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Barcamp Brussels #4: 10 days to go

Peter — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 15:34:25 +0000

Barcamp Brussels #4 is coming closer: Saturday Dec 1st is 10 days away. Our main sponsor is MSN/Windows Live.

If you’re not already on the attendee list (we’re around 70 now), please hurry, we have to close that list on Monday to fix the right quantities for catering.

Some last remarks:

As usual, we start at 9AM, we stop at 6PM.
Parking is no problem, we can use the mVillage parking that’s empty anyway, since it’s a Saturday.
Who wants to record videos? Out of experience I can only say I cannot do it myself, nor can I make them ready afterwards for Youtube/GVideo. So I need 3-5 people taking care of that.
Anyone doing anything with photography, like the previous time?

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Barcamp Where #4

Peter — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:57:47 +0000

I’m getting a little nervous. Barcamp Brussels is gonna happen on Nov 24th or Dec 1st and I still haven’t found a location. All my options have returned negative. The previous times I never really had a problem with that.

So I’m gonna put the question out there: who knows a nice location for Barcamp Brussels #4? If possible, I would actually like it to be hosted at someone’s offices, since it’s on a Saturday anyway …

In Brussels (not just the center, let’s take Brussel/Halle/Vilvoorde)
I expect around 100 attendees
we need 3-4 presentation rooms of 20-30 persons each
a hall or lounge with seats and coffee would be nice
catering on-site or otherwise a neighbourhood with restaurants at walking distance
available Wifi would be handy – or we can set that up ourselves
preferably easy to reach by public transport, or with sufficient parking
if the location costs more than, say, 2000€, it’s not an option.
I tried a lot of socio-cultural venues (KVS, BSB, DeBuren, BTCCTB …) , but the moment I mention ‘Internet’ they say ‘no’. So I gave up on those.
none of the locations of the previous events

Suggestions welcome via mail or comment!

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Announced: Barcamp Brussels #4

Peter — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:57:52 +0000

It’s almost been 6 months, so here we go for the 4th time: I’m starting the preparations for Barcamp Brussels #4.

The proposed dates are: Nov 24th or Dec 1st. Location: to be defined. Sponsors: to be defined (you know how to reach me). Logo can be found on Flickr.

If you want to attend and/or present: please add your name to http://barcampbrussels.wikispaces.com/BarcampBrussels4.

(via www.barcamp.be )

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The Barcamp video saga: background

Peter — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:30:14 +0000

I’ve had a number of requests from attendees of the Barcamp Brussels 3 event. “The speeches were recorded on Nokia N95 phones, right? How come we haven’t seen them yet on Youtube/Google? What’s taking so long?” Well, here’s the answer.

The reason is purely me. I received the N95 video’s (3DVDs, about 12GB in total) from Fré quite soon after the event. At the time, I was ‘just going to throw them’ on Google Video, maybe with a title image before the movie that included a Barcamp and Nokia logo. How hard would that be, right? Well, slightly harder than I thought. The files were huge, so had to be transcoded to something smaller, there were too many files to do things manually, so I needed to start scripting, and the tools I used for it, ImageMagick and FFMPEG are powerful but tricky. That combined with my tango activities, a holiday, a girlfriend abroad and the non-negligeable fact of having a day-time job made for this delay of over a month. Mea culpa. But the wait is over.

These are the first videos. Feedback on video, sound and other details are welcome! I will then proceed with the conversion of the other ones. I will also do a post on what tricks I used to do the video rendering of the title, the transcoding and the merging of video files.

Jeroen De Cock – “Online communities & offline events”

Will Moffat – “Introduction to Freebase”

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Reinventing the wheel: Twitter backchannel

Peter — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:36:38 +0000

I was chatting a bit with Bart about Barcamp, and I asked the inevitable question: “Should we do something with Twitter?” To which Bart’s answer was: “Maybe, but what?”. Let’s see:

