Sunday, February 04, 2007
Recent Changes Camp, last day
Today the sophomore edition of Recent Changes Camp (RCC) came to a close. I use the word "sophomore" because this year, its second, the RCC suffered a notable dip in quality; not that it wasn't a waste of the last three days -- I enjoyed meeting new people and enriching old friendships -- but in many ways it could have been better this year, for example the publicity could have been much, much better. But everyone knows it, and plans are underway to avoid those mistakes.
Audrey Eschright posted some further thoughts about the session she and Dawn Foster hosted Friday, "Art of Community".
Yesterday, in Brandon Sander's session, a new idea was introduced: the idea of a group to promote Open Source activity in the Portland area, known as OGuild for "Open Guild", that is Open Source. (No report if Richard Stallman has heard about the choice of the name yet, nor when he'll demand that it should be renamed to "Gnu Free Guild".)
The concept is simple: to form a coalition from the individuals and small groups who depend on Open Source to make a living, then use that federation to provide each other support both financially (for example, this group of people can then negotiate a lower rate for health insurance than any one person could), and non-financially (for example, mentoring, networking, and so forth). In other words, it's not another themed real estate project with some additional benefits (also known as a business incubator for Open Source projects). The word "Guild" was picked as a nod to the medieval guilds, which provided its members mutual assistence and protection. With a number of local high tech leaders behind it who include Brandon Sanders, Bart Massey, Ray King, Ward Cunningham and John Sechrest, I'll be surprised if this project doesn't go somewhere and help solidify Portland's status in that area.
Geoff
Tags: recentchangescamp, rcc2007
Audrey Eschright posted some further thoughts about the session she and Dawn Foster hosted Friday, "Art of Community".
Yesterday, in Brandon Sander's session, a new idea was introduced: the idea of a group to promote Open Source activity in the Portland area, known as OGuild for "Open Guild", that is Open Source. (No report if Richard Stallman has heard about the choice of the name yet, nor when he'll demand that it should be renamed to "Gnu Free Guild".)
The concept is simple: to form a coalition from the individuals and small groups who depend on Open Source to make a living, then use that federation to provide each other support both financially (for example, this group of people can then negotiate a lower rate for health insurance than any one person could), and non-financially (for example, mentoring, networking, and so forth). In other words, it's not another themed real estate project with some additional benefits (also known as a business incubator for Open Source projects). The word "Guild" was picked as a nod to the medieval guilds, which provided its members mutual assistence and protection. With a number of local high tech leaders behind it who include Brandon Sanders, Bart Massey, Ray King, Ward Cunningham and John Sechrest, I'll be surprised if this project doesn't go somewhere and help solidify Portland's status in that area.
Geoff
Tags: recentchangescamp, rcc2007
Labels: portland tech, Recent Changes Camp
