2008 Sessions
From BarCampWiki
Sessions...Talks/Discussions/Demonstations you can give and/or you want to participate in. The Schedule is elsewhere.
Format: Catchy Title... a very brief abstract. Tracks(s): abc Requested by: xyz Proposed Presenter(s): qrs
For example...
Using AWK Programming Language to Pickup Chicks - This long overlooked programming language can be used to streamline your poultry operation Track: Agriculture Requested by: Sam Perdue; Proposed Presenter: Seymour Geek
Someone has questioned... There are tracks?? Implying.... how orthogonal... how non UnConferency. Quite right!! At BarCamp the use of the term... track is somewhat annoying but if we get more than 20 or so proposed sessions, we may need some way to group them so attendees can plan their day.
OK, now do it for real...
Sessions Proposed
- Distributed Twitter - Anyone who uses Twitter knows it's notoriously unreliable. The only real solution is to distribute Twitter-like servers like email, chat or web servers. In this session we will discuss different approaches to building interoperating microblogging servers. In particular, it would be great to have participation by the mobile dev community, since the SMS connection is one of the key features of Twitter. I'm hoping to organize an open-source project to build one or more solutions. An ideal outcome would be to emerge from BarCampBoston with a working prototype! And please consider joining the brand-new Distributed Twitter Google Group! Posted by: Joe Cascio
- Facebook Application Development with PHP - Learn about social application development and learn how to develop and deploy one in x minutes (where x is the number of minutes that the talk is for.) Track: Social Apps Proposed Presenter: Mark Bao
- Website Security - Once you have a website, what are you doing to keep it safe for your users? What are the latest trends in hacking, etc., and what are best practices to avoid your site being compromised? Track: Security OR Websites Proposed Presenter(s): Erica George (StopBadware.org), Jart Armin (StopBadware affiliate, security guy)
- The Future of Social GeoTracking, on Twitter - Where are we, and where are we going? Track: Social Software Requested by: Ted Gilchrist Proposed Presenter(s): Ted Gilchrist
- Intro to Physical Computing with Arduino - Breaking out of the PC: What's possible on a low-cost, open source hardware+software platform? Track: Hardware Requested by: Keith Hopper, Shimon Rura Proposed Presenter(s): Boston Dorkbot members (Keith Hopper, John Luciani, Jimmie Rodgers, others...)
- What's Going On with Lisp? - Common Lisp is alive and well, and being used in lots of applications. What's good about it, and how can I use it? Proposed presenter: Dan Weinreb
- Crafting a winning Business Plan - What are the key elements of a business plan, does format and structure matter, How long does it take to create one? Learn from the team that recently went through the process Proposed presenter(s): Pixily Founding Team (Prasad Thammineni, Anand Rajaram, Vikram Kumar)
- Data Services for Rich Internet Applications(RIA) - Rich Applications using JavaScript toolkits, Flex, Silverlight, and other frameworks are the current vogue. Building these applications requires easy access to data from multiple sources, so I'll be talking about building data sources and data mashups using the SnapLogic framework. Proposed presenter: User:MikePittaro
- Discussion: widgets distribution and monetization: Discussion of widget technology, distribution, and monetization Proposed session leader: Victor Hong
- Cloud Computing - Amazon Web Services - Introduction to cloud computing, How the core pieces of Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3, SQS) fit with each other, Why Startups should exploit the trend Track: Cloud Computing Requested by: Anand Rajaram; Proposed Presenter: Anand Rajaram & Vikram Kumar
- Geek's Guide to Startup Marketing - Generating revenues is not a bad thing. Proposed presenter, Dharmesh Shah from OnStartups.com
- Intro/Workshop - Google's App Engine - some details to follow. Presenter: Shimon Rura
- Programming to the Twitter API - walk through of some simple PHP/MySQL which uses the Twitter API to create a "group tweet" app. Discussion of how to access various pieces of the Twitter API. Presenter: John Eckman
- Wordpress <-> Facebook - WordPress plugin which brings blog posts into Facebook and lets users make comments on blog posts from inside Facebook. Current release walkthrough, challenges and limitations of the facebook API, planned next steps. Presenter: John Eckman
- Public Data - A roundtable discussion on what public data is available (e.g http://del.icio.us/tag/PublicData ) and how we can access it Proposed by: User:MikePittaro
- Arduino I/O Workshop - Learn the basics of both digital and analog I/O with the Arduino[1]. Track: Hardware Requested by: Jimmie Rodgers, Keith Hopper Proposed Presenter(s): Boston Dorkbot members (Keith Hopper, John Luciani, Jimmie Rodgers, others...)
