Operation: Create. The next CodeAway event is October 21st, 1-5 PM at the Whitmore Library (2197 East Fort Union Boulevard, Salt Lake City). Wireless Internet will be available with a current Salt Lake County Library Card. As we are in a place that wants to avoid attracting bugs, so please no food or beverages.
There were a number of inspirations for CodeAway. I seemed to be reading a constant stream of exciting get togethers happening in Silicon Valley at the time and feeling extremely jealous that there wasn’t something similar for the Salt Lake area. Chief among the brew-ha-has was DevHouse. On Blogrium there’s a reflective piece on how those guys got started:
“The inspiration was partly from LAN parties I attended when I was younger, including the LGLANâs in Los Gatos put on by Tom Harrison. Towards the end of my hardcore LAN party days, I started running into people that werenât just interested in games, but also into programming, design, game modding, and other âdevâ? related stuff. I learned about new things. I saw what other people were doing (and for fun I might add). It was fun and inspirational. That combined with high tech pranks and a party-like atmosphere made it seem like the games were just an excuse to get together to do everything else we did. The LAN party thing eventually died off, but at some point I started inviting friends over to my office where I was working at the time for âdevlans.â? Essentially a LAN party without the games. Instead focusing on making cool stuff. Or working. Or whatever. Itâs just fun to have your friends around when you work. It was fun. And productive.”
Some times I think holding the CodeAway events in a library puts a crimp on the social and party like atmosphere that could exist. But one has to start somewhere and libraries provide the free space.