Howdy folks, this is Dave Starr and I am the unwittingly appointed camp director for the 2008 Boise Code Camp. I will be updating everyone on the progress of our planning activities as we get closer to the March 8th, 2008 code camp. 

New Track Suggestions

I recently attended the local .Net users group, NetDug and got a chance to get a little feedback on the plans for the upcoming camp. A well received idea was to add 2 tracks to the 2008 camp for non-developers.

1. The Business of Technology - This track might be a good home for areas such as usability, program management, methodology and Agile practices, etc.
2. I.T. and Operations - This track is specifically appropriate for your IT and operations folks ho actually read TechNet.

Although this does not line up perfectly with the ideas espoused in the Code Camp Manifesto, it is in-line with the event being a community driven event. The simple fact is that Boise does not attract big technical conferences on a regular basis and Code Camp provides a great opportunity to bring Treasure Valley technology professionals together. Including our IT and managerial brethren along for the day may be a reasonable idea. What do you think?

Upcoming Activities

The organizing committee is getting together every 3rd Thursday of the month and we would love for you to join us for lunch. Send me an email at davidstarr(at)elegantcode.com to get involved. Volunteers are always welcome.

Watch the website for upcoming announcements and features including ways to sign up for presenting!

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Thursday, October 04, 2007 1:00 PM - Thursday, October 04, 2007 5:00 PM Mountain Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 12:00 PM

Theater - Edwards Boise Stadium 21

7701 Overland Road
Boise Idaho 83709
United States

Language(s):
English.

Product(s):
ASP.NET, Office, Visual Studio and Windows Vista.

Audience(s):
Developer.

Event Overview

MSDN Events are free, live sessions designed to enhance your coding skills and make your life a little easier. By attending you’ll get up –to-the-minute technology delivered by seasoned developers and have lots of time to network and ask questions. Chat with your fellow developers get the latest coding tools and tips and learn how to create rich new applications. Register today for a free live event in your area and get the hands on knowledge you need. For more information visit: http://www.msdnevents.com.

As always we are looking for comment and suggestions on how to improve Boise Code Camp.

One of the main suggestions we received was for better email communication, and we will work to fix that.

But if you have any other comment, please post them here.  After all, the Boise Code Camp is for you, the Boise area developers.  (Now insert silly “Help us help you” HR stile slogan)

I’ve restored the old site and posts. We are in the process of planning Boise Code Camp v3.0. Let us know if you are interested in helping out on the administrative end of things.

The Date is February 10th, 2007, and the Location is Boise State University.  The website will receive a major overhaul shortly as we deploy some new software.  More details will follow as well.  I can hardly wait to see everyone there!

Well, the gears behind the scenese have started moving and Boise Code Camp v2.0 is in the works.  We are targeting February for this one.  Everything is still really early on, but if you want to be involved, then let us know.

We are currently looking for organizers and locations.  Last year we had about 200 people, so we will need space for at least that many people this year - with multiple rooms for multiple tracks.  The call for speakers will be later on.

To help organize you can join our Yahoo!Group for organizers.

Thanks to Mike for uploading the photos to Flickr. This is an ongoing process - we have a lot of photos. We have created a photo pool that everyone can browse and add photos too. I also added a site badge that shows photos from the pool.

UPDATE: Thanks to Clint for pointing out that the pool is empty. It takes Flickr a while to approve public pools. In the mean time you can see a lot of the photos here.

102 of the 138 event attendees rate it an average of 8 out of 9.  The top comments include “do it again”, “great speakers”, and “hard to choose between so many great sessions”.

Thanks to everyone who attended and presented at this event!  See the spreadsheet for an anonymous listing of the feedback.

Code Camp Evaluation

CAcert will have an assuror on-site during the lunch to check IDs for free SSL certificates. Please visit www.cacert.org for more details. They are also going to be cross-signing PGP keys as well. What you need to bring with you is 2 forms of ID, at least one being government issued with a photo, such as a driver’s license. Forms will be available to fill out on-site, but it will be helpful if you can print out a form ahead of time and bring it with you. For the PGP signing you will need to bring along your key fingerprint in addition to your ID. Please contact Jeremy Hall (hall dot jeremy at gmail dot com) if you have any questions. Jeremy is also a Thawte notary, please contact him in advance if you wish to be notarized as the requirements are different.

Sign-in starts at 8:30 AM, first session at 9:00 AM. The closing session is at 5:30 PM, which is where the big prizes will be given out.

Microsoft is buying donuts in the morning, and Tree Top is buying lunch.

Check out the schedule and make the hard choice of which sessions to attend and which to miss.