April, 2013




                                about.me/babon
Virtual Self-Study Groups
HTML5 Brunch

Season 1 -- January thru April, 2012
Season 2 -- November thru January, 2013




                                about.me/babon
Alumni
PHP Percolate! -- 23
jQuery jAM -- 28
HTML5 Brunch -- 37

Self-Study Group | Wall of Accomplishment




                                 about.me/babon
Road Map -- Training
PHP Percolate! Season 5
  January thru April, 2013

jQuery jAM, Season 3
  September, 2013 thru December, 2013

HTML5 Brunch, Season 3
  February, 2013 thru May, 2013

                                  about.me/babon
Road Map -- Services
PHP Percolate! Website
  2013

jQuery jAM Website (beta)
  November, 2013

HTML5 Brunch Website
  2013

                            about.me/babon
What Skills to Focus On
The Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston




                            about.me/babon
Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston
 #20 Ruby | 684 jobs
 #19 SharePoint | 685 jobs
 #18 PHP | 780 jobs
 #17 Ajax | 686 jobs
 #16 MySQL | 879 jobs

 Source: Indeed.com


                             about.me/babon
Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston
 #15 SaaS | 888 jobs
 #14 jQuery | 968 jobs
 #13 UI | 992 jobs
 #12 social media | 1066 jobs
 #11 Perl | 1068 jobs

 Source: Indeed.com


                                about.me/babon
Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston
 #10 HTML + CSS | 1179 jobs
 #9 Python | 1258 jobs
 #8 Web Services | 1291 jobs
 #7 C# | 1424 jobs
 #6 XML | 1493 jobs

 Source: Indeed.com


                               about.me/babon
The NOT Top 20
 #22 Photoshop   #33 Illustrator
 #27 HTML5         #38 Ruby on Rails
 #29 iOS           #41 iPhone
 #30 Android       #50 Drupal
 #32 Flash         #55 WordPress

 Source: Indeed.com


                            about.me/babon
Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston
 #5 SQL Server | 1518 jobs
 #4 JavaScript | 2157 jobs
 #3 Oracle | 2842 jobs
 #2 Java | 3505 jobs
 #1 SQL | 4300 jobs

 Source: Indeed.com


                             about.me/babon
Opportunities



 Participate in a group?
 Lead a Season?
 Build a Website?




                           about.me/babon
Conclusion



       Let's narrow the skills gap
         one chapter at a time!




                                about.me/babon
Anatomy of a Virtual Self-Study Group