Juan Sequeda (CV) and John De Oliveira of Semantic Web Austin just sent me the list of speakers for tonight’s Launch Party. Here are the speakers:
Christopher St. John
Mike Kaply
Troy Lane Williams
Robert Pettengill
As stated previously, this will be a departure from recent GeekAustin events. In addition to the drinks and conversation, the above speakers and members of Semantic Web Austin will be hosting presentations /sessions back in the BoomBoom Room. If you are interested in the semantic web, ontology, microformats, info architecture — or just want to toss back some drinks with folks who are — we look forward to seeing you.
Event: Semantic Web Austin Launch Party
Host: GeekAustin
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 6PM-10PM
Location: Union Park Austin ( 612 W. 6th St.)
Event listing on Facebook
Event listing on Upcoming
Juan just created the following:
SemanticWebAustin Facebook Group.
SemanticWebAustin LinkedIn Group
This will be a departure from recent GeekAustin events. In addition to the drinks and conversation, members of Semantic Web Austin will be hosting presentations /sessions back in the BoomBoom Room. If you are interested in the semantic web, ontology, microformats, info architecture — or just want to toss back some drinks with folks who are — we look forward to seeing you.
Juan Sequeda (CV) and John De Oliveira of Semantic Web Austin, are currently assembling the program for the event. We’ll be posting details on speakers as we receive them.
Event: Semantic Web Austin Launch Party
Host: GeekAustin
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 6PM-10PM
Location: Union Park Austin ( 612 W. 6th St.)
Event listing on Facebook
Event listing on Upcoming
Juan just created the following:
SemanticWebAustin Facebook Group.
SemanticWebAustin LinkedIn Group
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Originally, we were planning to have a WordPress 2.5 release party. Rumor was that there was a complicated problem that might take another month to solve. Rumor also was that Andy Skelton was working on it. To everyone’s surprise, 2.5 was released at WordCamp Dallas. So instead of a release party, we’re having a WordPress Fest. |
Our co-hosts for this party will be Refresh Austin and the Austin WordPress Meetup Group. I credit the folks at Refresh Austin with helping me make the change to, and learn how to take advantage of, WordPress. Paul Menard, leader of the Austin WordPress Meetup Group, was the one who converted the GeekAustin slashcode template to WP. Whether you are considering making the move to WordPress, want to meet some local WordPress gurus, or just want to toss back a few drinks with the Refresh and GeekAustin folks at Union Park, you’re invited.
A note about the venue: There is plenty of room at Union Park. You won’t be standing in line to get in. The drinks at Union Park are generous and reasonably priced. They have a food menu so you can come straight from the office, and although parking is not difficult to find on W. 6th, valet parking will be available.
The details:
WordPress Fest - Hosted by GeekAustin and Refresh Austin
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Union Park, 612 W Sixth St. (map)
For those of you who use them, we have event pages on Facebook and Upcoming.
To get on the email list for future GeekAustin events, send an email to linearb@gmail.com.
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Over the last few weeks, there has been an increasing amount of talk about the upcoming ProductCamp Austin. I asked Paul Young, one of the organizers, if he could give us the background on the event. |
Lynn Bender: You’re a local guy. Where did you get the idea to host a ProductCamp Austin. Have you previously attended one in another city? Have you attended a BarCamp?
Paul Young: I’ve been in Austin for 10 years, and had several opportunities to move out to the Valley, but always turned them down because we love Austin. One aspect of the Bay Area that I’ve always had a jealous eye towards is that their critical mass of technical and marketing people really lends itself to organization of great events.
Aside from the various BarCamps, the first ProductCamp (called P-Camp) was held in the Valley back in March. I looked at what they did and thought “we need that in Austin.” I sent out some feelers to people I’ve met through my Product Management blog (Product Beautiful) and away we went.
I’ve never done a BarCamp before, so this is a new experience for me as an organizer as well. We’ve set some ambitious goals for sessions and attendance, and I know this is going to be a great event because whenever you put smart, capable people together in a room, good stuff happens.
Bender: GeekAustin recently interviewed Jason Cohen of SmartBear (interview). Jason mentioned that he was using Agile practices in his marketing programs. I notice that many of the people involved with, and blogging about, ProductCamp Austin have a knowledge of Agile, Design Patterns, and similar tools. Even the word Pragmatic hints at the classic text The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas. What’s going on? Are the marketing folks getting hip to engineering methodologies or are the engineers taking over the marketing dept?
Young: Both! “Big M” Marketing, which includes Product Management, is very interested in solutions to the customer’s problems and not just ordering t-shirts and making their YouTube video “go viral.” Agile has some great aspects about turning code in fast iterations and not over documenting, but the beauty of Agile is that it injects a greater understanding of the customer and her problems into the company. There are a lot of reasons why Agile is catching fire, and whichever one you like, they all get back to “how can we solve a problem that’s real?”
