BarCamp Memphis

BarCamp Memphis, November 13, 2010

“BarCamp isn’t just a Web 2.0 conference. It’s an unconference.cWhat does that mean, exactly? Well… that’s up to you. The entire event will be crafted by attendees (you), so you can learn about the specific technologies, trends, gadgets you really want to learn about – and hear from the people you find interesting. We’ll be voting first thing in the morning to determine the day’s sessions. Totally crowd-sourced!” (Source)

Register here.

BarCamp Memphis 2010 will be at Emerge Memphis downtown. Located at 516 Tennessee Street in the historic South Main Street district of downtown Memphis, EmergeMemphis sits at the corner of Tennessee and G.E. Patterson (formerly Calhoun) Streets. The site is only two blocks west of the main Memphis train station and adjacent to the main gated entrance to the well-known South Bluffs residential area.

Emerge Memphis
516 Tennessee St
Memphis, TN 38103-4717
View Map

Event Tag: #bcmem

Highlights from BarCamp Memphis

[NOTE: This post will be updated throught the event.]

Here are some of my notes and photos from BarCamp Memphis.

Google Wave: What It Is and What It’s for
By: Greg Dunn and Thom Rigsby

Designer vs. Developer
By: Steven Trotter, Joseph Yancey and Craig McCoy

PowerPoint Karaoke
This is an interesting activity. Here are the rules.

  1. No prior knowledge of slides
  2. Must pretend this is actually your deck
  3. 20 seconds each (4 mins)
  4. Look for the (stop symbol)
  5. Audience encouraged to to heckle
  6. Vote determines winner
  7. Have fun

Prosper during a Digital Age Recession
By: Ryan Hinricher

Show and Tell Tools
By: Everyone

Event Tag: bcmem

Great Opportunity to Learn More: BarCamp Memphis

BarCamp Memphis isn’t just a Web 2.0 conference. It’s an unconference. What does that mean, exactly? That’s up to you. The first half of the day will feature predetermined, scheduled sessions like any other conference you’d attend, but in the afternoon the topic curating is turned over to you. Throughout the morning, you’ll vote on what you’d like to discuss or learn more about in the afternoon sessions so that BarCamp is hand-crafted to meet the needs of the community. The afternoon sessions might be panels or Q-and-A with specific BarCampers, or they might be roundtable discussions — Core Conversations, as we call them — with groups of Campers looking to bounce ideas and learn from others’ experiences.” (Source)

I enjoyed SocialCamp Memphis back in March (Here are the resources from one of my presentations at that event.) and I’m looking forward to BarCamp Memphis. Please come join us.

Event Tag: #bcmem

Schools 2.0

(Repost from 10/07/2008)

Chris Lehman shares some of his ideas about school reform. I challenge you to consider his ideas with an open-mind.

I especially like Chris’ comment that “if you put a good person in a bad system, the system wins too often so we need to change the system.”

Just a Note

I think the structure for presentations at this event is clever. Speakers could use 20 slides with 15 seconds allowed for each slide. I think I’m going to begin using this strategy in several different areas of my work. Maybe we could begin something like this in Memphis! Anyone interested? Seriously, anyone in the greater Memphis are interested in organizing a meetup similar to this?

Learn with Us (IDT7078)

As I mentioned in a recent blog post I’m teaching a seminar this summer focusing on Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies. I concluded the earlier post by sharing the following:

In keeping with the principles of Web 2.0 I encourage the participation of everyone with an interest or expertise in this topic. You may contribute to the discussion and fun by using the following tag/keyword: idt7078. Be on the lookout for ways (Ustream, Skype, Twitter, Plurk, etc.) to informally participate with us. I would certainly consider making it possible for those wishing to enroll in the course and participate from a distance, too.

Greg R. Fishbone replied to my earlier post and asked the following question regarding my concluding statements.

I’d love to participate informally, but how does one follow a keyword?

I think this is a GREAT a question and I suspect Greg is not the only one wondering about this. I’m sharing this information here in hopes of helping Greg and anyone else that may be interested in being part of our learning community this summer.

Google Keyword Search
You can add the following RSS feed to your aggregator (such as Google Reader or Bloglines). New blog posts, wiki entries, bookmarks, videos, podcasts, etc. tagged with idt7078 will then be “delivered” to you as they show up in Google.

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch_feeds?hl=en&q=idt7078&ie=utf-8&num=10&output=rss

An alternative to this strategy would be to setup a Google Alert for idt7078.

Twitter Search
You can also add a keyword search for idt7078 to TweetDeck or similar Twitter platform if you are using one. If not, then you can add the following RSS feed for the Twitter Search of the course tag to your aggregator.

http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=idt7078

Plurk Search
Add idt7078 to your list of Saved Searches in your profile’s dashboard.

The Twitter Global Mind

There was a lot of discussion about Twitter at SocialCamp Memphis this weekend. Non-users weren’t clear as to why they should consider tweeting while twits considered its future impact. I wish I had seen this video prior to all of that great discussion. (HT to John.)

Discussion
I really hadn’t considered the implications of us all using Twitter Search rather than Google to dig through the river of information streaming from all our tweets. Do you think this concerns Google at all?

Web 2.0 Smackdown at SocialCamp Memphis

NOTE: I’m suggesting this as an afternoon session during today’s SocialCamp Memphis. It’s just a suggestion and we’ll see what comes of it. If you like this idea post 1+ of your stickers next to the Web 2.0 Smackdown session on the giant paper outside of Room 1.

—————

SocialCamp MemphisThere are an ever growing number of great Web 2.0 technologies and services these days. Even with RSS subscriptions to TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Feedmyapp, etc. it’s difficult to be aware of all the great stuff that’s out there. However, collectively we are familiar with a large number of useful resources. These kinds of technologies commonly have very low learning curves and can be described and understood in minutes.

I’m suggesting that we take advantage of all the distributed knowledge at Social Camp Memphis and have a gigantic session of speed demos (3 minute show and tells) and learn about some of the best resources out there. Let’s have a Web 2.0 Smackdown!

Are you unfamiliar with a Web 2.0 Smackdown? No worries, most people are. Let me explain…

Rules and Organization

  • Choose your favorite Web 2.0 tool or social technology and be willing to quickly demo it for the group.
  • Each demo is allowed a maximum 3 minutes. Finish in under the time limit or face the Smackdown!
  • Warning: This is fast and violent — Thus the term SMACKDOWN!!!! The goal is to involve as many people as possible and learn about as many new resources as possible.
  • Use the form below to submit your information to be included in the Web 2.0 Smackdown. Note that you will present in the order in which your submission is received.
  • The summary of topics and presenters will be generated on the Smackdown Wiki. You’re encouraged to post notes, resources, media, etc. related to this session there, too.

SocialCamp Memphis Tag: #socialmem

Google Error Compromises Privacy

I’m not screaming that “the sky is falling,” but I do think users need to be strategic about the files/data they choose to put in the “clouds.” This very early morning post from TechCrunch is another cautionary example.

In an apparent privacy error that underscores some of the biggest problems surrounding cloud-based services, we’re hearing that Google has sent a notice to a number of users of its Document and Spreadsheets products stating that it may have inadvertently shared some of their documents with contacts who were never granted access to them.

According to the notice, this sharing was limited to people “with whom you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, had previously shared a document” – a vague statement that sounds like it could add up to quite a few people. The notice states that only text documents and presentations are affected, not spreadsheets, and provides links to each of the user’s documents that may have been affected. (Source)

The full article is available here.