CodeAway has had a Twitter account for some time, but I wanted to remind you that I am posting there as well. Every post will have a link on Twitter and any random Utah Geek thoughts I have throughout the day will show up there as well.

You can follow us here:

• CodeAway on Twitter

If you are a geek living in Utah, please follow me. If your bio says you live in Utah, I WILL follow you (unless your tweets are REALLY spammy and then I’ll unfollow you). All the Utah Tech events that I hear about will show up on that Twitter feed, so it will help to follow me there.

Only a few years ago networking events for the area’s bloggers, developers, and computer savvy entrepreneurs were few and far between. The various language-centric groups did exist but the frothy, repeated mingling of talent, characters, and opportunity is only now starting to come into its own. 2007 was a fantastic year for geek social events along the Wasatch Front and 2008 looks to be even better – and these are the folks that will make it happen. It is with much pleasure that I am pleased to present the completely biased and largely preferential CodeAway UT Development Community Ones-To-Watch for 2008!

#5. Jesse Stay (Futurist) – Jesse emerged in the local development community as a staunch advocate of social networks. But where most would simply be content with forming a consultancy (in this case, SocialOptomize) Jesse has rallied other developers to begin taking social networks seriously as development platforms. He continues to organize the Social Media Developer Garage series of events (formerly the Facebook Developer’s Garage) and has co-authored the upcoming book, “I’m on Facebook, Now What?”

#4. Laura Moncur (Promoter) – Laura’s tireless enthusiasm for all things geek and organizational follow-through make her an ideal match for this list. She is a copious blogger (Pick Me, Starling Fitness, Starling Travel, GadgetsPage and the online serial Merriton). In addition she contributes to this site and is a primary driver for the monthly CodeAway geek social events (hosted out of her home). She also has become a leading promoter and organizer of the ongoing Blogger/Geek dinners. When she’s not planning the next event she’s in attendance – always quick with a smile and supportive comment.

#3. Pat Wright (Organizer) – Just Pat’s month-to-month extracurricular activities (leading the Salt Lake SQL User’s Group) would make him worthy of consideration for this list. However, over the past year and a half Pat has spearheaded three Utah Code Camp events. Once limited to .NET technology developers, the last event expanded into Java and attracted nearly 100 attendees. Pat continues to promote a ‘technology-agnostic’ lineup and is preparing for an even bigger camp sometime in April/May 2008.

#2. Clint Savage (Advocate) – In September Clint, in conjunction with the Utah Open Source Foundation, threw the area’s inaugural Utah Open Source Conference. Pulling in several hundred people, corporate sponsorship from the likes of Google, and a number of renown speakers Clint has already promised that the 2008′s event will be an even bigger affair to remember. He continues to blog about Linux and open source topics at Sexy Sexy Penguins.

#1. Steve Spencer (Patron) – Like the others mentioned Steve organizes and promotes an area monthly event, Utah Tech Spotlight. However, through the Salt Lake branch of Twelve Horses, he is responsible for aiding a number of other local efforts. Whether its through sponsorships, attendance, or his own personal management Steve is a large reason why the region is enjoying a full calendar of opportunities. The continued growth of Twelve Horses and a revamped Utah Tech Spotlight can only mean more good things from Steve and his crew in the coming year.

What do you think? Who are you excited about in 2008?

Sometimes as an indie web slinger things like holiday restful times get overridden by ‘catching up on the backlog of projects’. Its due, in large part, to the transient nature of the work – have a laptop and cell phone and suddenly the office follows on into the three day weekends.

Whether you code from a cubical or comforter time management is your business. But on this Labor Day weekend I ask that, if you haven’t already, take a moment, catch your breath, and enjoy a bit of quiet before the rush to end the year begins.

We’ll be back shortly to announce our September CodeAway event.

While we sincerely meant to have another CodeAway for the month of April the month seems to have gotten away from us. There will be no April CodeAway event but stay tuned as we prepare to redouble our organizational efforts for May.

We’ll announce the date and location for May when we have things nailed down.

As one of the useful services here on CodeAway I attempted to import info from the Utah Tech Events Google Calendar. There was a PlugIn for WordPress but it never seemed to work right – it only seemed to be grabbing the first few events and not what was most current.

It’s a hack – I know – but I’ve reworked the page using the old-school iFrame. Again, not very elegant or Web 2.0-ish, but it does get the job done. So if you’re interested in upcoming Utah Tech Events check out our revised Events Page. And if you’ve got something that is worth listing email me at create [at] voxpopdesign [dot] com.

Sorry for the delay – there will be a recap of our February event coming shortly. However, it has come to my attention that the CodeAway site is less than über on Safari browsers. I don’t have a Mac myself but I’m not completely surprised – out of all the major rendering apps – IE, FireFox, Opera, and Safari – Safari does seem to be the most temperamental.

Not sure when or how I’m going to fix this (although I do need to figure out how to debug these kind of issues for other things in the future). Any suggestions short of buying a Mac?