beCamp 2008
beCamp May 2nd-3rd 2008 @ Jefferson Madison Public Library 3rd Floor (Charlottesville, VA)
If you're a geek in or around the Charlottesville metroplex or even if you're merely tech-curious, this is the event you don't want to miss. beCamp is Charlottesville's version of the BarCamp unconference phenomenon—organized on the fly by attendees, for attendees. Realizing that the most energizing parts of any tech conference are the ad hoc conversations that take place in the hallways between the sessions, beCamp facilitates these types of interactions for an entire event.
This year we are splitting the locations between Chef Ted's Shimmy Shack on Friday and on Saturday using the conference rooms and hallways of the Charlottesville Downtown Library, aka as the Jefferson Madision Regional Library Central Branch. We have two conference rooms that hold up to 35 people and one large ballroom that can hold 100 people. You can see these historic rooms below.
We provide the venues, the wireless, the projectors, the food, da beer—you show up to teach, learn, and participate.
Each attendee has to talk about something or volunteer (registration, set-up, teardown, etc.). There will be a number of sessions which will be picked by the attendees at the start of the event. For example, if lots of people want to hear about Google's OpenSocial, then that will be on the agenda. If no one wants to hear about HTML5, then it won't be on the agenda.
Think of it as an open-source geek gathering where you get to decide what goes into and what comes out of the event. It's 2 days of creating, collaborating, and conversing with people just as juiced excited about technology as you are.
Register Here!
Use this wiki to officially register as a camper and, better yet, help enroll sponsors, propose sessions, etc.
By the way, did we mention beCamp is FREE!?
Meals may cost, unless we can get y'all to help us with sponsors for those as well! ;-)
Share the News!
Use the becamp tag for your blog posts and photos (see who's already blogging).
Download this badge to advertise beCamp on your site:
Spread the word with these flyers:
...or take our logo and create your own:
Event Details
When & Where
Maps
Bring
- Brain
- Laptop
- Reference books
- Games—cards, board games, Legos, video (bring a monitor as well)
- Musical instruments (see diversions)
- Snacks, beverages (do not bring alcohol, legally that has to be provided by FSBC)
- Camera (Flickr tags: beCamp, beCamp2008, BarCamp)
- Business cards
- Flashlights, glow sticks
Organizers
Hosts
Sponsors
Needs (prioritized)
- (1) PA system with speakers
- (4) projector screens (the bigger, the better)
- (4) audio recorders for podcasting
- power strips and extension cords
- anyone have a digital camcorder and video editing skills?
- network printer + paper(?)
- dry erase boards
wireless routerswireless repeaters to boost open public signal throughout library
Organizers
Volunteers
Campers
We are limited to 100 people attending this event, so please only signup if you can make both Friday and Saturday
(please add yourself along with your email/website to the bottom of this list)
(FORMAT: name+email {t-shirt size} website - comments)
- Steve Stedman {L} http://betech.virginia.edu
Regrets
(can't make it, but will be there in spirit)
Schedule
Schedule (proposed)
Friday
| 5:00-7:00 | Happy Hour / BeBQ Dinner |
| 7:00-7:30 | Everyone gather for brief (3-word or haiku!) intros |
| 7:30-8:30 | Organize the evening and next day on whiteboard / drink / eat / beMerry |
| 8:30-9:30 | Blacklight and Collex presentation/conversation/demos |
| 9:30-??? | Live music by The Indeterminants (The Finest in Appalachian Surf!); (Jamie?)? Gaming? (Settlers of Catan? Mafia?) |
Saturday
| 9:00-9:30 | Breakfast and Opening talk |
| 9:30-10:20 | Session pitches, choose, organize sessions |
| ROOM-> | BIG | FIREPLACE | GARDEN | BAR |
| 10:30-11:20 | Ruby on Rails | Managing CSS/JS on Large Sites | Indi Game Development | Functional vs. Procedural Languages |
| 11:30-12:20 | Amazon Web Svcs., Facebook Platform, REST/APIs | How We Understand What to Build | JS Library Smackdown | Subversion Release Mgmt |
| 12:30-1:50 | Lunch - Future of C'ville Tech Community |
| 2:00-2:50 | cont. | Animation | Flex/Action Script | Reputation on the Net |
| 3:00-3:50 | Scaling Rails | Web Standards/Accessibility | SMS Gateways | Agile Methods... |
| 4:00-4:50 | JRuby | How to Screen Scrape | Google Maps/Earth API | CSS Ninja |
| 5:00-5:50 | Building Online Community | Grails | Web Design fr the Design Challenged | What's after Ajax |
| 6:00-6:30 | Wrap-up + Clean Up |
Topics I'd Like to Hear About
Proposed Sessions
Whiteboard Suggestions at beCamp
Coverage
Media Coverage
beCamp is newsworthy. The following media organizations may be interested, if they only knew. If you have connections, let them know about us. (please add more if we missed)
Blog Coverage
If you're blogging about beCamp, add your blog below:
Friday Night Diversions
- Chef Ted's is a big place, feel free to bring your Nintendo Wii or other fun toy!
- Thinking about doing a "mini science fair".. Last year we had examples of a mini mill in action, anything you want to show.. Robot cars, MythTV etc...
