Help the Haiti relief effort by attending CrisisCamp Portland this weekend

January 19, 2010 – 1:43 pm

CrisisCamp will bring together volunteers to collaborate on technology projects which aim to assist in Haiti’s relief efforts by providing data, information, maps and technical assistance to NGOs, relief agencies and the public.

This event is free and open to the public. You don’t have to be technical to volunteer time.  There will be projects that can be done by anybody who has used Google. However, experience with coding and geospatial will be helpful.

The event is scheduled to take place at NedSpace Old Town starting on Saturday, January 23rd and possibly continuing on Sunday.

Please RSVP for this FREE event and get further information at: http://crisiscamphaitipdx.eventbrite.com/

Follow @CrisisCamp and @CrisisCampPDX on Twitter for updates.

By Igal Koshevoy | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Thank You!

October 7, 2009 – 4:46 pm

Thank you so much to all of the WhereCamp organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and attendees who helped make the weekend fabulous. We had people traveling from as far away as Washington, D.C., as well as a great set of local Portland GIS users, planners, and geo-nerds.

Here’s a few highlights from around the web.

Kate Chapman talks about the unconference sessions:

I led a discussion on OpenStreetMap in the United States. It was the first time people have worded questions to me in the form of “What does the OpenStreetMap think about….” Getting across the free flowing community was somewhat difficult to explain for some reason, even with the Wikipedia parallel. A lot of interesting ideas came out of the session though, such as new renders for people that live or spend a lot of time outside. A potential rending of places with external outlets, water and places to sleep for example. There was also some interest in getting a two way data flow between government and OSM. In Washington D.C. we have been discussing how that model could potentially work and it appears that other governments might forward once there are some sample models out there.

James Fee’s keynote slides are online:

WhereCampPDX Keynote
View more presentations from James Fee.

Several people posted photos of the weekend’s activities:

And hack night experimentation included the now-infamous “mayor=1″ Foursquare extension.

You can check out session notes on the wiki if you’re curious what you’re missed (or just want to revisit the Strange Maps links collection).

We hope we’ll see all of you next year! But in the meantime, if you want to keep tabs on what’s going on, subscribe to this blog, and join the planning mailing list, which is also a good source of links to other geo-events around town.

By Audrey | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

How to Win at WhereCamp

September 29, 2009 – 3:15 pm

Are you planning to attend WhereCampPDX this weekend? Here’s a guide to making the most of it.

Friday night:


View Larger Map

The kickoff party starts at 6pm sharp at Gallery Homeland. Help us finalize our plans by RSVPing on Upcoming. You can earn bonus points by helping set up and tear down (we need volunteers throughout the weekend as well). Leave a comment on this post (with your contact info) if you want to help.

Saturday:


View Larger Map

The unconference day begins at 9am at Metro. The first hour will be devoted to a kickoff (with information you’ll need throughout the day), session scheduling, coffee drinking and a little socializing, then we launch into 6 hours of open sessions, with a lunch period in the middle. At 2pm we’ll take a break from the routine for our keynote by James Fee, followed by a highly experimental “un-panel”, before we finish the unconference session set, which runs until 6pm.

Get ready ahead of time by putting your name on the attendee list and adding a session idea or two to the wiki.

What should you bring with you? We recommend: documentation tools like a notebook, laptop, camera, or video recorder, a refillable water bottle or mug to help us cut down on waste, and your ideas for topics you’d like to talk about with others. WhereCamp, like other unconferences, is a highly participatory event. We’re dependent on you to bring the ideas you’re interested in, and help document what goes on throughout the weekend, so other people can learn and experience new things.

Saturday night:


View Larger Map

We’ll move on to the Portland Incubator Experiment for a pizza dinner and hackfest, starting at 7pm. See our earlier post for how to RSVP and pre-pay. If pizza isn’t your thing, you’re still welcome to join us again after 8:30pm to participate in the hacking. Bring your laptop and a project to work on if you have one, or come and see what other people are doing. (Hint: Friday and Saturday both have ample opportunities to scout out hacking ideas.)

Sunday:


View Larger Map

Game day! Our Sunday home base is Backspace in Old Town. The first round of PacManhattan will start around 10:30, but drop by throughout the day for orienteering, photohunt, and geocaching activities as well. Bring a compass, GPS device, and camera to participate in the full set of plans. Also remember to check the Portland Marathon route before you leave, since it will be affecting travel through downtown on Sunday.

One last tip: bookmark the specifics page so you can check back for event details and updates at any time.

