Drink ‘n Think: Last week was the Semantic Web Austin Launch Party - the inaugural event in the GeekAustin Drink ‘n Think Series. Those of you who know me well know that I have been growing tired of anything that resembles the traditional tech happy hours. So it was a happy coincidence that John D’Oliviera and Juan Sequeda were in need of a proper send off at the same time I was looking for a partner to launch the Drink ‘n Think Series.
I couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Semantic Web Austin. Juan and John brought in a great group of presenters. Christopher St. John came down from Dallas to talk about Tessera, the Open Social API. Mike Kaply spoke about about Operator, Activities, and Microformats support in Firefox 3. Also speaking were Troy Williams, CEO of PeoplePad, and Robert Pettengill. Several folks, like John Eric Metcalf and Hayes Davis, had thoughtful write-ups of the event. Michelle Greer, armed with a flash she borrowed from Jay B. Sauceda, supplied some great photographic evidence at Flickr. As usual, half a dozen people whom I barely know blogged about the event as if they had something to do with organizing it.
Happy Hours: So why am I running away from the happy hour format? Even if I have a different co-host each time — to assure that there will always be new folks to meet — I know there are better ways to facilitate good conversation and valuable new connections. Morever, with Facebook, LinkedIn, and new social media tools popping up every week, anyone can put together a tech happy hour. There are multiple tech happy hours each week. Some of them — like Bryan Menell’s Austin Tech Happy Hour — are pretty good; but there are simply too many. I count four different Austin LinkedIn Happy Hours. Been there, done that.
Code Against Cancer: At the recent GA WordPress Fest (which was suspiciously close to a happy hour), David Neff and I were brainstorming about how we could enlist support of the Austin tech community in the fight against cancer. David is responsible for several several great web initiatives, like sharinghope.tv. I am excited to be working with him on this. Look for a formal announcement next week.
Kudos: Although I mentioned it previously, I want to think Michelle Greer for always photographing the GeekAustin events. If you have ever tried shooting in dark rooms (bars, etc), you’ll know that there is an art to this. Because she is in the process of starting her own company, she is being frugal and still borrowing a pro flash for each event. Instead of offering to buy her a drink at the next party, show some love and send a paypal contribution toward her flash at michelle@michellesblog.net.
June 26th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
great recap lynn. love all the links.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I am very excited for CodeAgainstCancer. What a wonderful way to unite and tap into the talents of the Austin developer community.