BarCampRDU 2007

I'm pleased to announce BarCampRDU 2007. This one-day unconference will be held August 11, 2007 at the Red Hat headquarters in Raleigh, NC. There is a conflict at RedHat. Working on a new date. The purpose of this message is to act as a "save the date" and solicitation for those interested in sponsoring BarCamp.

About sponsorships:
In just one week, BarCampRDU has fulfilled almost 50% of its sponsorship goals. However, we still have $2600 outstanding that we need pledged. If your company would like to sponsor BarCampRDU, please contact Fred Stutzman at fred@metalab.unc.edu. The minimum sponsorship is $300.

About registration:
Registration for BarCampRDU will be announced far in advance this summer. It will occur on the wiki, just like last year, and it will be first-come-first-served. We'll have a waitlist and we anticipate allowing 150-175 attendees.

Organizers committee:
If you'd like to join the organizing committee of BarCampRDU, please contact Fred Stutzman at fred@metalab.unc.edu. The organizing committee meets periodically and ensures that tasks are completed for BarCamp. Please note, being on the organizing committee is not a nominal position - it requires significant work, so please only volunteer if you can commit to this effort.

I'm very excited to announce this event. With a location and sponsors, we're well on our way to another very successful BarCamp. With the support of the community, organizers, volunteers and sponsors, I'm positive we're going to have a great event.

BarCampRDU in Redhat Magazine

Redhat's Bascha Harris has just posted an excellent article on BarCampRDU to Redhat Magazine.

160 geeks descended on Red Hat headquarters this July for an educational experience--but they entered the event without a schedule, a list of sessions, or an admission fee. Red Hat provided the space. Organizers and participants came bearing routers and other donated items. This was BarCamp, and they were counting on their companions to bring the expertise that would turn this gathering into a conference. Or unconference, as they say.

Grassroots organization isn't just for politics anymore.

The rest can be read here - check it out!

More great BarCampRDU coverage

Jon Hill has produced what I consider a most excellent wrap-up of BarCampRDU for WCHL 1360. You can take a listen here (direct mp3 link). This also nicely follows Rick Smith's wrapup coverage of BarCampRDU on the Tech Wire. I've had a great time reading the coverage of the event; interestingly, BarCampRDU was such a blogosphere phenomenon we actually hit TechMeme this morning. Woot!

BarCampRDU Wrap-Up

(Cross posted from Fred's blog)

This weekend, over 150 geeks of all flavor gathered at Red Hat HQ on NC State's Centennial Campus to have a BarCamp. I'm still recovering, but I think it is safe to say the event was a success, and a great model for future BarCamps in the area. It was just a fantastic, positive experience to bring all sorts of different folks together, from all walks, and to spend the day sharing, collaborating and learning. With help from Paul Jones, here's a roundup of the BarCampRDU coverage.

Media:

• News and Observer: Techies Flock to Red Hat
• WRAL Local Tech Wire: BarCamp, The "Unconference" For Lovers Of Technology, Comes To Triangle
• WRAL Tech Talk: Triangle Techies Heading for a BarCamp
• ZDNet: Live from BarCampRDU
• Fiona Morgan, award-winning reporter from the Independent was also present.
  

Blogs

• Paul Jones: BarCampRDU is great success
• Robbie Allen: BarCampRDU was a success!
• Michael Habib: Notes from BarCampRDU..
• Adam Constabaris: BarCampRDU Wrapup
• Many more at del.icio.us and Technorati

Pics

• Flickr photos tagged with 'barcamprdu'
  

Of course, BarCampRDU wouldn't have happened without its host, sponsors, committee, volunteers and donors. Here's a list of those who helped so generously.

Venue

• Red Hat, and Greg DeKoenigsberg

Sponsors

• Lulu.com
  
• 6th Sense Analytics
• The Aurora Funds
• rPath
• Council for Entrepreneurial Development
• Blogads.com

Donors

• Henry Nguyen - PA
• Larry's Beans, Chuck Messer and the folks at Tackle Design - Coffee
  
• Andy Hunt and the Pragmatic Programmers - Book Donations
• Ryan Cox (coordinator) and Manning Publications - Book Donations
• Ibiblio - Invaluable listservs

Design

• Kelly Marks - Designer of the awesome T-shirts and Banner
• The Merch - Screenprinters of the awesome T-shirts

Organizers

• Paul Jones
• Scott Morningstar
• Robbie Allen
• Ryan Daigle
• Terrell Russell
• Jackson Fox
  

Volunteers

• Lourdes Cueva Chacon
• Wayne Sutton
• Adam Constabaris
• Michael Habib
• Ben Adlard
• Scott Lundgren
• Jerry Waller
• Didier Deshommes
• Katie Jamison
• Erica Tsai
  

Of course, thank you to all of the people who brought routers and power strips, to those who led sessions, to those who helped clean up and leave Red Hat sparkling. Thanks to those who came up to me and introduced themselves and said nice things. Thanks to those who came out and believed that we could pull this off. I hope this list shows that an event like BarCampRDU is only possible with the help of many individuals. This team came together like super bowl champions.

