Who's ready for Bar Camp Dallas III?!
The Details
When: 3rd Weekend in January (2007) - Jan 20th - 21st
Where: Let's grab the 4th floor at the Microsoft Las Colinas Campus.
Hosts
Campers
Note: My only concern about having this at the Microsoft Campus is that I want this to be a Bar Camp, and not a Microsoft Bar Camp... your thoughts?
-My Thoughts...not a concern at all. BarCamp is run by the participants...and it will be what it will be ;)
- BarCampNYC2 was hosted by Microsoft, and it wasn't an issue. Peter Laudati, the NYC area MS Developer Evangelist, assured us it would be hands off, and it was. -cks
- BarCampSanFrancisco was the same way... and the Microsoft building was a nice place to meet too.
- Will MS cooperate with making their wireless network available to users of other operating systems. I went to BarCamp 1 in Dallas and having wireless access seemed very important.
- The only requirement for wireless guest access: pre-register with your name, company, email address (This is only used to identify your log in on the web based guest access point - when you first try to access the wireless there is a web based log in screen); I've never tried it with a non-MS OS, if someone would like to come down and give it a try, I can coordinate that - Caleb
- I'm concerned about the limitations on wireless access. Is there any way to set up an alternate mechanism "day of"? Firewall restrictions at the Microsoft campus in NYC put a real damper on some of the activities (like live streaming video of the event), and I think requiring signups in advance would mean many attendees would have no access at all. I'm willing to donate my wireless router for a day if there's a way to get a clean internet connection - ChristopherStJohn
- No problems whatsoever. Venue is only important if you have to do something specific in order to get it. I don't see that we're being required to do anything specific! :) - Jake
QUESTIONS
Question: Are people going to want to spend the night at the MS Office, or is there a camp ground/hotel near by that we should point people to?
Answer: YUP -- We're camping out on the 4th Floor of the Microsoft Building. Bring a Tent if you like -- although there should be plenty available.
Question(in 6 parts): Could you describe this 4th floor? Is is exposed to the outdoors? Is that why people would want tents? Would a sleeping bag suffice? Are there bathrooms, or is this some unfinished area? Is there power and light?
Answer: The tent is just for fun, it's indoors on a finished floor. Main discomfort factors are thin carpet and (I assume) a lack of showers.
Topics - What would everyone like to see discussed?
- I'd like to see a discussion on creating CSS friendly web pages from different back end systems. (PHP, .NET, ColdFusion)
- GTD for the developer (or any other methodology for managing the madness and "getting it done")
- Developing (and testing) in a virtual environment
- State of Web 2.0 in Texas
- Startup Showcase/Demo's
- Mini DemoCampDallas (1 hour set aside for demo-camp style demoa) Contact ChristopherStJohn if you're interested, since the number of slots would necessarily be limited. Also note you can always sign up for a regular slot for your demo, I just though the DemoCamp format was fun.
- Half-Baked Dot Com Entrepreneurial Improv Theater (stolen from Amit's session at BarCampNYC2, which I think was stolen from someplace else :-) ) teams of 5 compete to come up with the best business plan (product, logo, marketing plan, revenue model, tagline) using a randomly chosen company name. Each team has 15 minutes, a panel of celebrity VC judges provides feedback. Need celebrity VC judges! (maybe Alex Muse + ???)
- I am considering a philosophical question, but I have not decided if it would be out of place. To wit: If a friend tells you they are having problems with a Windows XP system, is it ethical to help them use XP?
- What is so cool about Python?
- Add your topic
Schedule of Events
Suggested:
- Friday night meet up at a local pub? (Suggestions?)
- Saturday - Show up at Microsoft 10am? (Microsoft needs people to register as visitors when they arrive, let's pick 2 hours each day that we want to have registration available)
- First 1/2 plan daily events and topics
- Saturday night - Some sort of mixer at the Microsoft Cafeteria (8-12?)
- Play pool, XBox 360, etc...
- Sunday (wake up anyone that fell asleep) we'll probably want to have some times for registration for anyone that didn't come on Sat)
- i'm concerned about only allowing signups for a couple of hours in the morning. many people simply can't be there early in the morning on a weekend because of family or other commitments.
Prizes / Doorprizes
- We have a couple of items that have been donated. We can either do contests during BarCamp, or random drawings at the end.. any contest ideas?
Items: (so far)
- XBox 360 Premium
- Zune (X3)
Food
What about eating during the day/night?
How do we want to handle that? What was done last year and at other barcamps? :)
- generally the organizers arrange sponsorships for food, either directly with vendors or through cash donations. one of the organizers is then responsible for coordinating with the vendors to get the food delivered and paid for. food's really tricky, because it requires an accurate guess at the number of attendees, and a good feel for dietary restrictions. -cks