By Audrey | Posted in wherecamp | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

RSVP and Prepay for Saturday Dinner

September 28, 2009 – 10:54 am

Saturday night at WhereCampPDX, we’re having a pizza dinner before we move onto late night hacking activities, all hosted by the Portland Incubator Experiment. We’ll have Old Town Pizza, salad, chips, and beverages to fuel your brain for coding. Like last year, we’re asking dinner attendees to prepay, $10 to cover the cost. Use the button below to RSVP and pay.


To help you get what you want we’ve set up a democratic menu.

Continue on to vote for dinner options.

By Audrey | Posted in wherecamp | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Inspiration and PacMan

September 25, 2009 – 9:20 am

Layar3Dpacman

At the Westergasfacriek (or “gas works park”) as a part of PICNIC2009, there was a demonstration of 3D objects in the Layar Reality Browser. In one demo, a Boeing 747 flew over the grounds. In another (pictured), PacMan ran by, chased by ghosts.A video demonstration is available on the Layar3D site.

Last year at WhereCampPDX, we had lots of fun running our own version of live-action PanMan and we’ll be playing again this year. Refinements to the tracking code might mean that Android phones play in the field without need of a control room. Then again, we’ll probably run at least one game like last year, with an open phone call to manually update the game screen.

And, as it turns out, the PacMan@Lyon kids will be running the final game of their summer season on Saturday. (The only thing that could be improved about that helmet is onboard video.)

By Ouroboros | Posted in games | Comments (0)

Another event of interest: “Transitioning to a Resilient Portland”, September 25-26

September 24, 2009 – 3:52 pm

WhereCampers will be interested in another upcoming event:

Details below copied from: http://www.thedirt.org/node/4112

The Transition Initiative in Portland invites you to meet with us to begin planning and organizing an effort to build community resilience in the face of climate change, rising energy costs and economic decline. Building on work started by many organizations, we will put into action energy descent planning around a variety of aspects; neighborhood organizing; coalition building with partner groups; and a holistic vision of how we can cope with major changes in our lives. In the process we will create stronger communities and more satisfying lives based on sharing and cooperation.

You’re welcome to come whether you are already committed or just curious about the possibilities. If you’re working with a neighborhood or a group with a related mission, we invite you to come and explore how different groups and communities can network and link together in a shared effort to build a lower-carbon future. Also, we urge you to circulate this notice to your group and anyone else you think should be there.

  • Keynote speaker Friday evening, September 25, 7:30 pm. Karen Lanphear’s a co-founder of the Sandpoint Transition Initiative in Idaho. She believes that within each community there lies an enormous pool of power that can be unleashed when people start working together on a common vision, and that education and building strong community coalitions can change the world. Her presentation will include what is unique about the Transition model, Sandpoint’s experience in developing it, and their main challenges and how they came up with solutions. Karen’s talk will be followed by a social in the church dining hall downstairs. $10 donation, no one turned away.
  • An Open Space Day, Saturday, September 26, 9:00am-5:00pm. How Can We Build a Resilient Portland? Bring your ideas, passions and enthusiasm and participate in designing the movement – suggesting what is needed and discussing how to make it happen. This powerful process will enable us to walk out at the end of the day with a road map for creating our future. Coffee, tea and snacks will be available. Lunch will be brown bag or at nearby cafes. No charge for the day but donations appreciated.
  • Location: St. Francis Church, 1182 S.E. Pine Street, Portland (map)

What we choose to focus on is up to you. The Open Space format enables the people who come to create the agenda. Anyone can suggest a topic to discuss on Saturday based on the theme of creating resilience. If people choose to show up and discuss that topic, and to create an action team, it will become a part of the overall project. Some examples of projects that have emerged in other Transition Towns are

  • Food
  • Transportation
  • Housing
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Arts and Music
  • ReSkilling – (re)learning the low tech skills of our forebears
  • Neighborhood organizing and support
  • Outreach and publicity
  • Heart and soul – learning and helping others to cope with the psychological, spiritual and social sides of change
  • Local currency
  • Working with local government
  • Administrative tasks such as Training and Finances

Later Saturday you will have a chance to sign on for any projects you have energy for and begin work toward crafting and implementing Energy Descent Action Plans. There will also be an opportunity to connect with others from your neighborhood.

We are very excited about moving toward a more cooperative and joyful future. The knowledge of what to do already exists; it’s just scattered throughout the community. This is the beginning of our tapping and integrating that knowledge, making it available to everyone, and putting it to work in a plan for resilient communities.

