BarCampDallas – Microsoft really stepped up to the plate.

January 27th, 2007 at 6:00 am (Microsoft)

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I feel like I can say this, especially since I don’t work for Microsoft anymore. They did a great job this weekend.

About the facilities:

Overall: The facilities were great – we could have easily had 300+ people with all of those rooms (there were around 40).

Low Lights: The wireless access was the most frustrating thing about the experience, it worked well for some, flaky for most, and not at all of others – but I understand that spotty wireless is a common problem at most BarCamps.

Mid Tones: Having to register at the front desk, and be escorted up (and sometimes down) the elevators. At first, we thought this was going to be a huge frustration point, but in the end – it actually wasn’t that bad. The security guys were pleasant, happy to have us there and very accommodating. The only thing that someone was told they couldn’t do was smoke in the non-smoking area – and they were quickly directed to the smoking areas. We could go out whenever we needed, and there was a phone at the front and back doors that we could contact the security guys with during the night to let us back in.

Highlights: The Microsoft guys that hosted BarCamp. Serious kudos to Dave Bost and Chris Bernard from Microsoft. They both flew all the way from Chicago just to help cover this event (since I no longer carry a Microsoft blue badge). They were at the front to greet most people when they arrives, and when it looked like we weren’t going to have food for lunch – they ordered *a ton* of food for us (read: a TON of food). We had sandwich platters for lunch barbeque for dinner and when no one was looking the refrigerator suddenly was stocked full of Monster drinks (blue and green), Rock Star Energy, and about ever type of beer that you can think of. I’m not sure how much they had to expense for BarCampDallas – but wow! They definitely came through and stepped up to the plate.

About the rest of the event:

Overall: Several people mentioned that this was one of the best BarCampDallas’s yet. Even though less people attended (weather? location? getting the word out? who knows). The people that WERE there definitely had a great time, and we got to have some of the best conversations ever. There were too many great people there for me to highlight all for me to highlight all of them.

Low Lights: More people would have been nice. This is actually a double edge sword. On one hand I would have loved see more people engaged in the weekend, and involved in the conversations… on the other hand – that would have also changed the dynamics… which I think worked well.

Mid Tones: As is true with most BarCamps (I’m told). We were a little unorganized. There were a couple of events that we had planned – and then didn’t do, and a couple more that we not even thought of until we did them… I guess that’s part of what makes BarCamp BarCamp.

Highlights: People, content and technologies. It was great to meet so many people and to catch of with several people that I already know. I know that I’d leave someone out… but I’d like to at least highlight a couple of people. Erica, Jay, and Christopher – for all of the planning, organization and effort that they put in to making BarCampDallas happen. Giovanni for doing a truly amazing job providing media coverage to the entire event. Kinan – for bringing some nice anti Microsoft angst to the event (I was afraid that there wouldn’t be enough there. – seriously Kinan does a great job standing up for services, linux and open source. Whurely for bringing the stickers and seriously – I have not laughed that hard in a long time – (I am going to go build the site if it hasn’t already been done). Jim – for providing a lot of balanced and honest input on the event, Cody and Jay for winning the “Web 2.0” Application Contest – they built a pretty cool idea over night. The robot guys for showing up and walking us through a pretty cool industry. Ingrid – for actually bringing a tent (cool!). Everyone that let me interview them for the next episode of CommunityCast.TV!

Content: Here is a quick overview of the sessions that I attended. Most of these were recorded by Giovanni, I’ll post to those once they are online.

• Jay Fichialos – Started things off by going in to the “HackDays” that he is leading over at Sabre. They are 24 hour, free form sessions for corporations to throw for their developers. Sounds like fun!
• Joseph Hill and Mark Terry did a great overview of their new project “Availitime”. I think that this was the first time that a start up had their launch party combined with BarCamp at Microsoft! It was a great product launch party with food, and some people stayed all night!
• Aaron Baxtor (Top Site Marketing in Houston) – CSS Power. Aaron did a great job highlighting some of the tricks and approaches that he uses with CSS and non-obtrusive technologies.
• Todd Manning  from BreakingPoint Systems - OS X Exploits and Patching – This was a great talk where Todd showed off some of his mad security skillz and highlighted some of the types of vulnerabilities that exist in applications today… he specifically pointed out a vulnerability in an open source application that he was able to patch and contribute to.
• Joseph Hill & Mark Terry – Roll your own ISV, lessons learned. With their recent launch of Availitime, Joseph and Mark were on hand to discuss their experiences, insights and to learn form others.
• Chris Bernard (Microsoft User Experience Evangelist) - What is UX? – This was so good we did it again! This truly was a great talk. So many people were buzzing about it the first night (which we didn’t record because nobody knew to push the red button that we asked if Chris would be able to give a similar talk on Sunday morning… he did, and we recorded it. Chris talks more about that here.

What others are saying…

·        The Real Adam; Adam again – BTW, he won the Xbox 360, sweet!

·        Kinan (Ximda) – Bar Camp Dallas III was a success.