create a “BarcampBrussels” Twitter account, which would serve 2 purposes: 1) be a source of Barcamp organisational info (”Speaker XYZ has to leave early, wants to do his speech before noon, anyone wanna swap?“) and 2) be the ‘glue’ between all Twitterers that are interested in Barcamp: the creation of a BarcampTwitterFriends group, of those who follow that channel.
But the Barcamp Twitter account also gets the updates of all its friends, so wouldn’t that be good info too? Well, you do get *all* updates, so not only the “Barcamp speech about XYZ rocks” but also the “feeding my cat” messages. What if you could create a filter on the aggregated messages? Hey: Yahoo! Pipes can do that! We take the RSS feed with all the Barcamp Twitter friends (twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/[code].rss), pipe it through Yahoo and only use the updates with the word "Barcamp"!
There are some issues with that: people have to remember to prefix each Barcamp-related comment with "Barcamp" (they choose a differente namespace, as it were). That's cumbersome and ugly. Also, the Twitter RSS only lists the 20 last updates, so the filter might easily remove all updates and leave an empty screen. Even worse, it seems the RSS feed is only updated every X minutes (easily 30, from my experience). So it seems we should have to use the Twitter API to create a live-updating feed. Imagine we do that:

Then we refresh it every X seconds, project it on a screen and tada!! ... ladies and gentlemen: the backchannel! We're not the first to think of this, of course.

What's your take: should we do anything with Twitter? Set up a group chat in MSN Messenger or Skype? Or use an classic IRC backchannel? (Who still has an IRC client on his laptop these days?)

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Barcamp Brussels: one month to go

Peter — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:09:04 +0000

In about 30 days, a bunch of Internet entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and geeks will gather at the Halles des Tanneurs in Brussels to share experiences and learn from each other: Barcamp Brussels. This is the 3rd edition of this ‘unconference’ that has proven to be a great place to meet new people and ideas.

Attendees = participants

So what is this ‘unconferencing’ thing about?

A BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. (barcamp.org)

The rules:

Attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one, or otherwise volunteer / contribute in some way to support the event. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall. The people present at the event will select the demos or presentations they want to see. Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

So even if you do not do a presentation, you can still help out. What I am already looking for at this moment is:

1 person to organize the recording of all sessions: he/she will have to make sure there are enough cameras, that there is someone at each presentation to videotape it, and will also make sure all recordings are published on a videohosting site like Youtube.
3-5 persons who will do the actual recording, with their own camera or one that we could borrow. Since there will be three simultaneous tracks, 3 is the minimum, but for security, five would be better.
2 extra projectors (we already have 1)

The topics

What can you talk about?
Well, it the broad sense: Internet, technology and its impact on our lives. That can include topics like: blogging(*), SEO (*), marketing (*), Photoshop (*), hosting (*), mobile (*), virtual reality (*), webdesign (*) … It does not have to be Internet based: e.g. I am planning a presentation on musical mashups.

Wanna join?

If you want to attend:

add your name and topic to the Barcamp Wiki (now almost 50 attendees!)
put it in your agenda: Saturday May 5th!!
start preparing your 25 minute speech/demo/discussion
show up at 9h for coffee and cookies and start to mingle!

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Barcamp Brussels #3: May 5th in the Marolles!

Peter — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:28:11 +0000

It has been decided, the bullet is through the church (*)!
Barcamp Brussels#3 will take place on Saturday May 5th at the Halles Des Tanneurs, the renovated Wine Palace right in the Brussels Marolles!

For those of you who want to participate

add your name to the official Barcamp wiki

Block the date in your agenda (duh!)

Between now and the end of April, add the topic that you will talk about

We will again have the help of Skynet for the organisation. Keep an eye on this blog for more info as the event approaches!

via barcamp.forret.com

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Barcamp Brussels: this Sunday!

Peter — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:31:47 +0000

Five more days to go! Some more tips for those of you who are attending Barcamp Brussels on Sunday:

How to get there

The SAP Lounge is located in the Arsenal complex, an old military building that is now turned into fancy offices. The address is Chaussée de Wavre 950, 1040 Etterbeek. That is on the corner of the Chaussée de Wavre and the Boulevard Général Jacques, right next to the VUB University. There is a parking for SAP Lounge visitors just before the Colruyt at the right.
Here is a map of SAP Lounge.

Sponsoring

Like last time, most things have been paid for (thank you Skynet), but we are still going to need some sponsors for drinks. If you or your company would like to contribute (I will of course mention this kind gesture), please contact me on the day itself.

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Barcamp Brussels is approaching!

Peter — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:31:32 +0000

The day is coming closer: Barcamp Brussels II on Sunday Sept 24th!!

