If you presented at BarCamp in Saskatoon this year, please share your slides/notes/resources on the ning.

This will help those who didn’t get a chance to see you in action understand more about your topic.

Thanks all!

BarCamp Saskatoon is just one of the events happening across Canada tomorrow in celebration of our inaugural National Digital Media Day.

From Charlottetown to Vancouver, Canadian digital media types will be getting together to participate in everything from Kissing Flash Mobs to Demo Camps to parties.

Visit I Refresh for Content to find out more.

Just two weeks until BarCamp!

As of today, 80 people have signed up. It’s great that a lot of people want to listen… but only six want to talk?

So… (gentle nudge) don’t be shy, if you’ve got something to say, we (obviously) want to hear, please sign up on the “Session Topics” page of the wiki (http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/BarCampBarCampSaskatoon08sessiontopics).

Don’t forget you can follow BarCamp Saskatoon on Twitter @barcampstoon (http://twitter.com/barcampstoon) and if you have a profile on LinkedIn you can join the BarCamp Saskatoon group (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=831457).

BarCampSaskatoon08 will happen Thursday September 25th, 2008 at The Cellar. The Cellar is an ambient and very cool conference room in the basement of the Senator Hotel (243 21st Street East). There are three small conference rooms (one holds about 35 people and the others about 25 people), a learning lounge, pool table room and “beverage station.” Internet access is available and has been upgraded from last year. Projectors will be donated. Bring your gadgets: laptop, mobile, camera, laser pointer, whatever.

BarCampSaskatoon08 is part of National Digital Media Day. BarCamps will take place for 24 hours across the whole country and around the world. We will be able to see sessions from other locations and broadcast ours via uStream.tv.

Winston’s will serve us food and drinks, we will work toward getting dedicated service.

You must sign up here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/139885401 to attend the event! Visit the BarCampSaskatoon08 wiki to sign up to speak, volunteer or sponsor the event. This year we will use http://barcampsaskatoon.ning.com/ as the central site for communication. Be sure to participate and check in often for updates.

Registration/Set-up at 3:00 pm, sessions start at 4:00 pm.

Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Coach, Pete Quily to present on The Attention Surplus Condition in Technology.

Pete Quily, ADD coach will present to the BarCampSaskatoon2007 audience via iChat from Vancouver.

Pete is going to focus on the advantages of ADD in a high tech career, signs you may have ADD and advice for seeking diagnosis.

Check out Pete’s blog post on “Top 10 Advantages of ADD in a High Tech Career” , and note the comments to the post, very interesting. 

BarCampSaskatoon2007 takes place this Saturday at the Cellar

BarCampSaskatoon2007 is set for this Saturday, September 29, at the Cellar below Winston’s Pub. There are over 80 delegates registered so far, which is over twice as many as last year. There is still room for a few more, so register soon.

If you are wondering what kinds of topics will be presented, see below for a list of proposed sessions.  Of course, there will be other sessions added the morning of BarCampSaskatoon2007, but this gives you a good idea of what you can expect.

• Women in technology: rewards and challenges
• Streaming audio and video: options, tutorials and demos
• Open source licensing: overview and issues
• Pitch and play: open floor to present your new idea or web sites
• Active Learning in Web 2.0
• From Web 1.0 -> Web 2.0: Experiences with Web Services and Flex
• Expanding Learning Communities Using Free/Open and Web 2.0 Collaborative Tools
• Old-time apprenticeship meets 21st Century technology: industrial training in Saskatchewan.
• Open Source CMS demo -Joomla!, and/or IT Security
• Moving web scripts to an Object Oriented paradigm
• Web standards: how you can use Semantic Markup and CSS to get the thrill of the box model. (And why tables are not always bad!)
• iPhone: unlocking and developing
• Actionscript-based animation methods in Flash
• Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Coach from Vancouver BC, will present iChat on The Attention Surplus Condition in Technology.
• When Convergence Collides: discussion around the conflicting needs/motives of all the players in a converged ecosystem
• Biomimetic Computing: neural networks for machine learning, genetic algorithms for optimization, and velcro for keeping your pants up.

Heather Ross, who is presenting at this year’s BarCamp, set up a Ning community for BarCampSaskatoon2007.

This site allows people to upload photos, write and discuss sessions in real time, ask questions and network with other people at BarCampSaskatoon.

This site will get a lot of action during BarCampSaskatoon, so head over early and sign-up so you can keep up with all of the action.

BarCampSaskatoon can only occur because of our great sponsors. It costs about $2500 to put on BarCampSaskatoon. The costs include room rental, projector rental, t-shirts (the biggest cost), name tags, web hosting and some small office supplies.

A big BarCampSaskatoon shoutout to the following supporters:
EMAP (Educational Media Access & Production), U of S
Horizon
Industry Canada
SaskInteractive
SaskTel
Sharps Audio Visual
SIAST Virtual Campus
SW4
zu.com

These supporters have contributed about $2000.  We’ve also received some in-kind donations.  Our goal has always been to make BarCampSaskatoon accessible to everyone. However, to cover all of the expenses, we are asking that attendees put $5-$7 in the jar to make up the difference, if you can afford it. No pressure, if you want to put in more, great.  If you want to put in less, fine.

Only 11 more days!

The early-bird registration deadline for BarCamp Saskatoon 2007 is on Saturday September 15.  If you haven’t registered yet, you must do so by the 15th in order to get a free t-shirt.

There are less than 25 spots open so make sure you register soon to avoid being put on the waiting list. With almost three weeks to go, all of the spots will likely fill up.  Sign up on the wiki today; if your name isn’t there, you are not on the list.

So far, ten people have signed up to do presentations. Ideally, we would like to have about 20 presentations to choose from, so if you are interested in presenting, head over to the wiki and sign-up.

If you are interested in volunteering, we could still use a few bloggers, a videographer, photographers and the like. Sign up on the wiki.

BarCamp returns to Saskatoon for its second year as BarCampSaskatoon2007 on Saturday, September 29 at The Cellar (in the basement of the Senator Hotel (243 21st Street East).

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. BarCampSaskatoon2007 is open to all who love technology, as a place to talk and to learn.

“Saskatoon is one of about 300 cities in the world to host BarCamps,” said co-organizer Ginger Koolick. “Our city is known world-wide for excellence in interactive technologies such as Facebook applications, mobile phone websites, e-learning and video game development.”

“BarCampSaskatoon2007 will bring together some of the brightest minds to listen, share and learn with others, making our technology industry even stronger.”

“BarCamp does not have a program made in advance,” add co-organizer Ryan Lejbak. “Instead, the first item in the morning is to have all of the participants pick the presentations. That way, the sessions are geared to exactly what the participants want to hear. Sessions could range from mobile development, to marketing a product on the web to ActionScript tips, to instructional design theories… whatever the participants choose.”

Last fall, about 60 people attended the first BarCamp in Saskatoon. This year, over 100 people are expected. The event is free, but in order to attend, you must be willing to present, participate in discussions or volunteer.

“The amazing thing about BarCamp is that everyone is there to help and learn,” said Lejbak. “If you are not willing to participate in some way, you will not be able to attend. Whether you have 20 years or 20 days of experience, your ideas, questions and thoughts are welcome. Everyone is invited to attend.”

BarCampSaskatoon2007 will once again feature live blogging, photosharing and videosharing. Some of the sessions will be streamed live to other BarCamps, occurring at the same time.

For more information and to register, visit the BarCampSaskatoon web site at www.barcampsaskatoon.org or the wiki at barcamp.org/BarCampSaskatoon2007.