·        Chris Bernard – Barcamp Dallas Recap

·        Erica O'Grady - BarCampDallas3 - The Aftermath

·        And then there’s this guy that says that he couldn’t get in. That’s so weird, because we were all in and out all night. I left him a comment, but he’s never called… I guess there is just no pleasing some people.

·        The “Official” BarCampDallas homepage.

·        Finally… go check out all of the photos from the BarCampDallas III.

·        Update: Giovanni shares his thoughts... and put's the smack down on anti-Microsoft FUD..

We had a blast, and I am truly looking forward to more BarCamps!

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BarCampDallas - Jan 20 - 21st - at Microsoft.

January 15th, 2007 at 6:00 am (Microsoft)

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I've posted about BarCampDallas before, now that it's just around the corner Giovanni posted Erica's email... here you go:

Erica O'Grady just sent out a reminder for all this weekend's BarCampers in Dallas:

BarCampDallas will be held this coming weekend (January 20th - 21st) at the Microsoft Campus in Las Colinas (THANKS to Caleb Jenkins and Dave Bost for arranging this). For more info on the venue or to RSVP you can visit:

http://upcoming.org/event/136629/

or the Wiki at: http://barcamp.org/BarCampDallas

Join the Jambo Group at: https://jambo.net/groups/barcampdallas to meet and interact with campers before the big event.

We're camping out (literally) on the 4th floor of the Microsoft offices, so feel free to bring your tents and sleeping bags. Other things you might want to consider bringing along:

Powerstrips
Laptops
Pillows ?
Anything that you might need to make your presentations a success.

Christopher St. John is doing a mini DemoCampDallas -- for more information on how to participate e-mail him at: ckstjohn at gmail dot com. Also - I have a form for anyone who can't make it to registration on Saturday or Sunday morning and would like to pre-register. I'll be posting that to the wiki today -- and we'd like to have most people's info 48 hours prior to the event.

On Friday January 19th - there will be a Pre-BarCampDallas Party - 8:00 PM at Lee Harvey's

See you there! - Caleb

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What am I going to do next?

January 11th, 2007 at 6:00 am (Random)

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People keep asking me about what am I going to do now that I've left Microsoft and updated my resume. While I can't share too many details... I can share this list:

-         What’s Important to me:

o       Being Home (Flexible Hours)

o       Based and mostly staying in DFW area|

-         What I like:

o       Working with community

o       Presenting

o       Helping Companies make correct technology decisions

o       Empowering Others

-         What I have an expertise in:

o       .NET Architecture & Design

o       Development with Best Practices

o       Building Community and Buzz

o       Presentation Skillz

o       Training and Mentoring

-         What I’m Interested in:

o       WPF / Design

o       Design Community

o       Writing

o       Conference Speaking

o       Microsoft's Influential Programs 

I’m hoping that the next BIG thing that I do, will be a good intersection of many of these areas.

Cheers,
 

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My Resume

January 10th, 2007 at 6:00 am (Random)

It’s a good idea to keep your resume up to date. I realized recently that mine was about 3 jobs old, so I updated it. Here are a couple of things about me that are NOT on my resume that you might not know:

• I lived in Okinawa, Japan for 3 years when I was 6 years old.
• One of my first jobs as a senior in high school, and in to college: I worked as a “hawker“ at major sporting and other events, selling Snow Cones and Cotton Candy.
• Sports: I “lettered“ in High School… in Mach Mock Trial (kind of like Speech and Debate… but with Lawyers and Witnesses)
• I placed second place at Temecula’s First Annual Swing Dancing Competition.

Update:

• You probably already know this one: I’m a horrible speller when F7 is not available.

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Interactive Projection Video

January 9th, 2007 at 6:00 am (Technology)

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Yesterday I saw a podcast where Scoble interviewed Bill Gates and asked when we will see some of the technologies that Bill demoed at last year's CES  (300kbps - skip ahead about 16 minutes for the interesting stuff in the video) - reactive video and stuff like that; then today I saw this at the mall... it's pretty cool - The video is projected on the floor in the mall. When you walk over it (or wave our hand) the video responds to your movements.

Reactrix Online

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Leaving Microsoft

January 6th, 2007 at 6:00 am (Random)

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Dear Fiends and Colleagues,

Yesterday, Jan 5^th 2007, was my last day at Microsoft. The email that my manager sent out probably says it best:

“Please join me in saying goodbye to Caleb Jenkins whose last day with Microsoft is today Friday, January 5th.  I know we will all miss Caleb’s passion and enthusiasm for developers and our evangelism business.  Please join me in thanking him for his contributions to our team and in wishing him the very best in his future endeavors!”

First, let me say what an honor and privilege that it has been to work and serve with so many of you as the South Central Microsoft DE for the last year and a half. Second, what’s next for Caleb? I’m not exactly sure what an ex-Microsoft employee like me is going to do. I’m sure that I will still be involved in the community, still enjoy spending time with my family, and probably spend less time on the road. I’m pretty much keeping my option open. There are several options that are open to me, none that I am able to talk about… yet.

I wanted to take a minute and address some of the different community projects and areas that I was working on to make sure that those continue to move forward without a hitch.

Thank you – and I’m looking forward to seeing all of you again in the future! 

- Caleb

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