- Discussion on architecting AJAX applications -- So you want to build a flashy, dynamic web application? It is easy enough to just throw something together, but how do you build your system such that it remains robust over time? Such that you minimize the amount of maintenance and headaches you need when you iterate on new designs of the same core functionality? How do you architect the system so that you can spend less time tracking down corner cases and bugs, and more time building features? This session will be a discussion among people who build web applications about what has worked, and what has really been a mistake. Proposed by: JoshAin ITA Software, Blake Carlson MyPunchbowl
- Free Your Eyes - The past year has seen the advent of Google Charts, IBM's Many Eyes, and other simple tools for seeing and sharing your data. I'll talk about what our users have done with Many Eyes, why 'useless' data is actually very important, then open it up for discussion on the future of visualization in a world of ubiquitous data. Presenter: Matt McKeon
- acts_as_developer: War Stories from the Rails Front - Chat with developers from successful RoR apps and share your experiences on development, deployment, scalability, architecture, testing (RSpec etc.), favorite gems, and tools of the trade. Presenter: Blake Carlson MyPunchbowl
- All Things Drupal - Per discussion here
- git as a replacement for subversion, and more Demonstration of using git for your version control needs. Basic usage, more advanced collaboration, using for open source development, Presenter: User:JoshNichols
- Embedded Network Management starring Roomba - System level overview of embedding Web and SNMP management in otherwise dumb devices. We'll be discussing the challenges and some solutions. We will also be covering the hardware and software interface with the Roomba vacuum robot. Track: Hardware Presenter: Paul Ingemi
- Django Birds of a Feather (BOF) - Share war stories about Django development. Tricks, tools, and tags. Track: Web development Presenter: you!
- PGP keysigning party - Get new signatures for your PGP key. See Party HOWTO. Track: Security Presenter Casey Callendrello
- Scheming about Scheme - Scheme is a fantastic but underappreciated programming language. Let's get into a room and talk about it: what's so awesome about it, why it's so underappreciated, and/or what we can do about it. Track: Programming Languages Presenter/Moderator: Alexey Radul
Sessions Requested
- Developing iPhone Applications - Learn the basics of developing applications for the iPhone. Yada, Yada. Dan can fill in some of the yada, yada. He gave a presentation like this at MobileCampBoston back on March 15th and the geeks in the audience really liked it. Track: Mobile Requested by: Mike Walsh; Proposed Presenter: Dan Grover...(Dan just registered but hasn't edited this entry yet but he will)
- Twitter 201 - It's been over a year since twitter really broke onto the scene at SXSW. There are a whole bunch of new Twitter clients that you should be using that make the service much more useful. Track: Social Software Requested by: Mike Walsh Proposed Presenter: Jack Hodgson, Bryan Person, Jim Spencer or any of the Twitterati... (I will email these people and ask them to attend/present).
- Pimp My WordPress Blog - Take your Wordpress Blog to the next level... or a least something a little snazzier and functional than the default Kubrick template. Bryan gave a presentation like this about a year ago at one of the Berkman Blogger Meetings and it was very well received by the folks in the room. Track: Social Software Requested by: Mike Walsh Proposed Presenter: Bryan Person, or David Tames or J. Baumgart....(I will email these folks and ask them to attend/present).
- Finding Angels - Where do you find angel investors? What should you look for in an angel investor besides money. Track: Startups Requested by: Mike Walsh Proposed Presenter(s): Mike Feinstein, Bijan Sabet ((I should see these guys tomorrow May 14th at OpenCoffee at the Andala CoffeeHouse in Central Sq. (plug, plug). I will ask them in person))
- Quality Assurance / Quality Awareness - What kinds of things do you do to check the quality of an application? What skills are great for software testing? How do you work with others to fix code? How do you motivate the team? How do you prioritize what needs fixing? What tools do you use? Track: (There are tracks?) Requested by: j Baumgart Proposed Presenter: Someone who knows more about QA than j Baumgart does
- Workflow Management / Bug Tracking Systems - It seems like folks are always on the hunt for a better tool to use for tracking bugs, managing workflow, etc., etc. Let's get together to discuss great tools. What do you use? What have you used in the past? What features do you really like? What features do you hate? What is your dream system like? Have you found it? What would you recommend? How do you evaluate a system? How do you transition to a different system? Track: (There are tracks?) Requested by: j Baumgart Proposed Presenter: j Baumgart is willing to moderate the discussion
- Semantic Web - Making the web more intelligent one website at a time. Talk about RDF, microformats, HTML5 and all the dreamed Web 3.0 technologies to allow computers to make sense of all the data out there. Track: Web Apps Requested by: Ivan Peevski Proposed Presenter: Ivan Peevski is willing to moderate the discussion
- Discussion: Open Source Backup and Recovery - I'm halfway through implementing an rdiff-backup system at my new gig, and would be happy to share my experiences so far and to discuss other approaches and experiences. Proposed by: Joe Slag
Presenter Equipment
Each classroom has a whiteboard, but it's always a good idea to bring your own dry erase markers.
If you're a Mac user, bring your own video dongle/video converter/whatever. You know, the thing that connects the Mac to a projector.
We are currently in need of projection equipment. If you can provide one (or two) go to Volunteers/Assignments and read about our bullet proof guarantee that your equipment will not be lost, stolen or abused.
