Bar Camp coming to South Africa

Bar Camp South Africa

From the wiki:

Welcome to the initial planning phases of BarCampSouthAfrica. The idea is to bring the South African tech/geek/creative community together under one roof in the informal "un-conference" environment as per the Bar Camp Ethos. Think of it as Open-Source conferencing, this is YOUR conference, you present, you discuss, you attend, you spread the word.

So we’ve hit the US, Canada, Europe, India, Ireland… and now South Africa?

Well, it’s not a done deal yet, but if Conrad Strydom has his way, it’s going to happen. Adrian? Now’s your chance big guy!

What’s up with the Flockstar shirts?

Flockstar shirts... :(

So I just wanted to send out a long overdue update on the Flockstar shirts. I had wanted these to go out two weeks ago but it turned out that after a washing, the lighter part of the star wore off. We shipped them back to Ken at GiantRobotPrinting and he’s got them all fixed up and good to go — I just need to finalize the tremendous list of requests that I got and fire’em off to him for shipping. Admittedly I’m going to be pressed for time over the next two weeks — I definitely want to get this done and have the shirts go out ASAP!

So thanks for your patience all you who made a request — I haven’t forgotten the original offer — there’s just been some curious complications along the way!

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Drupal Camp NYC is looking for a venue

Drupal Camp BoyAnother offshoot of Bar Camp, Drupal Camp is looking for a venue in NYC. As Amit can attest, finding a venue, especially in NYC, is the hardest part of organizing a camp.

So, if anyone has ideas for May 13-14 — Node 101 folks? — please let Noel know on the wiki. More details on their planning page.

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Heading to Bar Camps LA & Austin, ETech and SXSW

Bar Camp Los AngelesI’m gearing up for a whirlwind two weeks that’ll start tonight in LA for Bar Camp (where Jason Roberts is putting me up), drop me in San Diego for Etech (with a ride from BCLA organizer Kareem Mayan) where I’ll be presenting on Flock, from whence I shuttle down to Austin for whurley’s Bar Camp extravaganza and then pop over to SXSW where I’m on two panels as well as going out of my mind for 120 seconds at 20×2.

Yowza!

Here’s hoping that my unprepared presentation at Under the Radar yesterday will improve over the next week so that by the time I’m talking about Flock at ETech I remember to hit the Star button and show off Photo Uploading. Heh.

At least I showed the mapping feature. Right Fredo?

Passing the basket for Bar Camp Austin

Bar Camp Austin Poster (Take IV)
So we’re about a week away from Bar Camp Austin and we’ve got a rediculous event in store for folks descending on Austin for SXSW. My buddy William Hurley (of the penguins) has been running amok, making plans and crackin’ deals and schemin’ like a madman. And he’s all but good on getting everything set up but he’s run into a bit of a snag: self-financing a whole Bar Camp is a bit… difficult.

(Oh — and we could also use some help getting some major bandwidth piped into the venue.)

So what are we talkin’ here?

Well, as with most of the camps, we’re trying to keep things extremely low cost. And obviously free for attendees.

But whurley’s out about $1800 for printing posters and badges, t-shirts, promoting and renting shuttles and would like lurve any kind of pecuniary support folks are willing to contribute. Any amount will do; and we like to keep donations to $250 or less, unless you’re sponsoring a round of drinks, a meal or some kind of service.

So how can you help? Well, simple:

  • Donate. Even 5 bucks helps. And I’ll be listing all the donations we receive once the event is over (transparency in accounting, absolutely!).
  • Join the mailing list and offer to pitch in — I’m sure whurley’s got ideas.
  • Help us secure some sweet wifi action for the venue. We’ve got connectivity — we just want to make sure it’s up to snuff!
  • Did I mention that you can donate? 😉

Ok, I’m available to answer any questions or concerns you might have — but I’m totally psyched about all the work that’s gone into making this event happen and know that y’all’ll toss in some coin to help out!

dotBen Out of Towner meetup tonight!

dotbenGood ol’ Ben "Bullshit" Metcalfe will be coming to town and is interested in meeting up with Brat Pack
2.0’s rebel rousers. He’s the fella who stood up to… ahem… "address" Mena at Les Blogs… and in his spare time, earns pounds at the BBC.

In addition, we’ll be talking plans for Bar Camp Ottawa and Indie Film Camp: Enric‘s camp on introducing and involving the independent film community in net syndication, promotion and distribution of their works. Come on by and join the conversation!

Bar Camp meets Fight Club … down under?

Tequp CoasterIf it is your first night at tequp, you have to talk.

And them’s the rules, except unlike Fight Club, but more like Bar Camp, you can talk about it after the fact. And judging from the description, I’d say it inherited a lot from Bar Camp:

tequp is a new collective focussing on innovative software and internet development. it is a passionate, informal and constructive meet. the main aim is not to share technological solutions, (although that is certainly an option) but to get to know locals doing cool stuff and share experiences of doing business.

started in melbourne, australia, it is hoped other cities join in on the tequp concept.

But here’s the nutty thing: according to my buddy Blake Burris (and father of this weekend‘s CocoaDevHouse), Cris Pearson, the mastermind behind the meet and developer of Comic Life, had never heard of Bar Camp before.

No, really!

Can you believe it?! Man, this whole accelerating serendipity thing is really starting to catch on.

GoodStorm looking for a GoodDesigner

In case you were on the prowl for an important job doing open source interface and design work, boy have I got the opportunity for you.

GoodStorm (host of the meager FactoryCity store) is looking for a GoodDesigner to help improve their brand new open source store (which is built on Drupal).

Drop Marc) a note and tell him I sent you!

The decade of user experience (redux)

I originally posted this piece on the Round Two website (the precursor to Flock) in April of last year, and it appears that I now have some corroboration from the Association for Computing Machinery. Of course I never finished the follow up post, but Andreas Pfeiffer seems to have hit the mark.

As a full time user experience architect and user advocate, it is my job to make technology more accessible, usable and more pleasurable to use. I do this work because I enjoy it and find it immensely important and fulfilling.

I know that the cultural artifacts that I produce (in the form of web interfaces) immediately affect the lives of people who touch my work. And if I don’t do my job well, they’re liable to experience frustration, annoyances or other less-than-positive feelings. Since I have utter control over whatever ends up on the screen (or output thru a screen reader), I have a duty and responsibility to make wise and measured choices so that those less-than-positive feelings never arise and instead are countered by feelings of empowerment, amusement and satisfaction.

It has occurred to me more and more over the last few months that my work is not at all unique, but a larger, more pervasive trend towards user-centered design. While there are still immense opportunities for taking improving the design of interfaces (both web and application-based), I believe that we are ushering in a decade of design innovation dedicated to improving user experience.

In my next post, I will discuss the four emerging families of user experience design and what they mean for web, application and workflow design.