At the beginning of an unconference, it is common to ask for a show of hands to see how many people had attended an unconference before. I did this at the beginning of BarCampRDU, and I'd say about 5% of the room raised their hands. The beauty of the format is that once you do it, you get it - and can see its uses in many different contexts. At the end of the day, many people were talking about doing smaller unconferences, unconferences within their companies, and so on. Of course, there was also a lot of talk about when the next BarCampRDU was going to be. I do believe a hallmark of this event's success will be the fact it lives on. Hopefully, many more will be able to experience triangle-area BarCamps in the future; I have a good feeling this was just the first of many BarCamps will have in the area.

PS - If I've forgotten anyone on my thank you's, please let me know so I can add them to this list. My apologies in advance.

3 days out!

BarCampRDU is only three days away - here's a couple updates on things.

1) I've been gardening the wiki to prepare it for BarCampRDU. Check it out at http://barcamp.org/BarCampRDU.

2) We still need people to bring Wireless routers. If you can bring yours, add your name to the list here: http://barcamp.org/BarCampRDU#ImportantInformation

3) We've got plenty of space left for the party Friday night at Tylers. So come out, mingle, get your badge, and enjoy free food and drinks. Come hungry and thirsty! The event is from 7 to 9PM at Tyler's in Durham (American Tobacco Campus, near the Durham Bulls stadium).

4) The doors for BarCampRDU will open at the ridiculously early time of 8AM. You can come early and avoid lines and make sure we're got your t-shirt size in stock. We'll have breakfast and coffee ready for you, as well.

5) The lunch for BarCampRDU will be from Neomonde Deli. Neomonde is excellent Mediterranean food, so there will be plenty of vegetarian options.

6) Resume Swap is still on. If you're in the market for a job, bring a couple paper copies of your resume. I know a few companies will be looking to talk with candidates at BarCampRDU!

Finally, we've cleared the waiting lists and opened BarCampRDU up to everyone who wanted to attend. We're so happy that you all could make it. Weather looks hot for Saturday but now *as hot* as its been lately. Sunday's high is 81, holy cow!

BarCampRDU Info

Only a few more days till BarCamp! Here's some stuff you need to know.

• BarCampRDU doors will open at 8AM on Saturday. Get here early to avoid the rush.
• We need people to bring WAPs. Can you bring yours? If so, configure i to broadcast "BarCampRDU" as the SSID. You'll just plug it in the wall on the day of. Label your WAP.
• We need people to bring power strips AND extension cords. Bring one and share alike. Label your cords and power strips.
• BarCamp confirmed attendance is at almost 120, and we've got a few spots left for the pre-event. If you haven't confirmed, do it now as you'll lose your spot on Thursday!
• BarCamp will end around 6, rather than 5:30. This is so we can accomodate 4 afternoon time slots.

Tackle Design Donates Coffee Equipment

I wanted to take a second and send a big thanks to Chuck Messer and the team from Tackle Design for providing the BarCampRDU coffee equipment. Chuck actually deserves dual kudos, because he secured our worth-its-weight-in-gold beans donation by Larry's Beans!

A BarCamp without coffee is a particularly frightening thought. Besides the general chaos and revolt that would take place, we wouldn't get anything done. Chuck and his team have kindly solved this problem for us!

T-Shirts are here!

Closing in on a week!

In a little over a week we'll be meeting at BarCampRDU! I'm quite excited and I hope you are too. Over the course of the next week you'll get a few more informational emails that will prove useful if you're attending BarCampRDU.

Today, the barcamp.org site went down for most of the day, so we'll extend the signup deadline by a day. As right now, we're at 88 confirmed attendees. We expected some attrition, but - if you know someone who has signed up that hasn't confirmed, please ping him or her.

