Current TV: Vote for Barcamp Orlando

matt mansfield sent me an link to an awesome video documenting Orlando’s first Barcamp. like all things peer-produced, the video needs your support to make it on tv. that’s right TV!

many kudos to jason and team for producing a lovely, eye catching video that promotes the barcamp revolution!

BarCamp Buenos Aires trip report

On September 29th, I went to BarCamp Buenos Aires, my third BarCamp. I posted a brief 2500-word trip report to “kragen-journal”, a sort of mailing list pretending to be a blog, and I’m reposting a lightly edited version of it here at Chris’s invitation.

This is my third Bar Camp, and the smallest and shortest one I’ve been to so far, but in some ways, also one of the most inspiring.

BarCampBlock: Immortalized in a Scrapbook!

We really really love Alex de Carvelho‘s Scrapblog of his experience at BarCampBlock last weekend! Awesome, Alex!

Setting up your own BarCamp Photobooth

I’ve tried to get an iSight photobooth set up at previous BarCamps only to run into technical challenges or lack of interest. It was also probably not the best idea to leave a personal laptop lying around in the middle of an event open to the public when really your only goal is to capture photos of attendees primarily for posterity.

At BarCampBlock I renewed my determination and decided to lug down the Citizen Space Mac Mini, our 21″ Cinema Display, a keyboard, mouse and an old skool iSight to make it happen. You can check out our simple setup in the photo above.

Getting the system setup wasn’t that hard, especially with the reliable mesh network the folks from Meraki had setup for us. I used an app called Flickrbooth (written by Tristan O’Tierney in response to a lazyweb request I had put out in January of 2006) to upload the photos directly to the BarCamp Flickr account.

I then took a photo of myself to demonstrate what people should do (hold their name tag up next to their face so we could read their name and tag them later) and then opened that photo in Preview on the desktop so people would get the idea.

After awhile, I decide to open up the barcampattendee tag page on the BarCamp user so people could also see that these photos were being uploaded as they were being taken. I also installed Twitterrific and set it up to post to the BarCampBlock account; it turned out that not a lot of folks ended up posting to the account but they could still watch what people who were subscribed to BarCampBlock were saying.

Finally, the photobooth was located adjacent to the registration table and as people completed registration, they were ushered offer to have their photo and their badge memorialized quickly before heading off to the main event. Just a few examples:

Open Grid + “Unconference” format for BlogPhiladelphia

If you’re in Philadelphia, or have been looking for an excuse to visit us, you should think about coming to BlogPhiladelphia on July 12 and 13th. The focus is social media, specifically blogging, but the conference is open to anyone and is completely free. We’ll be taking over the Radisson Plaza Warwick Hotel in Center City Philadelphia, which has been recently renovated and sits right on Rittenhouse Square which will provide some beautiful outdoor space for conversations should the weather permit.

The event will follow a hybrid model, similar to Web2.Open, with pre-scheduled speakers and session leaders, along with a Barcamp-style open grid presentation venue. The general concept shared between both is “encourage conversation”.

I’m working on the organizer to include a wiki and some other mechanisms on the website, along with the current sign up form, to encourage more pre-conference interaction.

For the benefit of those traveling in (from the press release):

To make this informational conference as accessible as possible for bloggers and non-bloggers alike, there will be no fee to attend. Participants are only required to cover travel and accommodations. For [..] links to recommended hotel packages and Amtrak discounts; and details on Philadelphia attractions, visit www.blogphiladelphia.net.

My hope for this event is to generate awareness of a lot of the cool projects and talent that are in Philadelphia. This also goes hand in hand with the coworking initiative that has gained quite a bit of momentum, Independents Hall.

The event is being formally organized by Annie Heckenberger at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC), the creators of U Wish U Nu, a blog devoted to “citizen journalism” and spreading awareness of all of the cool things that go on in Philly, not just geared towards external tourism but for residents as well.

For more information about participating, reservations, ideas, or otherwise, contact myself, dangerouslyawesome at gmail dot com or annie at gptmc dot com.

Hope to see everyone in July!

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