BrainJams blogs

Barcamp Baltics and CIS in Riga 2008

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:38:33 -0800

Barcamp Baltics and CIS in Riga 2008 - Barcamp Baltics 2008 promises to be the biggest ever unconference of bloggers from post-Soviet space in Riga, Feb 8-10 2008. We expect more than 400 people from ALL former Soviet republics (we managed to get some travel funding from Open Society Institute so we’d even be getting people from Central Asia to show up!). There are a few things that are unique to Barcamp Baltics model. First, we’ll experiment with funding the best commercial and non-commercial proposals for new projects from participants (something we dubbed “Innovation Incubator”). The point here is to facilitate cross-border collaborative projects between, say, bloggers in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Second, we’ve built a social network for the event (network.barcamp.lv) - and while there are two full months left till the event, there are already 500 members there! Yet our greatest objective is to get not only people from former Soviet republics, but from all over the world to show up, to make it even more international. The most of presentations to be in English and Russian, like here. [BrainJams: Official Announcements]

Barcamp Baltics and CIS in Riga 2008

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:05:03 -0800

Barcamp Baltics 2008 promises to be the biggest ever unconference of bloggers from post-Soviet space in Riga, Feb 8-10 2008. We expect more than 400 people from ALL former Soviet republics (we managed to get some travel funding from Open Society Institute so we’d even be getting people from Central Asia to show up!).There are a few things that are unique to Barcamp Baltics model. First, we’ll experiment with funding the best commercial and non-commercial proposals for new projects from participants (something we dubbed “Innovation Incubator”). The point here is to facilitate cross-border collaborative projects between, say, bloggers in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Second, we’ve built a social network for the event (network.barcamp.lv) - and while there are two full months left till the event, there are already 500 members there! Yet our greatest objective is to get not only people from former Soviet republics, but from all over the world to show up, to make it even more international. The most of presentations to be in English and Russian, like here.

PodcampWest: Is it a camp or a conference?

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:21:24 -0800

In the beginning, I was very supportive of Podcamp West - we even added a link to it as something we suppoprt on our Web 2point2 Unconference Blog with other sponsors. While I was a bit upset that Vic Podcaster did not keep his promises to us for promoting Web 2point2 and he did not show up at the unconference to podcast as he promised and he did not bring his EVDO wifi router despite his promises to do so, I was really upset when I got an email from Eric Rice yesterday. His email was the first I had heard about being put on a panel with him and Matthew Wayne Selznick. Not only was I not invited to do this, I was never notified that it was happening until I received the urgent email from Eric - if he had not been upset with the panel description and reached out to me, I would never even have known about it. My plan was to attend for part of today (SAT) and then watch Jerry Rice have his number retired tomorrow at Candlestick Park.

Save the date - November 2nd

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:27:09 -0700

Chris and I are headed to Boston and wanted to put a couple of events on your calendar: First stop - support our friends over at SNCR as they hold their Inaugural Research Symposium and Awards Celebration. There are a few seats left for this event and I am told if you register online at http://tinyurl.com/hqmom and use the promo code ‘NCR20′, you will save almost 20%! Then we will join our buddies at Topaz Partners who have offered to co-host the first ‘official’ meeting of Social Media Club Boston on Thursday, November 2nd from 6pm to 8:30pm. We are currently looking for a venue* in downtown Boston (Topaz is located in Woburn), so just put the date on your calendar for now and we will get an update to you shortly.

In the DC area? Get thee to the 'New New Internet' conference

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:53:54 -0700

We like to focus on promoting 'unconference' like events here on the BrainJams community site, but I just learned of The New New Internet which is a traditional conference by trade, is coming to the Washington D.C. area. The cool thing? They added in two great unconference like features along with it; The New New Internet Conference Social Network, and the Web 2.0 Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) Unconference (this actually takes place on September 19th, the day before the conference).More details can be found on their website, but it looks to be a great gathering of minds on the East Coast to network with, and some insightful information being shared about this Web 2,0 thing.

Social Media Club presents: Rent an Expert II

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 19:39:54 -0700

The idea is simple.

