On Saturday, around 75 technology enthusiasts from Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama gathered for the first-ever BarCamp Chattanooga.
Throughout the day, participants taught one another about everything from game design frameworks to tracking politics on the web to developing iPhone applications. While several sessions were devoted to social media platforms and best practices, one of the highlights for many participants was "Enabling the Community," a presentation by ChattØutLoud's Donald Sayers:
Content Management on the web was another popular theme at BarCamp Chattanooga. Presenters gave tips on building custom themes for WordPress, a popular blogging platform, as well as an introduction to Drupal, an open-source platform. Chattanooga-based tech firm Medium gave a preview of Message, their new open-source content management system.
Breaking from the pure technology theme often found at BarCamp events, writers from Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville and Nashville shared the stage for a hyperlocal blogging panel (video). The discussion covered how each site got started and the day-to-day challenges of running a community blog. Audience members also questioned the panelists about advertising and funding models as well as how the sites may evolve in the years to come.
For some participants, real-world connections and the free-form nature of BarCamp were central to its success:
"Impromptu roundtable discussion in the hallway at #barcampchatt. This is how it's done." -@morganlevy
Organizer Daniel Ryan is already planning a DevCamp, aimed specifically at web and software developers, to be held in January. BarCamp will return to Chattanooga next July.
Presentation slides and additional videos are available on the BarCamp Chattanooga web site.
See also: BarCamp Buzz, Networking at BarCamp and WRCB
Editor's note: BarCamp Chattanooga organizer Daniel Ryan is the Technical Director for Chattarati.
John Hawbaker
mlgraham on July 29, 2009
It was too late by the time I had heard about BarCamp. Wish I'd made it!