Since I came back to Orlando from DC, it's been obvious to me that there is a growing tech scene here in town. It's always been here, but for whatever reason things started mobilizing and coming together over the last couple of years.

Barcamp, refresh, coworking, florida creatives, happy hours, meetup.com groups, whatever -- all of these smaller communities have flourished and formed vibrant "sub-communities" within the larger scene. One of the conversations that inevitably always comes up is the need for an association -- a non-profit organization that exists outside of various social cliques and can bring together interactive professionals in the central florida region.

A handful of people have come together to make this happen, and it looks like a great foundation is being laid. It's still in its early stages, but thanks to some folks at Izea and people like Mark Kruprinski, there's is already a great community coming together around the concept.

If you work in the tech field -- whether its coding, design, marketing, whatever -- and live in the Central Florida region, then you really should create an account on Doterati.com. When you do, make sure to add me as a friend! Here is my profile page with cutesy wedding photo.

UPDATE: So, I sent out a bunch of invites to some friends for Doterati, and I'm already getting emails back saying they won't sign up because it says it's a "Ted Murphy" project on the bottom of every page. I totally missed that, and agree that it's completely lame. That's not how the site/concept was pitched to me though, and I'd suspect its more relating to the actual website aspects of it all (I hope). If it's another orlando-local-builds-an-ego-project, it probably won't last. My impression though, is that this is intended to be above all that. I guess we'll find out ;)
UPDATE 2: I've been told that whoever creates the Ning group gets their name on the bottom like that. Probably should have had somebody who's not blogosphere public enemy #1 create the group. Ted's a nice guy, but man.. I'm getting hit with messages from people who've never even met the guy that are brutal. Yikes.
UPDATE 3: Lawrence Salberg wrote a post re. Doterati that sounds an awful lot like some of the stuff people were telling me. It's worth taking a look at if you are in the doterati community and want to know the types of things its up against. He doesn't have to be right, as it's an impression that seems to be shared by some folks.