Wordcamp Ottawa 2013

Ottawa is having their very first WordCamp. This is a great event on April 27th 2013. Check out their website for further details.

They are planning 3 tracks of presentations,

“Content Creators” with presentations that will help users that create content in WordPress sites.
“Site Creators” with content for those who are more experienced users, but not necessarily designers or developers.
“Code Creators” will include presentations for designers or developers about site set-up, theme design, plugin development, best practices for development, and more.

This is open to anyone interested in WordPress. You do have to register to ensure a spot.

WTF is Idea Camp?

You’ll never become a success if you execute a stupid idea  (except for the slapchop/shamwow guy … though he got arrested for punching a prostitute who bit his tongue and wouldn’t let go so perhaps success is debatable. I could make a "like my nuts?" joke, but I won’t)

Ideas are important and frankly I’m sick of hearing people deride them. You need good ideas to build  successful companies.

So with that, I have an  idea for you. If you were at the last democamp, you know I pitched the concept of idea camp.

We all have a pile of ideas locked away don’t we? I bet there’s gold in them hills and it is time to let others pan the river of ideas.

Ideas launch other ideas and amazing things can happen . Sad to lock them away, especially if it could spark something in another individual who is actually in a position to execute your idea.

I have no time. I just don’t. Between running favequest, isfan solutions and some music and art side projects, work with charities + three busy kids, I’m doing everything I can. Got no more to give.

My Vision for Idea Camp

My vision for this different from democamp or teamcamp. It consists of sessions where people pitch their ideas and keep a record of them on a site for anyone to check out. No NDA, no frieNDAs … Just free, no strings attached sharing. Any visitor or community member can visit, comment and run with any idea. He or she may choose to indicate that they are going to build a prototype and invite others to join. Perhaps people could vote ideas up and down digg style. Maybe it eventually includes a funding mechanism like kickstarter. Who knows.

Who is going to Step Up? Maybe you!

I’m giving this idea away and hoping some eager soul will pick it up and run with it.  Perhaps someone that is looking to make a difference and a name for himself or herself pick.

Why would you take this on? First, imagine if this spawned some amazing new companies. How cool would it be that you made that happen! It will allow your own reputation, experience and network to grow beyond what you can imagine. What if you crack the formula and it gets mimicked around the world and you get the cred.

Anything is possible. The key is to start. I’m happy to do consult and brainstorm but that’s it. This your baby.

So, who is going to lead the charge. Ping me at Allan.isfan@gmail or attend the next demo camp and we can chat.

It’s time for another DemoCamp

Seriously… isn’t it though?

It’s time to show off what the peeps in Ottawa have been working on!  We’re going to try something different this time and host it at the Mercury Grove / Network Hippo office which may include a lot more standing room, BUT will also include some (free) beer and (hopefully) a post-democamp meetup / party that will enable us all to connect better and figure out ways to work together.

Here are the details:

• WHEN: November 4th, 2010, 6PM
• WHERE: Mercury Grove / Network Hippo HQ (738A Bank St)
• SIGNUP (limited): http://guestlistapp.com/events/34239

For more information, and to signup to pitch, check out the official DemoCamp website.

Seriously, you should really come out to this event to see some cool new tech in Ottawa, meet some awesome people, and have a few pints…

August Events @ theCodeFactory

Technology Innovation Management -& OS Ecosystem
Date:     August 14, 2008
Time:     6pm to 8pm.
Location: Common Area at TheCodeFactory
Sign Up:  http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/TIMCamp please sign up if you would like to attend

Description:
TheCodeFactory and Ontario’s Talent First Network agreed to support 10 qualified applicants to attend Carleton University’s Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program. Assistantships and scholarships which cover tuition costs in-full or in-part will be made available to selected applicants. In addition,  support to establish new businesses will be provided.

If you are a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant who has an Engineering degree or Bachelor of Computer Science with a minimum grade of B+ and 2 yrs industry experience. This event will be of interest to you. Tony Bailetti, will provide a presentation on the open source ecosystem with networking before and after.

The OCLUG   (Ottawa Canada Linux Users Group) meeting
Date:       August 21, 2008
Time:       6pm to 8pm.
Location:   Common Area at TheCodeFactory
More Info:  http://oclug.on.ca/
 

OSBOOTCAMP – YOW8 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Date:       August 28, 2008
Time:       6pm to 9pm.
Location:   Common Area at TheCodeFactory
Theme: Interpreted programming languages
Talks: Perl, Python, and Bourne shell programming.
More Info:  http://www.osbootcamp.org/
 
I wanted to thank Scott Lake and the Start-up Ottawa blog team for the opportunity to post, much appreciated.

September Events schedule coming in late August.

DemoCampOttawa9 on Monday!

One of Ottawa’s best Tech Events, DemoCampOttawa9, is being held on Monday!

For anyone who doesn’t know about DemoCamp, it is a very unique Tech Event where Ottawa Technology enthusiasts come together to present the latest projects that they have been working on. The event is usually held in a bar so there is always access to food and drinks.

If you are curious about Technology, involved in the Tech or Startup Community, this is the event to attend. Make sure to sign up here.

Our MC will be none other than Alec Saunders…

The 5 presentations that we will see are as follows:

Here are the details for the event:

When:     Monday, May 26, 2008 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Where:     The Velvet Room – 62 1/2 York Street – Ottawa, ON K1N 1T5 Canada

Ottawa Start-up Weekend…WTF?

Last weekend thirty-six people got together and built a commercially viable software application at Ottawa’s Start-up Weekend.

It was open to anyone, they self-organized, democratically (I presume) selected a market and product, and then developed a business plan, a bunch of code, a go to market plan – even the legal framework for the software.

And they did it for fun. And, potentially, for money.

I have to admit, I think it’s all very odd.

It sounds like a mashup between an Ultimate Frisbee team and the cast of The Boiler Room.

In my cynical way I would imagine that this kind of project would be a real flop, except I know many of the people who participated in the project – and they know how to move things forward: Aydin Mirzaee, who launches a new application EVERY weekend, Mark Stephenson who is an awesome designer and innovator, Ian Graham who has launched the Code Factory – an innovative new co-working space…

So what’s the deal?  Is this just a modern hippie/geek phenomenon?  Was it really fun?  Could it actually be profitable?

Odd, but kind of cool.  I’m interested to hear more from the participants on the event.

BarCamp Canada

BarCamp Canada has been announced! It will be on November 3rd in Montreal, and I expect it will be an awesome event. Check out the details and signup here.

Peter Childs: Where do we go from here…

Peter Childs has a great post on Petesview entitled “OttawaCamps – Where From Here”. Essentially Peter is asking the big question: Now that we have an active community, how can we use this to address the issues that impede starting a tech company in Ottawa? This is a great question. I think that we are at a point where we as a community should start thinking about the answer. If you’re passionate about OttawaCamps, go check out the post and let Peter know what you think.