First I want to say thank you to everyone who put together and paid for Boston BarCamp 2. I know that it’s billed as “organized on the fly by attendees” and I know many people chipped in a few dollars, but a small group of generous and hard working folks shouldered most of the load.

This was my first BarCamp and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and I’d have to describe my experience as mixed, but positive overall.

I only attended the Saturday sessions. Sunday’s agenda had very little that appealled to me and I didn’t want to make the trip over to MIT. However, I could have stepped up and presented something, and chose not to. I’ve been to many a $800 conference with a dead day on the schedule and felt angry at the loss of my time, so I don’t actually count this against the unconference.

The quality of the sessions I attended on Saturday was mixed, but at BarCamp you can get up and walk to another session, which I did. Some were downright excellent. (Many of the sessions discussed financing startups. It would be interesting to see folks from the venture community show up at the next one and host a talk.)

There was lots of conversation in the hall and over coffee and lunch. I don’t know if that is a function of the event’s size, the nature of the attendees, or both.

So overall, it was a good experience. I’ll very likely be at the next one. I came away having learned more about some subjects than I expected, received pointers to interest and opportunities, and met (and re-met!) some new people. Not a bad return on a few dollars and a few hours!

(Aron attended both days and became a big star! He will be posting presently.)

Aron and I will be at BarCamp Boston 2 this weekend over at MIT. We’re looking forward to meeting and talking with people from the surrounding area about things like Ruby on Rails, user interface design, information architecture, or whatever. I’m sure we’ll end up giving a few impromptu demos as well.

Don’t let the snow scare you away and we’ll see you there!

It’s been announced that WebInno 11 will take place at The Royal Sonesta on Wednesday March 28, 2007 starting at 6:30 PM. Further details and signup at the WebInno wiki.

It’s a free event and probably the premier gathering of this sort in the Boston area.

We demo’d spotstory at WebInno 10 and had a very fruitful evening. If you’re a startup looking to present to an audience, you should definitely get in touch with Dave Beisel.

We’ll see you there.

We had the pleasure last evening of sharing spotstory with The Historical Society of Watertown in Watertown, MA. We’d like to thank the Society for sharing their time with us, and especially Karl H. Neugebauer for making the arrangements.

(Also, Kudos to Aron for figuring out in 30 seconds how to get us on the net via his phone wired to his MacBook wired to my Dell!)

One of the best parts of my spotstory experience has been attending events like these, meeting different people, showing them the site and seeing them get excited by the idea.

If you’re affiliated with a historic society we’d love to come by one of your meetings for a few minutes and show you spotstory. We’re also happy to meet groups interested in social media or location based services. Just drop us a line.

San Jose, CA. $1100 for two days with early bird registration, and $1500 after that. Huh. To quote:

There’s no better place to meet the people behind the mash-ups and platforms, and the folks looking ahead to the future of geospace. Where 2.0 is the one place where corporate decision-makers can meet the people building the next wave of location- and mapping-enabled technology; where CTOs swap ideas with grassroots developers building mash-ups; where community activists network with venture capitalists looking for the next investment opportunity.

Aw, shucks! “Folks”! “Mash-ups”! “Grassroots”! “Activists”! “Mash-ups” again! Yeah, we’re all “2.0″ and got a new paradigm going on here!

But you know, were gonna need AT LEAST a cool G up front to discuss how we’re going to usher in a new age.

Yeah, that’s sarcasm, and I’ll stop it now.

I am a capitalist. I don’t expect these events to have the business model of Woodstock–the one in 1969 that is. Covering costs and taking something for your hard work and risk is something I wholly approve of and even feel should be emulated.

Where 2.0, however seems to border on the ridiculous. And it’s not just this conference–it’s all of the big name events.

I might be mistaken, but aren’t Aron and I exactly the sort of “grassroots developers” that are supposed to be attending this event? Aren’t we the people “behind the platforms and the mash-ups”?

Aren’t we the companies, who as part of this brave new world, are also supposed to be building companies on a few thousand dollars?

We had a fantastic night last night at the Boston Web Innovators Group. Yesterday we briefly debated whether it made sense to lug two laptops and two large displays to the event. We brought it all and it turned out to be the right decision. Aron and I each gave and evening-long, non-stop demo to a constant crowd of visitors. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken so much, so continuously (and that’s saying something.) I hope my throat stops hurting by noon.

The photos are of Aron during setup. We didn’t get a chance to take any during the event.

A big thank you to David Beisel and the folks at the Web Innovators Group: thanks for having us. Another thank you to all of the people who kept Aron and me busy all night sharing their energy, enthusiasm, and ideas.

The next WebInno is slated for March 28, 2007, location TBA. See you there.

Update

Ben Saren of Citysquares and Your Suspect sums up his experience from the previous WebInno here. It is surprisingly similar to ours (except I didn’t get a beer and a burger after!) Greg Peverill-Conti at Over the River also covers the event here. C.C. Chapman also gives us a mention.  Barbara Heffner chimes in as well.

We’ll be demoing spotstory at the Boston Web Innovators Group on Tuesday, January 30 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA. Details and registration can be found here. Come by, see the site, and say hello!

Two days later and we have finally caught up on our sleep. The HeyLetsGo Revolution Night was lots of fun. Matthew and I caught up with former coworkers (now with HLG) and met the rest of the HLG team. An uncountable number of soda waters later (I’m the *real* party animal), I staggered home, took the dog for a midnight stroll, and crashed.

I had never been to the Revolution Rock Club before, and was only marginally aware that so many bars and clubs even existed in that part of Boston (High Street, close to Rowes Wharf).

Pictoral evidence:

Be sure to check out the rest of the event photo album.

Just a heads up that Aron and I will be attending HeyLetsGo’s Revolution Night this Saturday and so should you! We’ll be “chillaxin’” in a reserved booth in the back sipping Kristal and surrounded by the ladies. (Translation: the tall thin guy in the corner nursing the ginger ale is Aron and the regular sized stocky guy in the corner spilling the martini on himself is Matthew).

Stop by and say hello to us because god knows we won’t come over and talk to you!

Aron and I attended the MIT Enterprise Forum’s “Software 2.0: Turn and Burn on a Dime” event last night to see and be seen. We ran into some old friends and got introduced to a few new. Which is a something of a feat given our miserable networking/schmoozing skills. (Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to lump Aron in with me. He’s a real charmer and a pleasant young man.)

I’ve attended these events sporadically over the past several years. I usually come away with a few valuable pieces of knowledge, and cruising through Kendall Square always gives me a little warm, resonant technology buzz. I feel like I’m in the right place at the right time.

One thing we learned last night was that we need to hone our pitch. We’ve been heads down coding for the past little bit. It is probably about time we give our marketing a little love. (Still, the few words we stammered out were well received. So we have that going for us.)

The main take away from the panel was that there is actually a place in the world for small companies using minimal capital and leveraging open source, the internet, and offshoring in every way you can.

The bad news, according to the panel, is that capital markets haven’t quite figured out how to deal with these sorts of companies. However, with Charles River Ventures’ recently announced QuickStart Seed Funding Program, I think they’re probably just about to figure it out. (I bet another handful of top tier firms launch similar programs in the next six months.)

The companies on the board got to market in a year or so working nights and weekends. This is good info for us which we’re using to gauge the sanity of our own schedules.

Okay, this has gotten far too long. So, I will wrap up suddenly and without further fanfare!