After attending the innagural BarCamp Omaha last August, I was sure to be in attendance this year. Not only did I want to blog about my experience and meet the people we write about on SPN, I wanted to just simply be a part of this unique annual event.
Before I continue, I’d like once again sing praises to its organizers. I’m thankful for the time they set aside to organize #bco2009 — from selecting a location, to redesigning the website, to running it the day of, I’m proud to know these individuals: Eric Downs of DownsDesign, Matt Secoske of nimblelogic, Megan Hunt of Princess Lasertron, Dusty Davidson of BrightMix, and Jeff Slobotski of SPN.
Last year’s BarCamp was very memorable — not only was it the first time I had immersed myself in a new community, but the people that were a part of it were very welcoming. This isn’t to say that I’ve never felt that kind of welcome before or I’ve been rudely turned away at other events, rather, I was at a point in my life where I was thinking about where I wanted to be in the near future. The weekend helped me make my decision.
Thanks to our sponsor
At the time of last year’s BarCamp, I was working at United Way of the Midlands on their annual campaign team. The year before, I had earned a journalism degree (public relations track) from Creighton University. United Way of Midlands was a great fit. I wanted to work for a nonprofit, a small organization (less than 50 people), and be given a variety of responsibilities. It did just that, but during my second year, my interest in the nonprofit industry began to fade and a new ambition emerged: I was set on entering the tech industry.
Did I mention I’m not a programmer? A majority of the talks at last year’s BarCamp were over my head, but I didn’t mind, the people that were giving them were very cool to talk to one-on-one. In fact, I mustered up the courage to give a talk about a mobile technology I had hoped to create. The attendance at the talk was encouraging, but even more so, the exchange of ideas and feedback that I received that weekend and in the months after it were a huge boost to my confidence. It was very exciting for me to find people in Omaha interested in the same technologies and innovation.
In retrospect, I feel a bit silly saying it was exciting for me to “find people,” as I now interact with this community daily. But BarCamp Omaha did just that for me — it put me in a big house with over a hundred other people interested in tech, creativity, and entrepreneurship — in Omaha. And there was no set schedule, just designated times to eat, have a few drinks, and listen to others talk about their interests.
So, BarCamp Omaha 2009, it was a success. Different type of venue brought a different vibe, but I liked it. The numbers were up and so were unfamiliar faces for me, which is a great thing. The bar opened at 11:00 a.m., that was a treat but I didn’t take advantage. Dinner wasn’t provided, instead it turned into, “What are you doing for dinner?” That was cool and I think brought about new relationships. There was more sessions, but they were shorter, and almost all the ones I attended barely finished, which means we had lots to talk about. I didn’t finish mine but I recieved some awesome feedback in the time we discussed the topic I introduced, “Growing SPN: Managing an online community, creating contributor guidelines, free T-shirts.”
The goal of my session was to have a group discussion about what you, as a reader of SPN, would like see when you visit the site (and give away a T-shirts to those who contributed to the discussion). One of my primary roles is manage our content, and with that in mind, I wanted to discuss issues that we’re faced with as we begin to establish our process and guidelines. Here are my notes from the discussion:
Me: Besides myself, SPN is made up of individuals whose full-time job is not SPN. How should contributors let you know of their affiliations?
Discussion: As part of the post. Keep it conversational — a bold sentence at the bottom of the post with “disclaimer” is not needed. Continue to cover a variety of people and companies.
Discussion: (I didn’t really get a chance to bring up another discussion point, instead I just let the discussion continue.) Categorize posts. Be able to subscribe to an events feed. Add a calendar. Do “Ask the Expert” posts. Check out the SlashDot.org method of Q&A in which a post is published to gather questions from readers for an upcoming interview.
Overall, we received excellent feedback for us to mull over. In the next couple of months, we hope to make improvements to our site (like adding a search function!). If you’d like to contribute to the discussion please add a comment below or email me at danny@silionprairienews.com.
Thanks to those of you that attended BarCamp Omaha. It’s the people that make the event and it was an awesome crowd. I’m looking forward to BarCamp Omaha 2010.
