On the Symfony blog there's a post from Ryan Weaver about an upcoming event the project is hosting and how you can help - the Symfony Docs Hack Day (on March 30th).

The first commit to the Symfony documentation was over 3 years ago, and since then, we've grown to include a full book, lots of cookbook entries, and sections for most of the individual components. [...] But as we grow, we want to stay aggressive and continue to improve the quality of the docs. This means ensuring that code examples are accurate and pages are easy to understand, balancing the info you need with excess technical clutter. [...] And this is where we need your help! Whether you're a seasoned-Symfony veteran, a beginner, or even if you don't think your English is very good, we'd like you to join us on March 30th for our first ever Symfony Docs Hack Day.

The event is a virtual one - everyone will meet up on the Freenode IRC network in the #symfony-docs channel on March 30th from 9am through 5pm Central EU time. Everyone's invited, not just those who are experts in the framework. Documentation updates are a great way to learn more about a framework too! If you're interested in what kind of updates they're looking for, check out this list of open issues with the docs on Github.

With the start of April 2009 also comes the beginning of this year's TestFest events. Zoe Slattery has posted about it:

So here we are at the beginning of the 2009 TestFest. There are currently 16 PHP user groups intending to participate, these are pretty widely distributed from Brazil, the USA and Europe.

The repository is open and available for the submissions the groups might make (more info here and here on testing procedures and how to submit the results) and you can always join the IRC channel on the Freenode IRC network - #phptestfest. You'll find plenty of help and conversation about writing tests and getting them where they need to go.

Kris Wallsmith has posted an announcement to the symfony blog about an upcoming event (happening Saturday November 8th from 3pm-9pm GMT) - Plugin Developers Day.

We will cover a number of plugin-related subjects in depth, including creating and naming a plugin, adding customizable model, form and action classes, unit and functional testing a plugin, packaging and releasing, and what's new in symfony 1.2.

If you've been meaning to try your hand at writing a symfony plugin or have been writing plugins for years, please join some of your fellow developers for a day of learning, collaboration and development.

Its an online event that'll be happening in the #symfony IRC channel on the Freenode IRC network. Nothing to sign up for - just show up ready to learn.

Christopher Jones reminds everyone out there that wasn't able to make it to the php|tek conference this year that there's several ways you can still feel a part of the action.

You can follow general conference happenings in various places: on Twitter, the #phptek channel on the Freenode IRC network, Planet-PHP and from the live feed.

You can also keep up with some of the twitter talk from those attending via the hashtags entry for "#phptek".

PotatoBob mentions a new resource for all of the Zend Framework developers out there, one more to add to their list of helpful locales - a Zend Framework IRC channel over on the FreeNode network.

So anyways a few of the folks over in http://zfforums.com decided there was a need for a Zend Framework irc channel, but there was no official one around so here it is the unofficial: #zftalk on irc.freenode.net

The group that set up the channel also has a website you can check out for the latest info on the channel and on the Framework itself - zftalk.com.

If you're a PHP-GTK developer and have heard anything about the PHPThrowdown event that sounds interesting, check out this new post on the PHP-GTK community site. They're looking for a few good coders.

After a few cups of tea the idea of putting several teams together so that we could have some competition within the ranks came about. Without any word on what the categories are for certain, there is still the Miscellaneous category. So either way by category or Miscellaneousness we can get some good stuff in and you will not have to see me cry.

If you'd like to help the cause and join the team, submit your information on their signup form and wait for further instructions. Should you or any of your team be captured...wait, wrong team. If you'd like to talk some with the other coders that you could be working with, though, check out their IRC channel over on the Freenode network - #php-gtk.

As is mentioned here on Ben Ramsey's blog and here on the Zend Developer Zone - the "official" shirts of the PHP community channel on freenode, #phpc, have been created and can be ordered.

Ben notes that the decision was made to create the shirts because of the good number of #phpc-ers that were attending the Zend/PHP Conference and Expo this year. The design has been created and the order will soon be placed, so if you want to get in on the order, let Ben know (via email - tshirts [at] benramsey.com) and they'll add another name to the list. The cost on them is about $13 USD.

Ligaya Turmelle has posted an update on a movement started a few days ago surrounding the women of PHP that are our there, hacking and coding along with their male counterparts.

Ok so we have been some busy little beavers. We have a domain and hosting (Thanks to Cal Evans graciously volunteering us space) though we will probably be moving that domain to the OmniTI servers who have also volunteered to host us. A mailing list has been set up (feel free to join it here) as well as an IRC channel (#phpwomen on freenode). We are currently figuring out what we want to be and don't want to be as a community so make your voice heard.

They do have a website - phpwomen.org - but it's currently just a placeholder for future content (including a forum to help with interaction). According to Ligaya, there's about 25 women involved with the project right now, but they're always looking for more to get in, so if you're interested, check out either their site or head over to the freenode IRC network and join #phpwomen.

Both Ben Ramsey and Elizabeth Naramore have commented on the new IRC channel they've formed for the upcoming PHP Appalachia conference on the Freenode network.

We now have an IRC channel for the PHP Appalachia conference - Freenode - #phpappalachia. Come join us!

You can access the Freenode network with any IRC client and can join in on the channel at any time. Come find out others who are coming and get the latest on the conference.

In an effort to create a higher level of discussion on PHP than just the "why is this erroring?" or "how do I get PHP to..." questions, Davey Shafik has started a new channel over on the Freenode IRC network to futher talks about PHP and not just fixing other peoples errors.

The goal of the channel is to foster talks about topics such as design patterns, emerging PHP concepts, working on the bleeding edge, and new ways of doing old things. The channel is already set up and running smooth with users constantly around (though they might be just lurking), so come on over and join in.