Chris Heuer's Insytes

There are many to come, but I think the first is:

Event Name/Title = Event Tag

We put the tag (BrainJams3Dec2005) everywhere, on the flyers, on the footer of the BrainJams Journal, even on the router name. It seems that it worked. Check out Technorati to see the latest.

Technorati Tags: ad-hoc+collaboration, brainjamknowledge, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:planning, NPTECH, net2, rulesforbetterBrainJams, The+Open+Web, Web2.1

Not much lucidity left in my body at the moment, but what a great day it was! We had about 75 people in and out, with a core group of 50-60 that made it all come together nicely. Really looking forward to the next one and reading more thoughts on this one. Let’s keep the conversation rolling…

All I can say about it now is it all happened because of you – so much love and thanks to everyone who made it work. I will be offline tomorrow and Monday, back with more notes, thoughts and ideas after that. Really looking forward to reconnecting with you again soon.

Technorati Tags: brainjams, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:bayarea, Web2.1

Well, it looks like we might make it through this one without digging to deep into the personal savings account thanks to 2 last minute sponsors. A close friend of mine (fraternity brother, former co-worker, potential co-worker and all around great guy) who works at Fleishman Hillard kicked in $50 this afternoon from D.C. Well, I guess it is as good a time as any to announce we are doing a BrainJams DC in late February.

Then in the lasy possible minute (the checking email one last time before sleeping minute literally and keeping me up an extra hour to work on things a little more) Judith Szepesi of the law firm Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor, & Zafman, LLP. came through with a lunch sponsorship for $250. That is real big and exactly how the universe responds. I told the ‘go to the fridge looking for beer’ story previously so won’t get into it here – the point, as Zez will tell you, is that you just gotta believe. It really makes a difference sometimes. Way too often it is easier to give up just short of the finish line, but you really do get what you give, so give it all (or as Don Miguel Ruiz says, “Always do your best”

I felt it coming (perhaps because it was already in one of my 20 mail accounts), but the good word from Judith on being a Patron of the event to support our efforts is really, deeply appreciated.

Technorati Tags: brainjamknowledge, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:3dec2005, brainjams:planning, Web2.1

Well, it looks like we might make it through this one without digging to deep into the personal savings account thanks to 2 last minute sponsors. A close friend of mine (fraternity brother, former co-worker, potential co-worker and all around great guy) who works at Fleishman Hillard kicked in $50 this afternoon from D.C. Well, I guess it is as good a time as any to announce we are doing a BrainJams DC in late February.

Then in the lasy possible minute (the checking email one last time before sleeping minute literally and keeping me up an extra hour to work on things a little more) Judith Szepesi of the law firm Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor, & Zafman, LLP. came through with a lunch sponsorship for $250. That is real big and exactly how the universe responds. I told the ‘go to the fridge looking for beer’ story previously so won’t get into it here – the point, as Zez will tell you, is that you just gotta believe. It really makes a difference sometimes. Way too often it is easier to give up just short of the finish line, but you really do get what you give, so give it all (or as Don Miguel Ruiz says, “Always do your best”

I felt it coming (perhaps because it was already in one of my 20 mail accounts), but the good word from Judith on being a Patron of the event to support our efforts is really, deeply appreciated.

Technorati Tags: brainjamknowledge, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:3dec2005, brainjams:planning, Web2.1

It is way too late to be writing this, but here I am sitting next to Kristie trying to print out name badges, registration sheets and all that other fun stuff that needs to be done at the last minute. I have a couple of last minute updates, but first, a quick word of thanks to David Gutelius for the moral support and of course, the logistical support in securing the space with SRI. Extra thanks to Nancy Tubbs, Rachel Murray and Kristie Wells for helping get the space setup this afternoon so all you folks can move it all around tomorrow morning.

We should have plenty of food and refreshments for the 70-80 folks who will be in attendance and lots of good energy at the SRI Conference Facility. Speaking of which, if you have an extra power strip, it would be helpful if you could bring it perhaps as we have lots of power drops but not enough surge protectors.

For the morning BrainJam sessions we figured out a simpler way to make it all work (thanks to some ideas from Nancy), so I feel really good about those logistics now. I also finally figured out what to do with regards to the Journal/Notebook for jotting down all those great ideas you will get from other people. Nate Koechley helped put the final touches on it by assembling it to be printed as a double sided document (reason for blank page 2&4). You can download and print one out for yourself if you would like.

For those of you kind enough to make the $10 donation, we have a journal printed for you in the morning, though we only have 50 sets, so get it early if you want to use one.

Well, I have another hour or so of work, so I need to go. Looking forward to seeing you all in the morning!

Technorati Tags: brainjamming, brainjams, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:bayarea, The+Open+Web, Web2.1

The BrainJams experiment looks to have a solid foundation for tomorrow. There are 65 people signed up on the Wiki (59 of which filled out the registration form) and a few others on Upcoming and a few more who have verbally said they will be there. Who knows what today may bring, but I am very happy and excited we are going to be able to pull this off once again and move forward with developing the BrainJams organization.

In addition to the Audioblog post from yesterday in which Andy Kaufman and I discuss what the day will look like, I wanted to point out what we are going to try to do with the morning one-on-one BrainJamming sessions. In essence we want to split the group into 2, with one being more techie and the other less techie. This is a hard distinction, as I am pretty techie, but not hardcore as I don’t write code. We are trying to use the answers people gave about the roles people play to do this better, but you will be able to self direct your path when you register.

