Date: October 19th 2009 6pm to 9pm
Location: Clocktower Brew Pub (downstairs), 575 Bank St (http://bank.clocktower.ca)

To sign up for the event please register at http://democampottawa12.eventbrite.com

For Event information and Demo sign up see http://barcamp.org/DemoCampOttawa12

At this point it looks like the demo slots are full. If you didn’t get on the list this time watch out for announcements about the next DemoCamp and get your name on the list early. Also put yourself down on the wait list as someone could drop out.

For this DemoCamp we’re mixing it up a bit and opening up the opportunity for anyone to be the MC. To put your name in the hat head on over to StartupOttawa and submit your name along with a line or two about why you would like to be the MC. Closer to the date a poll will go up letting the community vote.

Demos at this point are goint to be from Betidings, Twegather from TeamCamp, Squirrel (A model airplane powered by an elastic band that can fly hundreds of feet, can’t wait for this one), BattleTwip from 76design and Shiny Ads making the trip from Toronto. Looks like it’s going to be awesome.

For some additional reading be sure to check out Rob’s post

I moved back to Ottawa from Halifax in the summer of 2005 and I was instantly captivated by how vibrant Ottawa’s grass roots tech community is. While living in Halifax I was always on the lookout out for the new media design and tech scene but it just wasn’t there yet, awesome art scene though. Since my move back to Ottawa I’ve seen the community grow, smaller more specialized groups form from larger ones and co-working facilities like the CodeFactory come about. Ottawa continues to become a more and more exciting place to work and play, my struggle now, what events to attend.

Here is a list of some of the events I’ve had the pleasure to attend in Ottawa , I’m sure there are a lot more and I’ll update the list as I discover them.

Web Development and User Experience

Agile Ottawa Group
Web site: http://agileottawa.wordpress.com
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86747383253&ref=nf
Linked in group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1981258&trk=hb_side_g

Agile Ottawa group meets every 4th Tuesday of the month at The Code Factory, with the exception of July & August, to discuss agile process, software and product development.

BarCamp Ottawa
Web site: http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/OttawaCamps and http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/BarCampOttawa

A BarCamp is an unconference where interested developers come together to spend a day participating in discussions, teaching and sharing. Ottawa has had 4 BarCamps as of the time of this posting each more popular than the last, the latest being BarCampOttawa4. Each and every barCamp has been a treat, the community ralleys together to put together a great event, that has something for everyone. I always learn a lot and have a great time in the process. Aproximatly 80-100 people come out to these events of varying levels of skills and backgrounds.

CAPCHI – Computer-Human Interaction in the Ottawa Area
Web site: http://www.capchi.org/

Capchi is an chapter of SIGCHI and is agreat place for designers, developers, engineers and anyone passionate about how people interact with computers to come together and share throughts and experiences. Speakers area regular part of the meetings. Very friendly group that is open to all.

DemoCamp Ottawa
Web site: http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/OttawaCamps

DemoCamp is an evening event that involves several participants presenting a functional product demo (no powerpoint slides!) to an audience of piers. The demos typically involve a two minute intro, eight minute demo and five muniutes for questions and answers. DemoCamp is a great opportunity to come out and see what is being developed in our community, provide some feedback and lend some support. If your a presenter it’s also a great opportunity to recruit some talent and get some local PR. DemoCamps typically get somewhere between 60-70 people in attendance.

Drupal Group
Group site: http://groups.drupal.org/ottawa

The Drupal group is focused on the open source Drupal CMS. This group has been meeting for a year or so and is a growing community of experienced and junior developers. Great group to learn more and explore Drupal with.

Flex User Group
Group site:http://groups.google.com/group/ottawa-adobe-flex-user-group

A group of Flash, Flex and Air developers sponsored by Adobe. This group has had some good presentations and speakers in the past and event put on Ottawa’s first FlexCamp earlier this year. Mix of seasoned professionals and newcomers.

JQuery Group
Web site: http://www.teggnology.com/

jQuery group is devoted to the awesome jQuery JavaScript library, plugins and techniques. This group has recently had it’s first meeting and I’m looking forward to the next meetup. Group has a mix of developers that are familiar and just getting stated with jQuery.

OGRE – Ottawa Group of Ruby Enthusiasts
Google group: http://groups.google.com/group/ogre-list

When I moved back from Halifax to Ottawa this was the first group I connected with. It’s a friendly passionate group of developers who like to work and play with Ruby and Rails. This group is great for the experienced developers as well as newcomers.