Some concrete info:

breakfast starts at 09H00. The actual speeches start around 10h, and end around 18h.
the event takes place at the SAP Lounge (at Arsenal, next to VUB)
there are 4 simultaneous tracks in separate rooms (20-30 persons each)

DEVELOPERS TRACK

for those who write it

USERS TRACK

for those who use it

KNOWLEDGE TRACK

for those who plan it

MEDIA TRACK

for those who sell it
all presentations should be 10 minutes long (i.e. “Elevator pitch” style). That leaves 5 minutes for Q&A and 5 minutes to swap rooms. 10 minutes is short? Yes it is! The goal is not to show your thorough knowledge of a topic, but to show people what you are doing and if they’re interested, they’ll find you for more info!
all presentations are in English. There will be an international crowd, and a priori the ‘de facto lingua franca’ is ~~Latin~~ English, res ipsa loquitur.

Those who still want to participate:

put your name on the Barcamp Brussels attendee list (we’re already around 70 names!)
put your 10-minute topic on the Barcamp II topics page
prepare your presentation: focus on the important stuff, don’t go
in too much detail and practise iot. 10 minutes is really short, and
you will be stopped when your time is up, so that we can keep the four
simultaneous tracks synchronized.
show up and have fun

(from barcamp.forret.com)

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On the origin of speeches

Peter — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 11:44:40 +0000

If you were wondering why I posted so little this week: I was collecting presentations, sorting through pictures (Flickr and Lifeblogger) and movies (Google video and Dailymotion) and posting the reviews of the Barcamp topics. The collection is still not complete (let’s say that I’m at 70%), but I’m still waiting on feedback from some of the speakers/podcasters.

Here they are:
Barcamp Brussels speeches

I have video footage for a dozen presentations (thx to Maarten!), Powerpoint or PDF presentations for over 50%, and in the worst case only some pictures. At least there is proof that the speaker was really there. I’m still waiting for video’s from Bert (Netlash) and audio interviews from Alice and Irene.

And then: start preparing the next Barcamp Brussels!

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Barcamp Brussels: 10 days to go!

Peter — Tue, 09 May 2006 16:20:23 +0000

Saturday 20 May

Like M.A.R.R.S. said: “Countdown is progressive“. Ten days from now we’ll be frantically preparing the International Press Center for Barcamp Brussels. This is the progress report:

We have found some very helpful sponsors (including Skynet) to help us with catering and equipment.
Everything will be recorded and made available afterwards. Ine will be coordinating the audio/video podcast efforts.
We have just jumped above 40 attendees on the Barcamp attendee list. Fifty would be an even nicer number. If you still know other people that could be interested to attend, just ask them! (more details on the concept here!)

Checklist

If you want to attend, this is what you should do:

add your name to the attendee list
add your topic/speech/demo to the topic list
prepare your topic (Powerpoint, web demo, panel discussion)
show up on Saturday May 20th!

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Barcamp Brussels: May 20 2006

Peter — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 12:03:20 +0000

So there it is: after some feedback on my Barcamp announcement post, we fixed the date and location for Barcamp Brussels!

DETAILS

Saturday May 20th 2006 (breakfast at 9am, presentations start at 10h and end around 18h)
International Presscenter (Résidence Palace)

(although: dress code casual – no suits )
All presentations can be put on the presentation board upon arrival. There will be 3 to 4 presentation rooms for simultaneous topics.
there will be free Wifi, food, drinks and lots of hi-tech around.

One remark: although this might seem to be a geek-event par excellence, this is not for-geeks-only. There will be technical presentations, granted, but we also expect interesting talks about social, psychological and esthetic topics. You do not need programming skills or an engineering degree, just a vivid interest in modern society. You’re interested in the etymology of smilies, the effect of gaming on ADHD, the psychological implications of serif and sans-serif fonts? There’s a topic for your presentation!

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

All attendees must give a demo, a session, or help out in some way.
Add your name to the list on barcamp.org/BarCampBrusselsForTheImpatient
you can add the following badge to your blog/site/emails:

everyone is invited to participate and the more the merrier.
subscribe to the Barcamp Brussels Yahoo group to keep posted on developments and connect with other Barcampers (to prepare a joint presentation/demo or to arrange for car pooling)

Everyone who wants to help out for the practical organisation (mostly the week before) can drop me a line or tell me through the Yahoo group. I already want to thank Bart for helping us out with the venue and hope we can welcome a whole bunch of you on May 20th!

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