Option #1: You have some knowledge. You would like to share that knowledge, so you come to CNET on Tuesday, September 19th and pay it forward. You leave knowing you have done something really nice and you will win the lotto next month. (Ok, so I can't really control that, but I believe in karma so let's think positive shall we?)
Option #2: There is something you have been yearning to learn how to do. You put your name on our website and we see if we can find someone to help you out. You go home. You play with your new mad skills. You come back to the next Rent an Expert event and teach someone else. (Show. Do. Teach.)

BrainJamming with the NCDD

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 12:29:20 -0700

I am a big fan of the 'Show. Do. Teach.' philosophy and this past Thursday we had another opportunity to see it in action when we partnered up with the National Coalition on Deliberation and Dialogue ('NCDD') and held a BrainJams during their annual conference. We had 42 participants with us for the day and ended up being our first event where the non-techies outnumbered the techies in the room (by about 7 to 1). It was fun for me to be a part of as most of the folks in the room are not currently blogging or using the social media tools available today and left the event realizing just how much more they could be doing, and the amount of people they could be reaching if they started utilizing what was currently out there. Seeing that gleam in their eyes got me all warm and fuzzy on the inside. It was a great way to start off the NCDD conference and we are now in discussions to do more BrainJams with the folks at the NCDD, so stay tuned for the details as we hope to be coming to a city/town near you soon! Cheers!

I believe in karma.

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:13:59 -0700

I believe if you help others, good things will come back to you three fold. I believe if you let go of a little, you will gain a lot. I believe karma prevails in all situations. ——— Want to know who is testing karma tonight? Folks sharing bits of what they know at the Rent an Expert event being held at CNET’s offices in San Francisco. That’s who. These lovely people are donating their time and their expertise because they know good things come back around to those who help others succeed. As of this morning, our ‘experts’ have signed up to cover the following topics:

Setting up a Word Press Blog - Chris Heuer, BrainJams
Search Engine Optimization - Lawrence Coburn, RateItAll
The Basics of Creating a Videoblog - Eddie Codel, GETV
Smack’ ‘em (Community Building) - Jonas M Luster, Your Intarweb Going Commando
The Secret to Kick-Ass BBQ - Eugene Eric Kim, Blue Oxen Associates
Innovate to be great! - Cathryn Hrudicka, Creative Sage
Publishing Globally to the Web - Arthur Law, Ion Global
MindMapping with MindJet – Tom Blossom, MindJet
Celestial videos/pictures for blogs, websites and sharing | A handy personal organizer - Rod Seddigh

Have something else you would like to share? Sign up as an expert.

New Media Release Podcast #1

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:47:47 -0700

Chris Heuer and Shel Holtz introduce the weekly New Media Release Podcast (‘NMRCast’) and explain the NMR working group; discussion of microformats and their role in the NMR; where we plan to go from here. You can download the podcast, or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).If you would like to participate in the New Media Release conversations, please join the Google group. Thank you Shel for all of your support!

Rent an Expert Event in 2 Days @ CNet

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 09:18:13 -0700

I am excited and a iittle nervous about the Rent an Expert event this Wednesday July 19th starting at 530pm. It still seems that a lot of other people have expressed interest in coming that are not on the Wiki - I don't know if it is because they don't have the password "yeswecan" or because they don't know how to edit a Wiki or because they are not really coming but are being nice to me :) Whatever, the reason, I will be there along with at least a couple dozen other good folks who want to share their expertise with others so it looks like this will be a very interesting experiment.

A great reason to stop roughing it - WordCamp!

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:59:59 -0700

I was really excited to see that Matt Mullenweng is finally moving forward with plans to host his own unconference for users of his WordPress blogging software, but bummed when I saw the date (August 5) is the same as the National Coalition for Deliberation and Dialogue's annual confeerence. WordCamp should be a lot of fun and I hope to be able to find a couple slots in the schedule for my other conference where I can get over to WordCamp for a few sessions and will of course be able to make the party that night.

I have been fortunate to spend some time talking with Matt recently, and despite my post raving about VOX the other day, I am and will continue to be a loyal WordPress user. At the closing party of Gnomedex, we talked a bit about the power of unconferences to close the feedback loop between user and developer - how it was an authentic way to move product development forward in unexpected ways and how it ultimately leads to better relationships between a company and its customers.