Some other things to plan for - we'll need people to bring the following things to BarCampRDU:

• Power strips - If you're coming to BarCampRDU, bring a power strip! We're going to need lots of power at the event.
• Wireless Access Points - Yes, BarCampRDU needs connectivity. Bring your WAP from home, and you can just plug it into the wall at RedHat. We're really going to need people to bring these - a conference like BarCamp uses tons of bandwidth, so the more WAP's, the better. I'll send more info on this as we get close to the event.
• Projectors - We will need a few people to bring projectors. We can wrangle a few up from RedHat, but we need a few people to volunteer.

Today, we picked up the BarCampRDU T-shirts and they are awesome!!!! Thanks to Kelly Marks for donating her time and patience!

Important: Two-Week Confirmation, Pre-Event Signup

Hello BarCampers!

In just a few days, it will be two weeks until BarCampRDU! Very exciting.

We've got a very long waiting list for BarCamp, and I'd like to accommodate as many of these folks as possible. To do this, I've got to have a good count on how many people are coming to BarCamp.

The task is simple - if you are a registered BarCamper, I will need you to add your name to a list of "confirmed attendees". This has been a requirement since we started taking names on the wiki, so no groaning.

There are a few rules:

1. If you are in the list of 150, you need to add your name to the confirmed list. Please don't remove your name from the list of 150 on the front page, you just need to add it to the confirmed list. If you are not in the 150, you may not add your name to the confirmed list.
2. You have until 5PM on Tuesday, July 18th to do this. If your name isn't on the confirmed list at this time, you will lose your spot and someone from the waiting list will get it.
3. When you add your name to the confirmed list, we will use your spelling and formatting on the badges. You may also include your company affiliation if you would like this printed on the badges.
4. Work together. If your friend is signed up for BarCamp and hasn't put their name on the list, send them an email and remind them. We don't want people to lose their spots just because they didn't read this post.

And finally, to make the deal a little sweeter, this officially marks the beginning of signup for the BarCampRDU pre-event. The pre-event will be held at Tyler's Taproom in Durham on Friday, July 21 from 7-9PM. It will feature free food and drinks for all attendees. The pre-event is only for confirmed BarCampRDU attendees, and the event is capped to the first 75 attendees.

Here are the all-important links:
Confirmed Attendees List: http://barcamp.org/BarCampRDUConfirmedAttendees
Pre-Event Signup: http://barcamp.org/BarCampRDUPreEventSignup

So, BarCampers - we're in the final stretch. Just add your name to the confirmed attendee list, and you're all good. I've tried to keep this as simple as possible, so I hope you'll understand. Let me know if you have any questions!

BarCampRDU Chicklet

If you're coming to BarCampRDU (or are just a supporter), and you'd like to show it on your Blog or Website, we've got a chicklet for you! Thanks to Kurt Schlatzer of 6th Sense Analytics for the contribution.

Here's the ckicklet:

You can either upload a copy of this image to your blog (probably recommended), or link through with this code snippet (I had to break the URL into two lines to make it fit on the page, so make sure you fix that when you place on your website).

<a href="http://barcamp.org/BarCampRDU">
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/
3711/177/1600/barcampRDU-chicklet.gif" border="0"></a>

If you create a chicklet, just sent it to me at fred @ metalab.unc.edu and I'll add it to this page!

Donations Make the World Go Round

Even though we're all sponsored up at BarCampRDU, that doesn't mean we can't have some great companies come in and help make BarCamp a better event. One of the things I've been pacing back and forth trying to figure out is the BarCamp coffee situation. Listen, I know you've been to those conferences where the coffee is out of the Folger's canister, all watery - and c'mon, nobody likes that.

This morning, Larry's beans of Raleigh stepped up and volunteered to donate all the beans we need for BarCampRDU! Larry's is a great roaster that is absolutely dedicated to Fair Trade - jiving very well with the BarCamp mentality. Larry's has got lots of great beans to choose from, and you can find their coffee all over the states. We're really excited to be drinking their Java at BarCamp (hey, and if they want to lead a BarCamp session on roasting beans, I'm sure that more than just a few geeks would turn out for it). Oh yeah, check out the Veggie Bus while you are at it.

Next, I'm really happy to announce that two publishers that really need no introduction, Manning Publications and The Pragmatic Programmers, will be donating a bunch of books to be given away at BarCampRDU. Talk about two top-notch publishers. I'm not sure if we'll just give the books away or make them door prizes of sorts, we'll have to figure that out. As I envision people will be stampeding to get free books by these excellent publishers, maybe I'll figure out some trivia or something.

Thanks to these three excellent companies for their wonderful donations to BarCamp.