Perhaps a better distinction is programmer/non-programmer. Given that the attendee diversity is an unknown, this may work really well for the first portion of the list and then get iffy in the middle and towards the end. Regardless, my real goal is to try to ensure that the programmers of Brat Pack 2.0 dont meet with the other programmers of Brat Pack 2.0 so that everyone can expand their network horizon in new ways and get questions/feedback from people they don’t normally talk with.

One last thing. If you are going to give this experiment a try with us, we need you to be conscious that you must be committed to seeing it all the way through the morning. If you start and decide to ‘opt-out’ this creates a big organizational problem and hurts the other participants who won’t have someone to meet when they are supposed to be talking with you…

Technorati Tags: brainjamming, brainjams, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:bayarea, brainjams:planning, The+Open+Web, Web2.1, your pa

Andy Kaufman and I discuss what participants can expect from the event on Saturday December 3, 2005. This is a good primer for those people who are attending and don’t really know what to expect. We discuss how the morning BrainJamming will work and what the hope is from the afternoon open space sessions.

One of the things I was hoping we could do with BrainJams parallel with BarCamp is to create a simple who has what inventory of some of the equipment we could borrow for certain events so that people (like me 😉 don’t have to go out any buy something everytime they try to put one of these together.

For instance, at the moment I have available:

* 2 Easels
* an iBook G4 1ghz with iSight
* an old PC that needs work
* a couple of old monitors (biggies but clear)
* Legos
* A cheapie button maker and some parts

But we still need some things for the event, that perhaps other people might have and be able to let us borrow (with all due and proper care of course). It would be really great if we could find someone who has any of the following.

1 – A dedicated Mini-DV or HD video camera and tripod for shooting some of the main session stuff. It does not even need to be manned insomuch as set up to capture the main stage action, but if someone wants to volunteer for this that would be cool. We will buy the tapes as necessary, but if someone wants to donate, that would be great too!

2 – A Pro-Click Spiral Binding Machine

3 – An extra PC that could be setup in the registration area for people to create quick Vlog entries as they register.

4 – A machine that could be dedicated and connected to the audio system for piping in Pandora radio during breaks

5 – A really cool and easy to use button maker

6 – Tons of crayons

7 – ????

You get the idea I hope. If you have any of these things and can let us borrow it for the day, that would be great. As we get the organization developed and growing, we can hopefully have some of these things donated for us to use at all events by large corporations, but for now, this feels cool with me…

Technorati Tags: brainjamknowledge, brainjams, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:3dec2005, brainjams:bayarea, brainjams:planning

NetSquared is simply a great idea. Just got the email from Michelle Shutzer of TechSoup on this – congratulations to them for all the hard work. Here is a good bit that describes their purpose,

The conversations will take place both online at www.netsquared.org through collaborative blogging, tagging and posting, and at Net Tuesdays, a series of face-to-face gatherings in the San Francisco Bay Area. (www.netsquared.org/participate). These events offer the opportunity for hands-on learning and exchange, and include demonstrations of these new tools.

I am really looking forward to supporting more of their efforts and figuring out how we can best work together. In one sense, what we are trying to do could be considered a project under the same umbrella, though perhaps it should be considered as more of a joint project with them and people from other sectors. In another sense, they serve and attract one of the most important groups of people to what I hope we can ultimately accomplish as more and more people feel empowered to pursue their own Noble Pursuit in this life. I guess it is more of a paramedia effort perhaps that goes beyond the online world of blogs and RSS with out shared goal of empowering more people to understand and better utilize technology.
My approach vis-a-vis BrainJams starts with building trust and tolerance between disparate types of people to for the purpose of sharing knowledge and ideas about things that are important to them. It could be how to launch an idea like BrainJams, how to increase donations to a non-profit, an idea for a fundraiser, an idea for a new tool, a new perspective on how you have been communicating your big idea or even something as simple as how the 49er’s might shake things up to make a comeback or how to cook beer can chicken. Then the next piece of the puzzle is to get people out of the conceptual mode into the practical mode of actually doing things towards accomplishing what they are most passionate about more effectively and efficiently. This is why the afternoon session is about real people sharing their stories of how they get things done using the Internet – showing each other step by step, answering questions and receiving group feedback in real time.

As another friend reminded me, this could be a great business…. but that is not the point, this is only the beginning of the Knowledge Economy, there are plenty other business opportunities to come in the near future, but I have digressed too far. Back to the point.

One of the reasons I love these guys at TechSoup so much is because they are just cool and they get it. The other reason is more kizmic (sp?) – when we first met, I just knew I had found other ‘peaceful warriors‘ with similar life purposes. Here is what Daniel Ben-Horin, CompuMentor’s President and co-CEO had to say about the launch of NetSquared.

“Wikipedia, DeanSpace, MoveOn, Firefox Campaign, craigslist – none of these succeeded because they had faster servers or fatter pipes than anyone else. They succeeded because they understood and enabled the power of user-generated content and the power of peer networking.”

As I have said previously, the point is people.

Technorati Tags: ad-hoc collaboration, brainjams, brainjams3dec2005, brainjams:3dec2005, brainjams:planning, NPTECH, The Open Web, Web2.0, Web2.1, netsquared, net2