Back in the summer, I heard about how Gene Babon of Bostons PHP Meetup Group was brilliantly helping folks learn web programming through PHP Percolate, jQuery Jam and HTML5 Brunch. While he was explaining this, I thought to myself, this needs to be done for MySQL!
And so it will be. Starting in just over a month, January 1st, 2013, the first MySQL Marinate group will happen. We already have over 50 people signed up for the event itself, and as of right now there are 85 people in the meetup group itself, with over 30% of the group being female.
I found a book that teaches MySQL with exercises that students can do OReillys Learning MySQL. All you need to do is sign up for the event and acquire a copy of the book maybe you can find a used copy, maybe your library has it, or you can buy it new in paper or electronic version. Starting January 1st, read a chapter per week and do the exercises. We will go through chapter 12. The first few chapters cover database basics and installing and connecting to MySQL, so if you cannot start exactly on January 1st, thats fine. And you can do exercises ahead of time.
The best part is that each chapter (each week) has its own message thread so if you have a question about something in the book, or are having problems, there is a place to connect with others. Gerry Narvaja will be leading a group in Seattle in some in-person discussions/office hours, and I will do the same in the Boston area. I will also do some live office hours online in IRC, details forthcoming.
Its a study group. For MySQL. Where a few top experts are around to help out. Sign up today what do you have to lose?