Interestingly, most Marketing teams still perform their positioning in a very waterfall-like manner: go in a room, position, output documents…redevelop a year later when the Sales team says that the message isn’t working. Can we position a product like we develop in Agile? Develop, test, refine continuously? Sounds like a great session for ProductCamp!
Bender: What kinds of sessions do you expect ProductCamp to cover?
Young: ProductCamp will have sessions covering all aspects of the product management and development lifecycle. John Milburn from Pragmatic Marketing will lead a session about technology assessment and where to put your development dollars. Bjorn Aannestad has signed up to facilitate a discussion about different methods we use to do feature prioritization. I’ll be leading a roundtable about working with offshore manufacturing and development. Proposed sessions include how Product Managers can work effectively in an Agile shop, career planning and transitioning into and out of Product Management, and dealing with GUIs in requirements.
Bender: How many folks do you expect at the event? I’ve noticed that a few barcamps have attracted upwards of 1000 people. Do you think that there is a limit to how big a barcamp type event can scale before it ceases to be an un-conference and turns into a traditional conference?
Young: Because ProductCamp is focused on more specific topics than BarCamp, I doubt we will see 1000 people. We’ll probably have less than 100; our goal is to have a high quality group who are dealing with the pressing problems in the product development process every day. The sessions are going to be interesting and thought provoking, and participants should come ready to be challenged - and challenge one another. Product Management is still poorly understood in technology companies, so it is up to us to help define what is a critical role that will shape the software and products we use in the future.
As far as keeping the spirit of the event, I strongly believe that no one wants to come out to hear a bunch of talking heads droning about process and continuous improvement. The un- in un-conference means that the rule of 2-feet applies: if you don’t feel like you’re getting value in a session - find another! ProductCamp is participation driven, and the day will go where the participants take it.
Bender: Is this a free event? I see that Pragmatic Marketing is one of the sponsors. Who are the other sponsors? Are you still seeking additional sponsors? Do you need additional volunteers?
Young: This is a 100% free event and everyone is welcome! The only cost is participation.
ProductCamp is sponsored by Pragmatic Marketing, Austin Ventures, St. Edwards University Professional Education Center, The Association of International Product Marketing and Management, and NetStreams - and we are seeking more (email pt.young@gmail.com).
We will never have enough volunteers! If you are interested in ProductCamp, first go sign up as a participant. Then list yourself on the wiki under “Volunteers” and we’ll find a job for you! Finally, if you feel like you have something to share about Product Management or Marketing, or the way products and software are being developed, sign up to lead a session as a speaker.
Bender: When and where will ProductCamp be held?
Young: ProductCamp will be held Saturday June 14th, 2008, 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM at St. Edwards University’s Professional Education Center on 9420 Research Blvd., near Mopac and 183. To sign up, and learn more, go to the official site for ProductCamp Austin.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before….
I am really looking forward to the Get Agile event this month. I went through my big phone book and found about 550 Austin fans of agile technology. Add the core GeekAustin folks (and subtract those that would rather stay home and download their girlfriend) — and we’re looking at a pretty good bash.
The co-host for this month’s event is Agile Austin. These folks are doing great things — sponsoring workshops, providing continuing education for software, project, and management professionals, as well as bringing industry leaders to town for speaking engagements. As far as I can tell, only about half of my friends are aware of them. I hope the rest of you can make it to the party and meet a few of these folks. If you’d like to learn more about agile in an informal environment, while tossing back a few drinks, this is your opportunity.
A note about the venue: There is plenty of room at Union Park. You won’t be standing in line to get in. And when I say that there will be valet parking, I actually call the valet company to send extra drivers. So you want to take advantage of it, you won’t have to wait to get your car parked either. The drinks at Union Park are generous and reasonably priced. For those of you who want to see how agile you are after a couple of drinks, we’ll be in the BoomBoom room.
Here’s the details:
Get Agile with GeekAustin / Agile Austin
Tuesday April 29th 6PM-9PM
at Union Park 612 w. 6th street (map)
Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/433148/
We have a few surprises in store as well — but we’re not going to tell.
To get on the invite list for future GeekAustin events, send email to linearb@gmail.com
Hope to see you there!
-Lynn
After outgrowing the last few venues, it became necessary to find something a bit larger for the upcoming GeekAustin Agile and WordPress events. Michelle had been telling me to check out Union Park, next to Katz’s, telling me what a great place it was. So, next time Jana and I had one of our whiskey and paté nights, we stopped by for a few rounds of Maker’s Mark. The drinks are very reasonably priced, there is a beautiful view from their upstairs patio, and Greg Bodle, the owner, is a great guy. Then we saw the Union Park BoomBoom Room:
It’s decided. Union Park is the place. Hope you can join us at the next event.
