Yes, that’s right – the March CodeAway event is today! However, if you can’t make it to the super secret location (as like yours truly) you can follow along online in a couple of ways – first I’m embedding a Stickam.com camera live feed into this post. It’s direct from the Matt-Cave (glamorous, isn’t it?). With any luck we’ll also have a live feed coming from the CodeAway super secret location too.

We also have a group chat – just go to http://gabbly.com/codeaway.org . Why Gabbly over other IM? (Update – looks like we can just use the chat from the Stickam widget.) Why use a browser based chat? Couple of reasons:

1. No installs. All you need is a browser to participate in the conversation.
2. No signing up for chat networks that may not be your favorite (AOL anyone?)

So – even if you can’t be ‘here’ be here! (Update 2007-04-01: The virtual CodeAway went better than I expected. It doesn’t replace actually being in the same room as a lot of bright minds but – in a pinch – the Stickam widgets were useful. Since the event is now over I’ve replaced the flash widgets with a screenshot from Saturday. ):)

Enric has posted a video from his experience at SuperHappyDevHouse last weekend. You can see it here:

• Tech Alley » SupperHappyDevHouse 0b10000

He edited the hours-long event to 10 seconds every thirty minutes. It gives you a good idea of all the activity that is going on there.

This is what I’d love CodeAway to be eventually: a bunch of people getting together and sharing ideas, information and bragging rights.

Thanks, Enric, for letting us peek inside the Bay Area Geek-Togethers!

Finding a venue for CodeAway has become increasingly difficult. The Sprague Library is great, but we can’t rely on the wireless and we can’t have food. More importantly, we have to set the dates for CodeAway a few months in advance because all the libraries fill up so quickly. We have come to the conclusion that the libraries are nice, but they just don’t work for us.

We need a place that has power, Internet connectivity and allows food. Finding a place that allows all three is difficult, so Mike and I are opening up our house. At least I can depend on my place.

The problem is, I don’t want to post my address on the Internet. You can probably understand why. Here are the details for March’s CodeAway:

Date and Time: Saturday, 03-31-07 1pm-5pm

Location: SupaSecret Location! Contact Laura Moncur to get the address.

Bring: Your laptop with wireless or ethernet connection (we can work with both), treats and snacks, other Utah Geeks

I am just so excited about everything that I saw at SXSW that I can’t wait until the next CodeAway! What happened to you over the last month? What have you been working on? Got any problems for us to brainstorm? This is your chance to connect with other Utah Geeks, eat some bad food and maybe play a little Wii or Guitar Hero!

Last month’s CodeAway would have been a lot more fun if the wireless at the library hadn’t been down. It was pretty embarrassing for the XMission employee that came to talk to us about how great XMission is when the Internet connectivity that they provide for the library was out of service.

We had a great turnout at the Sprague Library last week. Jason (pictured here) just moved to SLC, working for a educational gaming company. If you look closely, you can tell that his Mac was signed by The Woz! Steve Wozniak! He immediately impressed us and fit in with the group perfectly!

The presentation from XMission was nice. They provide a lot of services that I didn’t even know about. It made me want to move to Murray so I can have a fiber pipe to my house. Frankly, I don’t use the speed that I have now except when I’m downloading video. Even then, I mostly do it over the wireless network in my house, so that’s the big slowdown. Still, XMission had a lot to offer, they just didn’t offer us wireless at the library when we needed it…

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article up about the laptop enabled roaming workforce that it has labeled as ‘Bedouins’. Its a fairly in depth look at how technology and changing attitudes about work are creating new lifestyle employment. From the piece by Dan Frost:

San Francisco’s bedouins see themselves changing the nature of the workplace, if not the world at large. They see large companies like General Motors laying off workers, contributing to insecurity. And at the same time, they see the Internet providing the tools to start companies on the cheap. In the Bedouin lifestyle, they are free to make their own rules. “The San Francisco coffeehouse is the new Palo Alto garage,” declares Kevin Burton, 30, who runs his Internet startup Tailrank without renting offices. “It’s where all the innovation is happening.” Burton and Kennedy are among those popularizing the bedouin name, separating the movement from traditional freelancing by stressing the workers’ involvement in technology, in general, and Web 2.0 ideology in particular. While the movement is at its apex in San Francisco, where young urban independents can easily find a coffeehouse with the right vibe for them, it’s also happening across the more suburban reaches of the Bay Area, and across the country as a whole. The move toward mobile self employment is also part of what author Daniel Pink identified when he wrote “Free Agent Nation” in 2001. “A whole infrastructure has emerged to help people work in this way,” Pink said. “Part of it includes places like Kinkos, Office Depot and Staples.” It also includes places like Starbucks and independent coffee shops, where Wi-Fi — wireless Internet access for laptops and other devices — is available. “The infrastructure makes it possible for people to work where they want, when they want, how they want,” said Pink, who is based in Washington, D.C.

The piece then goes on to describe a number of people and locations in the Bay area which are fueling the cause. However, one of the best parts I enjoyed most was the connection to previous labor nomads toward the end:

According to the Lloyd’s of London Web site, “Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house in 1688, encouraging a clientele of ships’ captains, merchants and ship owners — earning him a reputation for trustworthy shipping news. This ensured that Lloyd’s coffee house became recognized as the place for obtaining marine insurance.” Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of their best work in Parisian cafes. And in San Francisco, writers and poets of the Beat generation, such as Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, wrote in the cafes of North Beach.

As a ‘Bedouin’ and someone trying to create a community to support other’s online ventures the article had plenty of warm fuzzy moments for me. However, here is the rub: is this lifestyle sustainable or is it a passing fad of the time we live in?

Steve Spencer from Twelve Horses (a ‘relationship marketing’ company focusing on web design) contacted me last week about Utah Tech Spotlight. It’s a new networking opportunity that is hoping to build a solid community for the tech-centric in Utah. The first meeting is March 30th at the Murry location of Rumbi Island Grill. Things get started at 3pm. You can read more and RSVP on their website.

Hope to see you there!

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?