Ottawa PHP Community
Web site: http://ottawaphp.com/

Local Ottawa PHP User Group. Meetings are typically  the last friday of each month.

Ottawa Web Weekend
Web site: http://www.ottawaw.com/

A mix of professionals and amateurs from many disciplines gather together with the goal of forming a new company and developing a product over the course of a weekend. It’s a tall order but a lot of fun. Great opportunity to meet and work with new piers and show your stuff.

Ottawa Wordpress Developers Group (OWDG)
Web site: http://ottawadevelopers.wordpress.com

Ottawa .Net Community
Web site: http://www.ottawacommunity.net/

If your into .net development this is your group.

Refresh Ottawa
Web site: http://refreshottawa.org/

Refresh is a community of designers and developers working to refresh the creative, technical, and professional culture of New Media endeavors in their areas. Promoting design, technology, usability, and standards.

The Ottawa LAMP (Perl and PHP) Meetup Group
Web site: http://www.meetup.com/The-Ottawa-LAMP-Perl-and-PHP-Meetup-Group/

Get your open source on with this great LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP) group that attracts some talented developers. Event is often hosted at TravelPod’s sweet office.

The Ottawa Podcast and New Media Meetup Group
Web site: http://podcasting.meetup.com/79/

A good group to meet other local podcasters. Members range from very experienced to the novices, something for everyone.

Marketing, Social Media and PR

CaseCamp Ottawa
Web site: http://www.casecamp.org
Status: inactive until someone gets this going again

CaseCamp is an evening of local marketing case studies where the slide deck is quite welcome. CaseCamp involves a short introduction then a presentation followed by questions and answers. It’s been quite a while since we had a CaseCamp in Ottawa, perhaps we’re overdue.

Digital Ottawa
Web site: http://digitalottawa.ca/
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/digitalOttawa/

The Digital Ottawa as a group has gone through a transformation from a local group of web design and development professionals getting together for socials to become a consulting group with a focus on eGovernment. Digital Ottawa still hosts some good events so keep a look out.

SNTT – Social Network Theory Think Tank
Web site: http://www.founderfab.com/
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=5953251231

Social Network Theory Think Tank events often involve a presentation by either a member or guest followed by a healthy question and answer period afterward. Subject matter is generally around building, maintaining and learning about social networks both offline and online.

Social Media Bookclub
Web site: http://www.meetup.com/Ottawa-Social-Media-Book-Club/

Social Media Breakfast
Web site: http://www.socialmediabreakfast.com/
Sixent Group: http://smbottawa.sixent.com/
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=19832554895

Social media breakfast gets out a mixture of PR professionals, developers, entrepreneurs and other professionals interested in social media web scene. The event consists of networking, coffee and a presentation or panel by invited guests and members. This is a great event to meet new people and an inspiring way to start the day. This event fills up quickly so make sure your in the know so you can sign up as soon as the event is announced.

ThirdTuesday Meetup
Web site: http://www.meetup.com/third-tuesday-ottawa/

ThirdTuesday is one of my favorite events. I find I always walk away with some knew knowledge that I can put to practice. The event if focused on PR in the social media space and has a slight government slant, hard to get away from that in Ottawa. Event involves a speaker or panel and the quality is always high. The audience includes pr professionals, marketers and other professionals interested in social media.

Startup

Lebarge Wienstien Start-Up Drop In
The Venture Creations Group and LaBarge Weinstein are proud to host, ‘Start Up, Drop-In”, a pub night and constructive networking session hosted at the offices of LaBarge Weinstein the second last Wednesday of every month, for purposes of encouraging the development of management teams, assisting with the start up networking, and making available service provider, sales, marketing and investor resources to local high-tech entrepreneurs.

Additional Sources:

• Startup Ottawa
• Meetup
• CodeFactory
• The Ottawa Network
• OttawaCamps
• OCRI

I stopped in at the open house yesterday to congratulate Ian Graham and partake in the festivities. The event had an excellent turnout and was a great opportunity to see how the space has been transformed from just a few weeks earlier when I attended the OttawaWebWeekend at the CodeFactory.

Opening speakers Scott lake from Jaded Pixel and StartupOttawa, Mike Milinkovich from Eclipse Foundation and Denzil Doyle from Doyletech represented some excellent examples of those who have been there done that and are doing it. Their words were very encouraging to the entrepreneurs in the room focusing in on great Ottawa success stories, our strong grass roots community and the importance places like the CodeFactory will play in our future.

