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Category: Events

Events about or including microformats; parties, conferences and hack days.

Developers’ Notes: microformatsDevCamp

One month later, I wanted to share some observations about microformatsDevCamp and my thoughts about why it was so successful.

microformatsDevCamp Group, Day 1

Clearly, it all begins and ends with the people who participate: we were thrilled to have several dozen developers and designers drop in over two days. Over thirty folks went further and donated at the door, but more importantly, everyone contributed their time and enthusiasm.

Applying the lessons of prior devCamps, the group proposed dozens of ideas and came together around 7 projects. Many of them ended up sharing their results as open-source on github; others created bespoke sites and yet other conversations impacted projects folks were already working on.

In an increasingly online world, I think the primary lesson of this devCamp was Robert Cailliau‘s classic quote, “there is no such thing as a virtual beer.” It’s refreshing to see that putting this many bright and opinionated folks in one place, at one time, actually results in concrete progress. I’d like to think at least a little of the credit is due to the minimalist philosophy of the microformats.org movement…

Probably the only serious glitch was softwear-related; our initial rush t-shirt order didn’t turn out as we expected, so we’re spending a bit more to order new, higher-quality shirts. In the interests of transparency, we will be posting the full, final details online once those are printed and mailed out.

Of course, an event of this magnitude requires more than just a volunteer labor of love: it takes real resources too. Huge thanks to our sponsors!

The venue, hosted by Automattic, proved first-rate, with wonderful spaces for separate teams to collaborate, along with an awesome bar and views of the San Francisco Bay.
Spinn3r
Spinn3r is a web service for indexing the blogosphere. We provide raw access to every blog post being published – in real time – so you can focus on building your application, mashup, or search engine.”
CommerceNet
CommerceNet is an entrepreneurial research institute that invests in exceptional people with bold ideas.”
Microsoft
Oomph: A Microformats Toolkit is for web developers, designers and users, making it easier to create, consume, and style Microformats.”
mBLASTmBLAST spiders data daily to power search, product directories, publisher sites, buyer’s guides, and other mashups.”
Carla Borsoi Steve Ganz
Individual donors also pitched in personally, such as Carla Borsoi, Vice President, Research & Analytics at Ask.com; and Steve Ganz, Principal Web Developer at LinkedIn.com. Thanks also to Cindy Li for the wonderful microformatsDevCamp logo and buttons, and to Object Adjective for microformats stickers.

PS. Check out more cool photos.

microformatsDevCamp this weekend!

At our recent 4th birthday party, we started planning the first microformatsDevCamp — and we’re glad to report that it’s come together quite nicely!

Developers, designers, and all sorts of other microfolk are welcome to pitch in during this coming weekend, July 25-26, at one extremely cool venue: Automattic HQ, off of Pier 38 on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

We began raising support for this event by collecting individual donations at the birthday party — thanks again to Object AdjectiveRibbit, and Spinn3r for their generous support of that event! We’re going to continue that at the microformatsDevCamp with a suggested donation of $20, which will also get you one of our limited-edition commemorative T-shirts!

Automattic HQ on the Embarcadero
Automattic HQ

In addition to Automattic’s offer to host the event, we’re currently seeking sponsors for the DevCamp itself, particularly for food and drinks. In keeping with our informal structure, we’re encouraging sponsors to pay for items directly; for example, Cindy Li is providing buttons and Object Adjective is bringing stickers. Our latest confirmed sponsor is CommerceNet, a long-standing partner that’s underwriting the opening night dinner.

Please ask your employers and other sponsors to join in — they can contact me, the “sponsor wrangler,” directly as rohit at khare dot org. We’re expecting 30-50 developers to join in, so even as little as $250 can have a real impact towards creating new tools, new applications, and new user interfaces for microformats!

And, of course, sign-up to participate by adding your name and interests to the  microformatsDevCamp wiki page!