Lulu.com to Sponsor BarCampRDU

Lulu, the pioneering RTP-based on-demand self-publisher has generously stepped forward to sponsor BarCampRDU. This is an exciting moment because it means we've actually hit all of our sponsorship goals! Thank you to Lulu for helping to make BarCampRDU a great experience. Our thanks to Lulu goes above and beyond its sponsorship - as many Lulu employees have stepped up to help organize and volunteer at BarCampRDU.

According to their website, Lulu is "the web's premier independent publishing marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. It's the only place on the web where you can publish, sell and buy any and all things digital - books, music, comics, photographs, movies and well, you get the idea. We simply provide the tools that leave control of content in the hands of the people who created the content."

As a graduate student in UNC's SILS program, we often call Lulu "SILS East" because they keep hring our best grads. That, combined with the absolute top-notch products they create (you should see the quality of the graphic novels they create - stunning), makes Lulu one of my favorite local companies - and the type of innovator we think fits perfectly at BarCampRDU. Lulu's sponsorship completes fundraising for BarCampRDU - which means the pre-BarCampRDU social event on the night of July 21 is a go (more details about that shortly). Thanks to Lulu, and to all of our sponsors - BarCampRDU wouldn't be as awesome without you.

Blogads Joins as BarCampRDU Sponsor

Blogads, the charming Carrboro-based blog advertising powerhouse, has signed on as a BarCampRDU sponsor! I'm a big fan of Blogads, so I'm really excited to see them on board. Blogads, led by Henry Copeland, will help fund our pre-BarCamp activities - it is looking like we're going to have a pretty fun event (location to be disclosed soon) on the Friday evening before BarCamp.

Here's a little bit about Blogads from their website: "Bloggers are the ultimate intellectual entrepreneurs and blogs are where opinions get made these days. Blogs are among the few intimate, authentic spaces left on the Internet and, as such, are a uniquely powerful place for advertisers to break through the Internet's gazillion page impression clutter. We think that by banding together, bloggers can articulate, define and get properly compensated for the unique value they deliver to advertisers."

I love their great blogads, and the blogads manifesto is a worthy read (any manifesto that cites Duncan Watts and indirectly cites Jon Kleinberg is right up my alley). I'd like to thanks Blogads - and use this as an invitation to invite other sponsors to come and support the pre-BarCampRDU festivities. We're looking forward to a weekend built around sharing and collaboration - what better way to kick that off than with a social hour?

Council for Entrepreneurial Development sponsors BarCampRDU

More great news from BarCampRDU! The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, a leading RTP-based foundation of entrepreneurship will help sponsor some of our pre- and post- BarCamp social events. As you probably saw yesterday, we fulfilled our actual BarCampRDU sponsorship goals - so now we are branching out and including some social events to extend the conversation.

I know that a lot of us already know CED - but here's a little bit about them from their site: "The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is a private, non-profit organization formed in 1984 to identify, enable and promote high growth, high impact entrepreneurial companies and to accelerate the entrepreneurial culture of the Research Triangle and North Carolina. With more than 4,000 active members representing over 1,100 companies, CED is the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation." The CED blog is here.

I know a lot of folks coming out to BarCampRDU are entrepreneurs - Web 2.0 has inspired many of us to start forming world-changing ventures. Hopefully I can convince some of the CED folks to plan a session or two - I know many of us could benefit from their guidance.

Now, a note about pre- and post-BarCampRDU sessions. These sessions will be an excellent opportunity for companies who didn't get a chance to fund BarCampRDU to join as a sponsor. You'll be listed as an official sponsor, your logos will be on the T-shirts and signage, and you'll get all the good karma from bringing BarCampers together over great food and drinks. If you're interested, drop me a line at fred @ metalab.unc.edu, and I'll explain everything.

The Aurora Funds to Sponsor BarCampRDU

The Aurora Funds has generously agreed to sponsor Breakfast, Snacks, Refreshments and Materials at BarCampRDU. I'm incredibly pleased that Aurora, the RTP-based venture fund behind well-known companies such as Accipiter, Blackboard and InPhonic (among many others), and the host of the RTP 2.0 Working Group, will be represented at BarCampRDU. The spirit of entrepreneurship is very much alive in the Triangle - Aurora's sponsorship reaffirms this.

A little about Aurora from their website: "The Aurora Funds is a venture capital firm that provides capital, connections and strategic guidance to entrepreneurs with early-stage healthcare and information technology companies. Founded in 1994, Aurora manages over $200 million in five venture funds. The firm's six investment professionals have over 100 years of combined venture capital investing and operational experience. The Aurora team has managed investments in over 60 companies, resulting in five IPOs and eight M&A transactions to date."