I too am a strong believer that co-working spaces like the CodeFactory will become great catalysts as well as starting points for many good ideas and startups to come. I’ve see first hand the success that BarCamp and DemoCamp has had over the last couple years and if a place like CodeFactory can have that same electricity on a daily vs monthly basis, look out.

Here are a few pictures I took at the opening.

The CodeFactory is located on the second floor of 246 Queen Street between Bank and Kent, right above the Green Papaya. You can find out more at the CodeFactory Web site.

The demos are going to be from Stockify, SIMtone, picsphere, SCAN and OurAirports. The MC will be Alec Saunders.

I’m not very familiar with any of these companies except for the National Capitol SCAN which has given the OttawaCamp movement great coverage, so unfortunately I can’t put my finger on how the demos will go. One thing I know for sure is that the discussions before and after will be lively and worth the trip.

Something to take note of is the location change, the Velvet Room instead of the ClockTower. I love the ClockTower, it’s right near my work and the food and beer is always good. The only problem is capacity and DemoCampOttawa8 hit that and had to resort to a waiting list. Waiting lists are no fun. I haven’t been in the Velvet Room but I hear it’s a good space with more capacity and it’s not in the basement, thanks to Sonny for hooking up DemoCamp with this space.
View Larger Map

I’ll be working the door again checking names off the list. It’s important to track numbers for the sake of legal capacity but it’s also nice to have a list of those who made the trip. The thought of using EventBrite in the future for sign up has come up, any strong views either way?

See you there.

I attended Mesh last year and really enjoyed it. I took in a range of keynotes and sessions and spent a lot of time chatting in between sessions. A year later I think it was keynotes from Mike Arrington, Jim Buckmaster of Craig’s List and Austin Hill’s discussion on philanthropy that have been most memorable.

We had a large contingent up from Ottawa last year and it looks like more this year, and this year we won’t be completely preoccupied with the Ottawa Senators. I know many Ottawa folks are coming back to Mesh for the second or third time time but also some new faces making the trip. A mental quick list includes several from Ramius, RealDecoy (3 including me), Mark Blevis, Craig Fitzpatick from Devshop, Jay West, Jeff Parks, Shawn Simister , John Wiseman, Joseph Thornley and I’m sure a bunch more.

For some reason I feel like I’m going to take more away from mesh this year than last. Last year I walked away with positive messages, good connections and boat loads of inspiration. This influenced my work and extracurricular projects with friends and now I feel better prepared to interact and absorb more of what Mesh has to offer.

What a weekend. It was intense, fun and time flew by so fast.

It amazes me that a group of over thirty people can get together for the first time, triage through 20+ concepts, decide on one (that alone is amazing), rally behind it, refine it and get down to business. And a the end of two days plus an evening have accomplished so much and had so much fun in the process. Thank you Marc-Andre Plouffe for putting this together and also a big thank you to Ian Graham and theCodeFactoy for generously putting up the space for this to happen.

We had teams in Design, Development, Marking, Business and Legal. Not to mention a couple folks who could really bridge the gab between all the different groups. Overall a real professional crew.

So what did we make? well we’ve called it reBookMe, you can find a splash sign up page at www.reBookMe.com. reBookMe is a solution that aims to turn cancellations into reservations, take that empty chair, room, service, tool what ever it is that just became available through a cancellation (or just plain available) and let interested clients who know about it. Your clients can then shift to an earlier appointment or possibly be enticed by a special off you’ve put forward to fill the opening.

We’re pretty excited about the idea and are continuing to work on it.

If you get the chance to attend one of these weekends I highly recommend it, I had a blast.

I’m not going to release the concept quite yet, expect tidbits of information over the weekend.

Out of the the 35 participants I’ve only ever worked with one participant before, Franc Epton and that was at at DVS Communications back in the early days of interactive media. I feel some reminiscing coming on. I’m excited to work with the rest of the crew, some of whom I’ve wanted to work with for a while; Jay West, Mark Blevis and Marquis Cote just to name a few.

I sense that my major contributions are going to come on the design side but I also figure my experience with a lot of projects will help me play a role in segmenting tasks amongst the participants. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Want to find out more about the Ottawa Web Weekend, check out http://www.ottawaw.com/