beTech :: Evolve Already

Mark your calendars for beCamp! beCamp May 2nd-3rd 2008 @ Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC), 501 E. Main Street, Charlottesville, VA (on Downtown Mall)

We have 68 registered attendees so far. If you’re planning to come but haven’t yet registered, do it soon so you can get a t-shirt! You can register at http://barcamp.org/beCamp2008.

Last year this event was a huge success, with a huge range of topics from ruby, smalltalk, and solr (which you might expect) to 3D modeling, robotics, and reputation management (which you might not expect, which makes them even cooler). beCamp is whatever YOU want it to be, so bring your ideas for a session.

Event Details

When

• Friday, May 2nd, 5:00PM-9:00PM
• Saturday, May 3rd, 9:00AM-5:00PM

Where

• Charlottesville Business Innovation Council
• 501 East Main Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902

Bring

• Brain
• Laptop
• Reference books
• Games—cards, board games, Legos, video (bring a monitor as well)
• Snacks, beverages
• Camera (Flickr tags: beCamp, beCamp2008, BarCamp)
• Business cards

Below is a quick synopsis of the meeting today. The room was packed. The meeting and info shared was great. Thank you Eric Pugh.

Eric Pugh started off the meeting with the following hilarious youtube.com video “Code Monkey”:
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=v4Wy7gRGgeA

Eric explained the wide adoption of OpenID by many of the internet powerhouses like Yahoo, Google, and others. Interesting resource links include:

• http://openid.net (for more explanation about the standard)
• http://openiddirectory.com (to discover who is participating)
• http://spreadopenid.org
• http://www.37signals.com/openid/ (37 signals is using open ID for their systems)
• http://myopenid.net (popular openID provider)
• https://pip.verisignlabs.com/seatbelt.do (verisign offers a firefox plugin and openID service too)
• http://www.opensourceconnections.com (Eric will offer more information about his presentation on his company web site soon)

Eric also show a demo of his “Fish4Brains” application using OpenID put together at the 48hour long Rails Rumble this year. We also discussed the upcoming BeCamp event. Last year this event was tremendous, get involved this year and make it even better. Visit http://barcamp.org/beCamp2008/ for more information and keep up on the developments.

Great information, thank you Eric!

beCamp was such a huge success that we’d like to see if we can get a little of that magic to rub off on some topic-focused mini-conferences. These one-day mini-conferences, let’s call them “weeCamp“, would zoom in on a broad topic of interest to beTechies and others keen on advancing their Web knowledge. As with beCamp, the participants of weeCamp will have pleny of opportunities to teach, learn, and share with their peers. The proposed format for such an event might go something like this.

Of course, since this is only a single day, business-hours event, we’re tossing out some of the mojo that made beCamp work so well. That’s right, no t-shirts, no beer, no jamming with Wendy and the Wii (not to mention Surfzilla!). But we also don’t have to pan-handle for sponsors either. Perhaps it’s a workable tradeoff. Let’s see.

Web Application Security

Marty Peterman and the ITC Security Department have volunteered their support for the first weeCamp event. On October 8, 2007, spend a day with your peers on the topic of Web Application Security. Our “keynote speaker” will be none other than Dan Goldberg—founder of MADJiC Consulting, the technical director of Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC), and an incident handler for the Internet Storm Center. We’re ecstatic to have Marty and Dan on-board and to have such an engaging, crucial topic to kick-off our first weeCamp.

Exactly one week ago, the center of the C’ville Web universe was undoubtedly beCamp 2007. Web professionals from across the region (and some from outside it) gathered at the funky Fry’s Spring Beach Club to share their knowledge, their stories, and their business cards. The event far surpassed any goals we had for it and spawned numerous calls for beCamp II and even a Richmond BarCamp. We couldn’t be more pleased. Tired, but pleased.

Thanks to our wonderful sponsors, this event was free to all attendees (approximately 75 made it through the doors over the two-day event). The food was delicious, the beer was refreshing, and the band—Dan Haig and “The Indeterminants”—was on fire!

Sponsors

• Fry’s Spring Beach Club [venue]
• University of Virginia ITC [t-shirts, office supplies]
• Monticello Avenue [sodas]
• OpenSource Connections [Friday dinner: Pig Daddy BBQ, beer]
• Intalgent [Saturday lunch: Sticks Kebab]
• ALTERthought [Saturday breakfast: Bodos + Starbucks]
• Crutchfield [video projector, screens]

Of course, the 24 Saturday unconference sessions were also top-notch thanks entirely to our brilliant, creative, and collaborative campers. Many were surprised that such a diversity of talent was within easy reach here in town. Presentations and discussions ranged from programming to layout and design to the future of the C’ville tech community. Kudos to everyone that took part in this amazing experience.

Lastly, thank you to all our tireless volunteers. They gave 158% to make sure the event was promoted, the beverages were chilled, the cantankerous wireless router routed, and the trash got trashed—they kept the party rolling. Thank you all!

More on beCamp 2007

• UVa Today article on “beCamp”
• Flickr photos tagged “beCamp”
• Technorati blog search for “beCamp”
• Google search for “beCamp”

(If you’re interested in volunteering for or sponsoring the next beCamp, please check out the beCamp wiki for more information.)

The C’ville tech event of the year rips the roof off Fry’s Spring Beach Club in 24 hours! Thanks to our amazing sponsors—including the latest, ALTERthought—this event is FREE to you! Heck, we even have a live band rarin’ to go. But ya gotta register on the wiki. Do it right now, before you forget.

Can you believe it? beCamp is almost here and the wiki is buzzing! Over 50 of our propeller-headed peeps (from as far away as Germany) have already registered for the event. If you’ve been lurking, waiting for the right moment to jump in, you may want to make your move today since registration may have to be capped at 75 just to provide enough food/drink for the event.

beCamp Sponsors

Join us in thanking and supporting the current beCamp sponsors. We’d love to add your company’s name to the list. Shoot me an email today if you’d like to give a little something to nurture Charlottesville’s technology community. Your colleagues will deeply appreciate it!

• University of Virginia ITC
• Fry’s Spring Beach Club
• Monticello Avenue
• OpenSource Connections
• Intalgent

Ready or not, here it comes! Have you signed up for beCamp yet? Over 30 of your peers have already signed-up for what one of them aptly described as a “technology Woodstock” (thanks Rick 2.Reo, we love it!). Sign up in the next few days and guarantee yourself an appropriately geeky t-shirt (the order will be made soon) when you make your beCamp appearance.

Of course, if you’d like to help out with organizing, sponsoring, etc. we’d be thrilled with that as well.