By Igal Koshevoy | Posted in events | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Opening Night Party at Gallery Homeland

September 22, 2009 – 5:03 pm

WhereCampPDX kicks off Friday October 2nd with an opening night party at Gallery Homeland (2505 SE 11th Ave, Portland OR). This is a great opportunity to meet your fellow WhereCampers, discuss session ideas before the Saturday schedule planning rush, and try a round of our Arrivals game (shown above).

The party starts at 6pm, and will wind down around 9, after which we can mosey along to a nearby pub. If you’re planning to attend, please RSVP on Upcoming to help us finalize our plans.

By Audrey | Posted in wherecamp | Tagged | Comments (2)

Mark Your Calendar: WhereCampPDX is Oct. 2-4

September 8, 2009 – 9:36 pm
600 NE Grand, Portland, OR

600 NE Grand, Portland, OR

We’re pleased to announce we have a venue and a date! WhereCampPDX will be happening October 2nd through the 4th, with the main unconference session portion happening on Oct. 3rd at the Metro Regional Center. If you’re planning to attend, please let us know by adding your name to the attendees list on the wiki. You can also suggest a session that you’d like to host or participate in.

We’re still working out the details of a Friday night opening party, and the Sunday game sessions, so stay tuned for further details. You can help in the planning by joining the discussion on our mailing list, or attending a planning meeting, 7pm Thursday evening at Produce Row, every week from now until the event.

We also need more sponsors to support the event. Your contribution helps us feed attendees and cover other costs. Sponsors get their name and logo in the sidebar on this website, and the opportunity to introduce themselves to WhereCamp participants, by making a donation.

You can import the WhereCampPDX 2009 events to your calendar from Calagator.

By Audrey | Posted in wherecamp | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Different Areas, Same Hunt

September 1, 2009 – 3:27 pm

You’ve watched Midnight Madness, perhaps even on videocassette. You might fondly recall (and miss) The Oregonian’s Rose Festival Medallion Hunt. Maybe you used to subscribe to Games Magazine. And you feel a twinge of jealousy whenever you happen across a report on the MIT Puzzle Hunt, the Microsoft Intern Game, BATH, or BANG.

In recent years, coupled with the rise of The Amazing Race television reality-competition show, we have noticed an increase in puzzle hunt activities at the local-casual level. Organizations like Shinteki market the activity to corporations as team-building activities. Running clubs and tour group companies are putting on small scale city-based puzzle hunts, like the Stumptown Challenge.

Coming up on the second Sunday in September is a multi-city, near-simultaneous puzzle hunt. Called D*A*S*H* (Different Areas, Same Hunt), this is a single-day event that will run in the cities of Portland, Seattle, Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Puzzle designers in each city have contributed one clue to the event, and each city’s hunt will use each of the clues to point to locations in that city. This is a foot- and public-transportation race for teams of 2-5 people. The deadline for registration is September 10th.

I’ll be there with a team of three people smarter than I. I encourage you to join us!

Ouroboros was one of the designers of the 2009 ARGFest-o-Con FestQuest, which happened in Portland last July. He and Ben Foote ran in the 2008 Stumptown Challenge, with a competitive finish against a field of serious runners.

By Ouroboros | Posted in events, games | Comments (1)

Announcing our keynote! James Fee

September 1, 2009 – 9:14 am

WhereCamp PDX is an unconference, meaning that we define the sessions and schedule together at the conference rather than ahead of time. For this year’s event, we invited a keynote speaker to help kick off the conference, and connect the many topics and people that WhereCamp brings together.

We’re pleased to announce that James Fee will be joining us to speak about data sharing and standards!  Here’s a little bit about James:

James Fee, GISP, is an Evangelist at WeoGeo, Inc. Fee has extensive experience in GIS development (ESRI, Autodesk®, OSGeo), as well as development of GIS implementation plans. He was instrumental in enabling the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center to track the recovery of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina and previous clients span the Department of Defense (Navy, USMC, Army and Air Force), Department of Interior, State and Local Governments, Private Sector and Non-profits.

Fee is responsible for developing the developer community around WeoGeo and help users of WeoGeo Library and Market succeed at sharing and monetizing their data. Fee blogs about geospatial technology at www.spatiallyadjusted.com and has helped develop an online community culminating in Planet Geospatial. He is a frequent presenter at GIS conferences around the world and has recently keynoted the 2009 FME User Conference. He is also a regular columnist for GeoInformatics magazine.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to let us know you’ll be attending or add a topic suggestion to our sessions wiki page!

By Audrey | Posted in wherecamp | Tagged | Comments (2)