BarcampAustin III will be held at…GSD&M | idea city
Austin Studios plays host to the first Digital Media Council meeting of 2008. A non-profit devoted to expanding the digital media talent pool, the DMC invites educators and industry folks to attend its quarterly meeting. From video game production to web development, interactive marketing to educational software, the DMC spearheads numerous events for the creative technology community throughout the year, including:
* Hosting accredited training in Java, 3D modeling, and game design for high school teachers;
* Convening executive summits for university provosts, deans and chairs to meet industry leaders and tackle the need for more digital media degree programs;
* Placing speakers in secondary and post-secondary classrooms; and
* Programming a nuts-and-blots primer on funding and launching a digital media start-up.
All are welcome to the DMC’s next meeting, Monday, February 11, noon — 2:00 pm, in the Austin Studios’ conference room, 1901 East 51st Street. Lunch is provided. We’ll take a short tour of the film studios and set to work on planning our 2008 initiatives. Please RSVP to Kristy Bowden, kbowden@skillpointalliance.org
Ok, so our next party is at JBlack’s on February 12th. This will not involve buying flowers or candy, or calling around to restaurants trying to find the one place that isn’t booked. Will you meet the future Ms. (insert your last name here) at the February Geek Austin party? We doubt it, but at least you can count on having a good time.
We are cohosting this event with Dorkbot. Dorkbot is a group of many sorts that builds things and sometimes blows them up in the name of “electronic art” (in the broadest sense of the term). Want to see electronic art in action? Take your kids or the kid in you to the Austin Children’s Museum to check out De La Maquina’s “Electronic Gongs.” These Flickr photos don’t do it justice.
Will we be blowing up Valentine’s Day presents at the party? Probably not. Should you RSVP to find out what does happen? The link is here, my friends:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/418904
The 2nd BarCampTexas will be held at the Fibertown campus in downtown Bryan/College Station. Centrally located between Austin, Houston, and Dallas, Bryan is a budding technology hub. BarCampTexas will be held on the last weekend in January (26/27). BarCamp topics range from advice on starting a technology business, developing software with cutting edge technologies, and anything else passionate, technology oriented people love. Everyone is encouraged to participate and present. You can find a list of planned presentations on the BarCampTexas wiki or just show up and present. BarCampTexas is sponsored by the Linux Journal, FIBERTOWN, and the Research Valley Partnership
To find directions, hotel accommodations, etc. visit the BarCampTexas.com website.
As many of you know, the first BarCampTexas was held in Austin 2006 in conjunction with BarCampEarth. Hat’s off to Ryan, Bill, Cody and crew for picking up the torch.
BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.
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For January, the GeekAustin Happy Hour moves downtown to the exceptional J Blacks. Some of you may remember that PhizzPop was hosted here last month. Well, we liked JBlacks so much that we decided to host the next few GA happy hours there.This month Refresh Austin will be joining us as co-hosts. Although it is entirely not necessary, please rsvp so that we can know how many additional staff to bring in for the eventing: | |
| Details:Geek Austin Happy Hour
Date: Tuesday, January 8th, 7-9PM Location: J Blacks 710 W. 6th St., Suite B, Austin, Texas 78701 | Google MapTo get on the invite list for future GeekAustin events, send an email to linearb@gmail.com |
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Do you hate commercials? So do I, and so do your potential customers. That’s why I’m attending Got Social Media? in Houston on January 24th. Technology allows marketers such as myself to communicate more closely to our audiences than ever before. “Got Social Media?” covers topics such as buzz marketing, web 3.0, designing for the interactive web, and more. Houston social media expert Erica O’Grady will be hosting this event at the Houston Technology Center. | |
| Who’s speaking at this event? giovanni gallucci: Buzz Generation, Guerilla Marketing and Branding via SEO, Social Media, and Social Networking Kelsey Ruger: Crucial Conversations: The Art and Science of Conversation in Social Media Registration is just $50 until January 1st, and $65 until January 23rd. Learn how to make your marketing stick by signing up to attend. |
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The PhizzPop Design Challenge is the Battle Royale of Design. Austin’s top interactive, Web, and design agencies are pitted against one another to push the limits of technology and creativity. Austin has some of the best interactive designers in the biz. If you are a designer wanted to check out the competition — or if you are looking for a new design gig — this is the place to be. Don’t believe me? Get the scoop from Shellie. Regional competitions have already taken place in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Austin’s winners will compete with them at (where else but) South by Southwest Interactive. Although it’s a not too late to register online, I just got confirmation from Chris Bernard at MS that there will still be room to come check out the action. |
The PhizzPop Design Challenge pits top interactive, Web, and design agencies
against one another to push the limits of technology and creativity in a battle
royale. Think Mad Max for design. The regional teams have been selected and
will duke it out in New York, Boston, Chicago, Austin, and Los Angeles, with the
regional winners competing against one another, and San Francisco winner AKQA, at South by Southwest Interactive
in Austin, TX.
Register now! before it fills up!
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For this month’s Geek Austin Happy Hour,
LinearB is teaming up with Connie Reece and Mike Chapman from Social Media Club Austin. This is the last Geek Austin event of the year, and one definitely not to be missed. details at: GeekAustin.com rsvp at: Upcoming |