BrainJams Presents: Rent an Expert

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 11:27:41 -0700

With the help and support of Joel Sacks from CNET, the Rent an Expert event is back in full swing and will be taking place on Wednesday, July 19th at the CNET headquarters at 235 Second Street in San Francisco.The format will follow the laws of open space as the 'how to classes*' offered will be determined by the participants. We ask that a small fee (average is $5) be given for each 'how to class' you sign up for, and all the money collected during the evening will be donated to a charity that will be decided by those in the room (majority rules folks).So, if you have something you would like to share or if there is something you are dying to learn, please sign up on the wiki so we can try to match people before the event which should minimize the time needed for setup. We would also like to thank our event sponsors for helping us put this event together, so please give them support where you can:

BrainJams Lessons - Moving Forward with Social Media

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 07:44:56 -0700

Over the past six months we have learned a great deal about unconferences and the more general concept of bringing people together for conversations with their peers. We have experimented with different event formats and continue to innovate with events like our upcoming Rent an Expert on Wenesday July 19. We have affirmed our reasons for striking down the power of the podium and giving it to the people, but also have seen that there is a place for lectures and talks too – conferences can and have learned a lot from unconferences.

Ultimately, we have found that our original premise for BrainJams of connecting people from different communities to share experiences and insights is highly valuable and much needed – but the formats for facilitating these conversations are not the reason for people coming together. People come together to discuss, debate and work on shared passions – like Mashpits, Cyber Salons, Creative Commons Salons, Flickr Meetups, Third Thursday’s, Wiki Wednesday’s and Mobile Mondays. There is a common thread in these events – but it is not “Common Thread 2.0” – it is the intersection of people, technology and media – or social media as it has become popularly known.

Important: Upcoming BrainJams Events!

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:40:49 -0700

There is so much going on lately, it's hard to know where to start. For once, I will take the simplest approach possible - here is a list of some of the cool events we have in the BrainJams future:

Sunday July 2 930am-1230pm: The morning after Gnomedex in Seattle, WA I am helping Shannon Clark from MeshForum to organize a MeshWalk focused on three very important post conference questions we often don't have time to consider: 1) What are your big takeaways from Gnomedex? 2) What are you going to do with it? 3) How can we help each other to make it happen? Meshwalk is a walking conference with some occasional stopping points for engaging with other participants in wider conversations. It is a great chance to exercise your body and your mind (and work off the hangover from the night before!)

~~Thursday~~ Wednesday (oops) July 19 530pm-830pm: Our rescheduled date for the "Rent An Expert" event. Thanks to Joel Sacks from CNet for really stepping up to the plate to obtain approval for us to host the event at CNet's offices in downtown San Francisco (in the same room where I am writing this post from Bloggercon right now). I will be writing more about this over the next week, but please help us get the word out. If you are trying to learn how to do something with Blogs, Podcasts, Vlogs, Wikis, Photography or other forms of social media tools, come on over to our event Wiki and post a request. Likewise if you want to share your expertise. As Howard Rheingold says, "What it is -> is up to us!"

Thursday August 3 930am-500pm: Our next Bay Area BrainJams event! I have been waiting to announce this for way too long - I am so excited about this BrainJam. We are organizing this day long unconference to bring together Bay Area Social Media and Web 2.0 enthusiasts with members of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. This is a great opportunity for our BrainJams folks to talk to real people who are doing really great work for their communities around the world and help them understand what is possible with the new world of easy to use Web tools. This event will be held at the Parc 55 Hotel as a pre-conference workshop for the NCDD Conference. Due to the costs of the hotel and the lunch that will be provided, there is a fee of $50 for this event to cover the costs that the conference organizers are incurring. In deference to our prior free events, the organizers are offering a reduced fee for this BrainJam (other workshops are priced at $75). I also have a few free passes for those who are willing to contribute their expertise and lend a hand with the workshop, so call me or write me an email to discuss.

Bootcamp on Professionally Lighting Photographs

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:48:26 -0700

It is not often that I read something from TechMeme and want to share it with you immediately - especially when I am in the midst of 3 deadline projects - but this is pretty cool and worth a look. The Strobist BootCamp is a public/free educational project for learning how to effectively and professionally light photographs that is being offered on the Blog of the Strobist. This is exactly the sort of thing we are seeking when we talk about dScribes (our program idea for educating and empowering a profession of "Digital Scribes") - it is also exactly what several people at Vloggercon said they wanted to see more of - educational content and projects on Vlogs. (ok, so it is just a blog right now, but it could be a vlog easily enough - but it has the right spirit).