13+ Facebook Groups for Computer Programmers

Last week Boris was featured as a guest writer on Mashable, his post HOW TO: Use Facebook for Professional Networking received over 950 tweets.  From reading the comments, I was surprised to find that there are many people who still have yet to capitalize on the professional benefits Facebook groups have to offer.  By joining groups you have the opportunity to:

• Participate in group discussions
• Answer and ask questions
• Add and view links    
• Send a message to the whole group 
• Get information on upcoming events  
• Learn about and connect with individuals in your industry

If you are curious as to what type of groups are available to join, specifically in the Software/Web Marketplace, I have put together a list of Facebook Groups to get you started:

1. Join a Startup – Members: 8,159 The Join a Startup Group on Facebook is for those professionals in the Software/Internet Marketplace who are looking to work for the next Google.  It is also for startups that are looking for talented and driven individuals.  On the group discussion board, startups post their open positions, the required qualifications and an introduction to their company.  Those individuals interested in working for a startup can see the post, apply or post a brief summary of their background.  Members of this group also share industry specific news, videos and events. 
2. Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs – Members: 63,896 The Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs Group is for all those techies, programmers, hackers, developers, designers, etc. who are interested in joining up with new startups.  It is also for professionals who are dying to be part of the next web business boom.   With links to venture companies, business resources, and access to over 60,000 movers and shakers in the industry, making contacts and hearing about potential career opportunities should easy.    
3. .Net Programmers - Members: 12,244 One of the largest and growing communities of student and professional developers on Facebook. Powered by INETA, VWE, MICROSOFT & more.  Join to discuss and attend educative talks and interactive presentations of interest to professional developers around the world.
4. Lunch 2.0 – Members: 2,908 Lunch 2.0, it is a popular networking event devoted mainly to the Software Industry.  Each month a different software company hosts a lunch, they invite everyone in the marketplace to come in see their office and mingle with other professionals in the industry.  Their Facebook Group is for those members who regularly attend the events in their area, and want to network with members from different regions. Members have access to event updates, news articles posted by other members, photos/videos from past events.   
5. The Web Designer Index – Members: 15,377 Out of all the groups listed in this post, I feel The Web Designer Index Group offers the most features to its group members. The Web Designer Index is a group for all web designers, developers, web programmers and animators to come together and discuss programming, graphic design, and anything else web-related. The group allows its members to post their personal websites, portfolios, favorite websites and tutorials.  It also has a resource area on the page that links informational websites listed by topic.  Members have the freedom to use the discussion board to announce when they are looking for a job, know of job openings or are referring someone for a position previously listed.
6. Computer Programmers – Members: 11,018 The Computer Programmers Group on Facebook is one of the largest groups for computer programmers.   It’s members work with or have worked with technologies such as C, Java, Pascal, Python, HTML, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Visual Basic, and others.  This group doesn’t allow job postings or business advertisements, but it does have hundreds of posts on their discussion board where Computer Science professionals can go to give and read advice and tips.  It is a excellent group to meet and build contacts with individuals who share the same professional skills as you do.
7. Computer Programmers Global Resource Center – Members: 1,286 This group coins themselves as one of the oldest and growing community of programmers on Facebook.  Members of this group discuss interesting programming topics with other developers.   Most of the group members have a specialty in C, C++, C#, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl, Lisp, Prolog, Fortran. & more
8. Web 3.0 – Members: 13,511 This group is for those interested in the next evolution on the web.  Network with other Facebook members who want to stay on top of innovation and merge into the world of Web 3.0.  Here you will get an idea of what Web 3.0 is and what those in the web space are doing to move from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0
9. Software Engineering – Members: 3,621 This group is for Software Engineers around the globe to connect and network with software or application developers, software architects, or senior systems analysts.  They have an active discussion and wall where the members talk about current software trends, list jobs and post insightful links.
10. Web Startups – Members: 2,359 This group is dedicated to all web entrepreneurs who want to share their new projects with a tech savvy community.  Under the links section it lists a tons of startups and their websites.  It is to make the tech community more aware of what is out there.
11. Web T.e. – Members: 2,249 This group is a spinoff of the Web 2.0 group listed above.  Web T.e (T.e = Trust, Ideas and Ethics) is a group where members who share those three attributes can freely share their ideas and get feedback. Members can talk with great programmers and people with web experience. They can form partnerships and find dedicated and enthusiastic people for help. It’s about “discussing and developing” with people you can trust.
12. Computer Science: Programming problems – Members: 2,757 This group brings together programmers to discuss interesting problems and to find the most elegant algorithm, both effective and understandable.  You can find links to training seminars, self help videos and have access to members that are more than willing to assist you with questions that pertain to programming
13. Specialized Programming Groups – When searching for groups, if you look in the category of Internet and Technology – Software there are many specialized groups.  Examples are:

• PHP
• Ruby on Rails
• Ruby
• Rails
• Java
• LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP)
• C#
• .NET Programmers
• ASP.NET Developers
• Linux
• Perl
• OpenSource
• PytonDevelopers