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BarCamp Miami came and went but the memories remain excellent.

Before talking about the event, though, a very well deserved round of gratitude is due:

• first and foremost, to Professor Kim Grinfeder and the University of Miami School of Communication. The School programmed BarCamp into its annual Communication Week program and supplied the venue, projectors, and free wi-fi, essential for the live demos. Kim in particular was a driving force behind BarCamp Miami and he secured the sponsorship for the event, which allowed us to order T-shirts and catering. We also appreciate the help of Sanjeev Chatterjee, the School’s Vice-Dean, and Lelen Bourgoignie-Robert, Jim Virga and others at UM who helped make BarCamp a reality.
• to Nick Dominguez and Brian Breslin. Brian created  RefreshMiami last April and has done more than anyone to get the web/tech/design community started and going in Miami. We owe him for his vision and his execution. Brian also provided guidance and support when the idea of holding a BarCamp Miami first occurred and helped select the logo. Nick has been a key driver of RefreshMiami and took time out of his busy schedule to help us with the banners and in publicizing BarCamp Miami.
• Finally, to our sponsors Aurora Ventures, Knight Center for International Media, ServerGrove Networks and Scrapblog, where I work, as well as to our suppliers, Gateways Unlimited and Once Upon A Party.

So how did the event go? Douglas Hanks from The Miami Herald wrote about us in the Business section:

So it goes at BarCamp, a sort of viral convention with no schedule, featured speakers, or agenda until the attendees themselves create one. For South Florida’s first BarCamp, organizer Alex de Carvalho posted a notice on blogs he and his friends run, as well as a collaborative ”wiki” Web page dedicated to BarCamps held around the world.

And from this "viral" word of mouth, about  60 people showed up.  The format of BarCamp is "open-source" in the sense that anyone can present and indeed everyone is encouraged to participate. We had three areas with projectors and four time slots to present, and of these twelve slots, 11 got filled in:

1. Mike Gibaldi talked about Businesswire.com’s new "social media" and search engine optimized press release offering
2. Michael Froomkin presented the security and privacy challenges of getting municipal wi-fi in Miami-Dade. Now’s the time to get involved to avoid restrictions on your access to wi-fi!
3. Ruben Duque created digital graffiti with a laser pointer!
4. David Hoff drove from Naples to present IMified, which helps you manage everything through your IM client (and then he drove back!)
5. The Calleiro brothers demoed ourscene.com
6. Leonard Boord presented The Gorb reputation manager
7. Nick Dominguez and Ant Bryan spoke about an enhanced download standard for bittorrent, metalink
8. Donald Llopis presented python and pygame for rapid prototyping of video games
9. Caleb Elston spoke about usnacks.com, which helps busy college students buy their snacks
10. Tim Hoyt showed us picturemarketing.com while Cortney Mills took our pictures
11. I gave a live demo of  Scrapblog.com. We offer a rich, enhanced photo and video sharing experience and will launch in three weeks

Update: Blaine Zuver presented as well. He spoke about ArcticTropic Blog and Metroblogging Miami

Besides the presenters listed above and people mentioned earlier, I also met and spoke to Benjamin Li, Jason L. Baptiste, Francisco Martin, Maria de los Angeles Lemus, Danay, Jackie Paz, Caleb Elston, Blaine Zuver, Denise R. Jacobs, Jorge Barroso and Eduardo Henriques.

We are also grateful that some venture capitalists showed up, including from Longworth, Aurora Ventures and H.I.G. This is very reassuring and I hope we’ll see you participate in future events.

What’s next? We hope to do another BarCamp soon. How soon? It’s up to you. And who’s "we"? It could be anyone. BarCamps can be run on any theme and anyone can take the initiative. And if anyone would like to do another BarCamp Miami on web/tech/design, please do so. The BarCamp wiki is open to all and the BarCampMiami blog is open to more authors.

We would also like to create a more formal conference, called webpl.us. Why more formal? Because we would like to have speakers from across the US, from Europe and from Latin America present, and when you fly in people and pay for their hotels, you need to ensure attendance, cover your costs and provide your speakers with a forum.

Which brings us back to running a BarCamp. The experience is exhilarating and there is a definite adrenalin rush to organizing one, and it stays in your system. Why? Because after all the preparation, you really don’t know if anyone is going to show up … and BarCamps are all about people.

And everyone that showed up have each other to thank for making the event so enjoyable.

See you soon, I hope!

Here are some links:

• Flickr photos of BarCamp Miami
• The Miami Herald article
• BarCamp Miami wiki page
• BarCamp Miami blog
• RefreshMiami monthly events

Cross-posted to tapio.com, RefreshMiami, BarCamp Miami

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampmiami, barcamp miami, technology, web, web 2.0, internet, startup, south florida, innovation, venture capital, university of miami, alex de carvalho, kim grinfeder, brian breslin, nick dominguez, event, conference, unconference, the miami herald, doug hanks

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We Media – Alex,
originally uploaded by hyku.

