It's Geeky Fun

Checking in from legendary geek-fest Gnomedex. The Raincity Studios squad of Francis Pilon, Kris Krug and I arrived yesterday in time for the kick off party (naturally) and seeing old friends and making new ones.

So many people here doing remarkable projects across many disciplines. But rather than name checking everyone (i'll get to that eventually), this dispatch is to say that RCS' KK kicked off the event with a great preso about making better photos.

The tips were augmented by charming examples from his massive portfolio and he'll likely be busy the rest of the con-fab with his offer of a photoshoot in exchange for tasty links to his Vancouver photography studio.  

His presentation will be posted somewhere sometime soon with a CC license for your sharing goodtimes. Stay aware and i'll be sure to link it up.

UPDATE: Kris Krug "making better photos" presentation

Tool Box - follow along with the fun!

Gnomedex live stream

Gnomedex8 Flickr Group

Gnomedex08 tag on Flickr

Gnomedex Twemes

Facebook Group

Time for Voting!

The crowd-sourcing portion of the panel-selection for SXSW Interactive 2009 (scheduled March 13-17, 2009 in Austin, Texas) is underway.

The SXSW online panel picker is open for voting and commenting and you are invited (indeed encouraged) to sign-up (you know the drill) and vote for your the panels you think are most useful.

You don't have to be an attendee or planning to attend to vote - just be someone who's you know, interested. Questions about all this SXSW panel stuff? Check the SXSW Panel FAQ.

Stepping up

As the risk of shameless promotion, the topics listed here all seek to deliver solid practical skills along with discourse on the fundamental issues and the details.

If you have questions/comments/curiosities about the pitches, please consider leaving a comment on the SXSW panel picker - sure it takes an extra few moments but will help the selected panelists hone their messages if they are indeed picked. Also offering props publicly helps spread the voting goodness.

Do you have an awesome panel in the mix? Drop a comment and let's get the vote out!

Breaking news:

At Noon Pacific, April 21st, online publisher CNET announced the winners in the 2008 Webware awards and open source content management system Drupal wins the Webware 2008 award in the publishing and photography category.

While we don't get too hung up on awards, for Raincity Studios (and our colleagues formerly known as Bryght) and the Drupal community at large, this is a pleasant validation for the hard work and enthusiasm we dedicate to building this open source content management system.

And this is no light weight trophy! Here's what the organizers say about the process:

This weekend is BarCamp Vancouver and I'll be heading up a PhotoWalk on Friday night and a PhotoCamp on Saturday.

Here's some shots from last years late night photowalk at BarCamp.

If you're interested in photography, cameras, or just want to take a walk around east Van with us... it would be great to see lots of you out there. Here's the details. Get in touch with me if you have any questions. :)

PhotoWalk
- signup on FaceBook
- meet at WorkSpace
- 11pm, Friday August 17th

PhotoCamp
- signup on the Wiki
- @ Workspace during BarCamp Vancouver
- TBD, Saturday August 18th