The BarCampRDU organizing committee will meet soon and we'll discuss what we'll be doing for breakfast, snacks and materials - you can watch our progress on the wiki. Thank you to Aurora for their generous sponsorship. Their sponsorship keep us fed, refreshed and ready to create and collaborate.

rPath to Sponsor BarCampRDU

Great news! rPath, of Raleigh, has stepped up and sponsored our delicious BarCampRDU lunch session. I'm really excited that rPath is coming out; rPath is the brainchild of Erik Troan and Billy Marshall - you know these folks are doing really interesting things. Now, the organizing committee hasn't yet even begun to discuss who is going to cater our delicious lunch - but you can certainly start debating it on the BarCampRDU Wiki.

I'm really excited that rPath has sponsored BarCampRDU. As a long-time linux guy, I'm pretty blown away by their product - here is their description: "rPath provides rBuilder and rPath Linux, the first platform for creating and maintaining software appliances. Software appliances bring the simplicity and value of Software as a Service (SaaS) to on-premise application deployments. Using rBuilder, application providers can migrate to a high-value, software subscription model while reducing their development and QA costs."

rPath will be well-represented at BarCampRDU, so we'll get a good chance to see rBuilder and talk to the brains behind it. I can't tell you how pleased I am that we've got such cool, generous sponsors. Their generosity will help make BarCampRDU the special event it is going to be, and we owe them sincere thanks.

Call for Organizers and Volunteers

I'm amazed to report that BarCampRDU just added its 150th camper - which means we're full. Incredible - considering we only started this process on May 25th. Thanks to everyone who spread the word about BarCampRDU.

At this time, I'd like to formally issue the call for Organizers and Volunteers. Basically, I'm setting up two different levels of commitment, depending on how much time you have.

Organizers will be responsible for the actual logistics of BarCamp. Organizers will work with me setting up catering, getting refreshments, making nametags, herding our lovely sponsors, spec'ing out the site and thinking about and planning for every possible contingency. It won't be a huge time commitment, but it will take effort. You'll be expected to come to a few meetings, you'll brainstorm tasks, and you'll be expected to carry them out. If you think this is up your alley - let me know. *Please only volunteer to be an organizer if you have time.* I'll need 5 folks to step up to this role.

Volunteers will be our day-of folks. They will man the tables, help set up and tear down, help with the catering, help with computer trouble, guide lost BarCampers, moderate the product demo sessions, and generally be the people that make BarCamp run smoothly and effortlessly. This is less of a time commitment, but these positions are absolutely key. And don't worry - being a volunteer won't completely eat up your day - you'll definitely be able to enjoy a big part of BarCamp. I'll need 10 folks to be the BarCamp volunteers.

If you're interested in stepping up and being a BarCampRDU organizer or volunteer, just drop me a line at fred at metalab.unc.edu

BarCampRDU Almost Full!

As I write this, we've got ten slots left at BarCampRDU. The power of the blogosphere never ceases to amaze - just a few days ago we had ten attendees.

As a result, I've added a waiting list to BarCampRDU. Once we hit 150 signups, folks who want to attend BarCampRDU should start adding their names to the waiting list. It is a simple fact that not everyone who has claimed the first 150 spots will be able to come - family, the beach, travel, or just the desire to sleep in on a Saturday will claim some attendees. So don't worry - just add your name to the waiting list and we'll sort it out. The one thing I request is you respect the order of the waitlist queue - I want to be fair to folks.

I should also note that our sponsors need not worry about being shut out of the event. We'll be reserving spaces for our sponsors to show our appreciation for their amazing generosity.

6th Sense Analytics to Sponsor BarCampRDU

I'm very pleased to report that 6th Sense Analytics has signed on as the first official sponsor of BarCampRDU! 6th Sense, Located in the Research Triangle Park, has generously offered to sponsor our awesome BarCampRDU t-shirts. The BarCampRDU shirts, free for all attendees, which will feature a logo designed by Chris Messina, one of the creators of BarCamp.

Here's a little about 6th Sense: 6th Sense Analytics is the first and only on-demand solution to enable software development professionals to quantify their activities in real time. While every other aspect of business has the ability to quantify its activities, until now software development (and other engineering development areas) are devoid of any metrics to drive decision-making. 6th Sense’s unique solution integrates with leading development tools to observe and measure the activities being conducted and resulting artifacts.

A cool company with a cool product, I'm incredibly grateful to 6th Sense for stepping up with this generous sponsorship. If you'd like to find out more about 6th Sense, cruise over to their website. On behalf of all BarCampers, I'd like to personally thank 6th Sense for helping to make BarCamp awesome.