The We Media conference started today and I’ll be live blogging the event this afternoon at the We Media blog. The event will also be webcast live here.

Also check Josh Hallett’s posts on Hyku and Jeremiah Owyang

Looks like we’ll have a rockin’ blogger dinner in Miami on Feb. 7th at Town and it’ll be great to meet locals as well those traveling here for the We Media conference. There are only a few places left, if you’d like to sign up (for this dinner I’m helping organize).

Technorati Tags: we+media, wemedia, miami+blogger

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According to Manola and Rick (in  the comments), there have a couple of attempts last year to bring local Miami bloggers together for a dinner.

For some reason, it seems like the geek dinners had a disappointing turnout, despite the free wine. Maybe it’s because the first one was called "Le Geek c’est chic" and you had to dress all in white for it … and the second one was to watch the last episode of the Apprentice? There may have been another attempt, at Tobacco Road, not sure.

Be that as it may, Scrapblog, where I work, is organizing (but not hosting) a dinner, for bloggers … yes, in Miami, down by Sunset. Most of the attendees are from out of town and have arrived for the We Media conference (discount code here). There are only a few places left, if you’d like to come.

Oh, and there may even be some local bloggers there … But we won’t mention that

Technorati Tags: miami, blogger, dinner, wemedia, we+media, scrapblog

Check out the redesigned webpl.us site, which I co-author. Brian Breslin and Antonio Garcia made a visually striking, outstanding design. It’s a three-column layout with a fourth column for the tagline, running vertically up and down the left side. Despite all the columns, the site does not feel busy and the main content column became more readable than under the old design, which wasn’t bad but still had a conventional feel.

Brian uploaded a year’s worth of posts from his webimpressario blog and pointed the domain to webpl.us, which immediately brought up the Webpl.us Google pagerank to a cool 4. The Technorati rank also shot up by half a million in a couple of days, after the changes.

As Webplus finds its way, there may be more changes, including get-togethers, new events and local workshops. In the meantime, webpl.us is hosting the BarcampMiami site, which will be held on February 21st at the UM School of Communications (I’m helping to organize this event).

Brian, along with Kim Grinfeder, Nick Dominguez, Carlos Garcia (with whom I work), Monica Betancourt, among others, have done so much to highlight and encourage the web/tech in Miami and I expect I’ll be talking much more about them and related upcoming events in Miami, of which there are many.

My, how things have changed from this time last year … !

Technorati Tags: webplus, kim+grinfeder, nick+dominguez, carlos+garcia, brian+breslin, monica+betancourt, geektastic, miami, web+2.0

Geektastik Monica Betancourt, Technology Geek for the Max Borges Agency, will speak about "PR
2.0" for RefreshMiami and the UM PRSSA at what promises to be a well-attended event at the UM SoC Common Grounds Courtyard.

Don’t know what’s wrong with PR? Then please read Stowe Boyd’s great rant on PR in "Enough Already: Getting Social Media All Wrong":

• Please, please, please don’t talk about audiences when you are theoretically promoting social media.
• Blogging is not just another channel for corporate marketing types to push their messages to markets, eyballs, or audiences.
• the excessive hyperbole and surfeit of superlatives of press releases is distasteful at the least, and demeaning at the most.
• And it’s painful to see leading lights in the new PR era acting as
  apologists for large, slow-moving, risk averse companies who continue
  to get it wrong.
• School your clients to do the right thing, not just wrap themselves in
  a bunch of psychobabble about social interaction with their
  "communities" without actually adopting a new mindset.

Technorati Tags: pr, refreshmiami, stoweboyd, socialmedia

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post cluetrain,
originally uploaded by alexdecarvalho.

Signed by Hugh!

Unfortunately I missed the event but a friend came back with this signed t-shirt. Love it. Thanks, Hugh!

And no, I won’t sell it on eBay.

Update from Andrew, who together with Andreas and Torben kindly got this t-shirt signed for me: "I’m a big Hugh fan too – but had never met him before. Seems like a
great guy (we had a beer with him and Ross Mayfield on the last day of
the conference)".

Technorati Tags: cluetrain, hughtrain, pinko,, leweb3, gapingvoid

I would like to wish a very happy holiday season to friends who have shared moments with me as well as to those who I don’t know but who have stopped by to read from this blog or who have subscribed to my feeds.

Here’s a holiday greeting message I’ve prepared with Carlos Garcia’s great Scrapblog application.

May 2007 bring you a step closer to your dreams.